I just received this question via email from someone I'll call "Speedy," and I thought it pertinent to post and share my answer with the rest of you:
I also have a question regarding your 01.06.08 blog post:
"Over the years, I have heard from Terry Brooks and Greg Keyes that their first book efforts were terrible and just should not see the light of day. They were learning books. I had hoped I had approached Fell Hammer in a way where that wouldn't happen. But now, upon reflection, I think Fell Hammer is my learning book; I think it may never be published, not in its current form anyway. I think it is very naive in certain aspects like early character development and story structure, and I would have to spend significant time improving it to my own satisfaction."
I find the fact that you've had to abandon Fell Hammer a bit disheartening. I'm happy to hear you've personally turned it into a positive and have stirred up interest in your Dark Thorn Cycle. It's just so hard for me to imagine that I could conceivably devote a year or more of my life to a novel-length epic (at this point, I have only a handful of short stories under my belt) just to watch it inevitably collect dust. Looking back, is there anything you could have done differently to make the finished product of Fell Hammer viable to a publisher? Do you think it's possible to ride the learning curve of writing a first work, become a vastly improved writer, and yet still manage to salvage said first work? |
First, let me say you aren't the only one who is a bit disheartened. I know I am. And I know there are others like you who wanted to read the book. I think there is a strong story within the
Battle's Perilous Edge trilogy and it deserves to be told.
And one day, it probably will.
It will take a great deal of work to edit
Song of the Fell Hammer to the point where it will be worthy to be published by one of the major publishers though. I'd say probably six or seven months worth of work, if not more. That's a lot of editing, a lot of jumping around to fix certain spots in the book. Pat Rothfuss took 18 months to edit
The Name of the Wind and get it good enough to be published. I admire Pat for that a great deal. And perhaps one day I'll do exactly what he had to do to make
Fell Hammer work.
Ultimately I'm not a defeatist. It may sound like that since I moved on to
The Dark Thorn but I'm not a defeatist. Taking 10 months of my life another four or five sending out query letters and submissions means I was invested, as you said, and that investment needs to see a return. Right?
The return is I am a better writer now than I was before.
Many first writers miss that fact and only think, "Damnit, I'm not published!"
By being forced to look at that book's failings by more than a dozen professionals in the industry, I saw many of the ways I went wrong in
Fell Hammer. Upon reflection, I don't think there was anything I could have done before beginning to write
Fell Hammer that would have changed the outcome. I think the growing pains I've experienced were necessary and could only be learned one way—by writing the book the best way I could.
I do wish I had paid more attention to the market. The market right now is wanting urban fantasy and paranormal romance, and I wrote an epic fantasy. Bad idea, right there. So a person
can have a wee bit of control over how they are embraced by the industry. But that's pretty much it.
As for riding a "learning curve," I think that happens to every single writer out there. I know it does with Terry and I know it to be true about me. The book Terry begins writing is always a bit weaker than the work he finishes at its end. He has grown strong enough in his ability as an editor over the years that he goes over the book once it is finished and strengthens his voice and plot points in the early part of the book. In that way, he turns in a fairly strong book. I did the same thing with
Fell Hammer, but, I'll be honest: the end of my book was
a lot stronger than its beginning. It was obvious, despite having gone in and edited it from Page 1 to The End. I still believe a beginning writer should write the entire book and then go back and edit it from the beginning; in that way, they are separated from those first few pages by months and months and the problems will, hopefully, become glaringly obvious.
And at that point, it is up to the writer: Does the writer spend a great deal of time editing or does he/she simply move on and write the next book... which will be stronger out of the gate anyway? I chose the latter.
Sometimes I wonder if I made a poor choice. But here's the kicker:
If
The Dark Thorn is published and is successful, publishers are going to ask me, "Do you have anything else to publish?"
"Boy, I do," I'll reply.
"Well, what is it?"
"Funny you should ask," I'll say with a smirk. "You passed on it. But maybe now you'll like it."
Then we'll see how much editing work I have to put in!
Labels: Craft
