Writer Wander 018 - We have FINALLY Started Writing

Time to do some ACTUAL Writing and ACTUAL Wandering

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Rider Wander 18. This is the one where we actually started writing. It seems quite ironic for a podcast titled Rider Wander for me to have taken 18 episodes to actually get to the writing, but as I've already established, I am firmly on the more planner side of things. I'm more of an architect than a gardener style of writing. So a lot of these episodes were spent in that preliminary world building and that outlining. But at the same time, I don't think it was too much because by design I made it so that this world would have very light world building and um and I would jump straight into the outlining process. And I'm actually pretty fast when it comes to developing the outlines. So now we finally started writing. But I had a lot of problems in recent stories that I've made where I did not feel good in that initial session, where I did not feel that hope. And you know, obviously, through my training, through my experience, I I I just borged myself on. But um I I feel that in general it's a bad sign for you to not be excited about a story early on, and I feel that that's the advantage of you know doing light world building and just jumping straight to the plot, because at the end of the day, during the outlining process, you can tell if you're excited about a plot or not. And if you're not excited about a given plot, which was what was happening to me in the last version of this novel, then you can determine in the outlining process without actually having started to write that you know what, I'm I'm not interested in actually writing this story. So that's actually one of the untold benefits of being a planner or architect. A lot of people dig at us for being quote unquote boring or stuffy. But what I like about it is that it's kind of like a first date. It's kind of like a first date with your book, right? If I if I'm like starting on this crap, and you know, I already see that the vibes are off, that you know things are not working, then you know, we'll just call it a day, we'll leave it there, and uh I'm gonna walk away, ghost you and never talk to you again. But that's the thing, you know, and that that other version of the story still exists, but just as uh an outline that I'm never that is unfinished and that I'm not gonna touch again probably. But this book, this book, uh this first chapter, I just got done with the first chapter. It is a chapter in which our protagonist, Finnegan, it opens up with an argument he's having with his dad. And part of the argument is that he does not want to to be a part of a this uh this spearing ceremony, which is a tradition in his village of Alban Mount. And I wanted it to I wanted to do this argument a little bit differently because I feel that in a lot of fiction it's very common for you to have like a debate between a father and his son, and they both play like very similar roles, right? Like the the dad is often like very recalcitrant, very very negative, and you know, he often relies on appeals to authority to make his argument, whereas the son is blatantly disrespectful to the father, and I wanted to portray a more nuanced dynamic, and while I was writing this, I didn't realize it because I again the way that I outline things, I just describe what is supposed to happen in the scene, but what I don't describe, or at least what I don't enter into too much detail, is the interior world of the characters as I outline. So this was really something that came up in the process of writing, but what I realized was that, hmm, you know, I want to portray a more nuanced dynamic, and I was reminded of um if you guys have watched Twin Peaks, there's this one character that I really like, who's um Colonel Briggs, who has a lot of ruffles with his rebellious son called Bobby during the series. And what I really like about I don't know if it was Colonel or Major, he's a military guy. But what I really like about him is that when he talks to his son, even though his son is like super rebellious and super disrespectful, he doesn't in like this respectful, dignified way that he he doesn't he never talks down to his son. He's very understanding, and honestly, he's just a very good father, and he is very good at communicating, and that's obviously something that you know there there is a stereotype that men don't have good emotional intelligence, and what I like about characters like Briggs is that um Briggs uh obviously he subverts he subverts that trope, right? He subverts it uh because Okay, I got interrupted, I got received the call. Um I don't know how I'll make in the cut, but it happened, it happened. But I think I was talking about like Garland Briggs, Garland Briggs from uh Twin Peaks, and what I like about it is he's a very reasonable guy, and he defies that stereotype of a like man lacking emotional intelligence, which you know it is true that a lot of men deal with anger anger issues, and it is quite prevalent, and I wanted to go for that, right? Because he it was a delicate balancing act, like that initial conversation, and obviously, we're talking about a character which is you know Finnegan's father, who's probably not gonna be present for the rest of the novel, but he he will be an important character in the beginning, and that was something I wanted to do. I wanted to make I wanted to make him like simultaneously a reasonable guy, but I also don't want him to feel like some modern dad from the 21st century, because again, we're we're talking about a guy who comes from a rural pastoral community in an analogous time to Ireland in the late Middle Ages. So we're still talking about a rough guy, but he is emotionally intelligent to some degree, and he senses that the reason Finn does not want to participate in the ceremony is because that used to be what his brother did, and he made a promise to his brother that he would not participate in the ceremony unless he was the first person to see him um to see him getting ready for that ceremony. But obviously, since his brother is gone, then he can't. And then he goes out into the lake and he visits a shack that he constructed alongside his dad and brother ages ago, and he just wanders into this area called the Long Fen. And this is like an area that you know, this unending marshland that is viewed almost superstitiously by the people from Finnegan's community, Alban Mount, where people say it's either haunted or there are like raiders from other clans that are there, and then Finnegan in the distance sees like a voice calling out to him, and he thinks it's Nile, but in reality it's not, it's actually another friend of his that has been gone for a long time called Chronicler Kenem, and that's when the first chapter ends, and I have yet to write the second chapter. But honestly, I am I'm very excited. It's a very strange feeling knowing that you have all of these like super super cool things planned for the story, but they haven't happened yet. But that's a good thing, right? Because that that's something that I feel was missing in a lot of the stories I was doing before, where I would think of like these epic moments in the middle of the story that were motivating me to keep going, and uh that those were the things that like I usually fantasize about. Again, one thing that I've said at the beginning of this podcast, and it will continue to be true, is that you know, probably the best telltale sign that you should not write a story is if you are not daydreaming about it. I think that you have to be on some level, I know that you know people are different, but I think on some level you have to be daydreaming about this story, because if you're not, then it's a sign that you're not fundamentally excited for it. You can get writer's block, you can get you can lose inspiration for long periods of time. That that's a thing that happens, but on a fundamental level, that this has to be a story that on some level you are excited to tell, and if that excitement is impossible to find or you can't find it, then you know it's probably a sign that that's not a story that you're meant to tell. And it's it's kind of like you know, sort of like a spiritualistic explanation, but you know, there's a fundamental truth to that. And I just it just feels like forever since I sat down to like you know to write characters and to and to write stories, you know. Sometimes I feel that we just get bogged down with all this stuff that has to do with preparing to write a story, but then uh once you're about to reach the phase where you have to start drafting and you have to start actually writing, that's where a lot of people get cold feet. And I think that again, if you're someone who's been wanting to write, who wants to tell stories, or you want to create something that's that's creative, you need to train yourself to be excited for the actual writing or the creation of that creative thing because oftentimes it's very easy to get excited during the world building or the planning process or the brainstorming process. But uh you know, oftentimes when we sit down to actually write, we we realize that our capacities to tell stories are not as good as we as we think, and I think that on some level that's why a lot of people they give up on their first story because they realize it's like holy shit, I'm not I'm not as talented, I'm not as capable of envisioning the story that I thought I was able to I was able to do. And this is actually reminding me of the first time that I that I started writing a novel, and really it was very random. I remember that uh I was I think it was like early or mid high school or something, and you know I was thinking to myself, like, I'm not a particularly interesting guy. My main hobby then was like video games, and nothing against video games, but it's not a creative or constructive hobby, it's a consumptive hobby, and there's nothing wrong with that. But I feel that to be a fully balanced person, especially to be a fully balanced man, you need to have something that you create, something that you can call your own, because that is a whole other level of of epicness, so to speak, you know, to have something you can call your own, to have something where you participated in the process of of creating it, and that's a product of yourself, and a lot of people never get to do that. And I basically, you know, I was thinking about this in a romantic context because I'm like, you know, if if you know, if I want to attract the girl I like and a more boring piece of shit, well, I can't really do much about it. And I there was this other guy in the high school that he wrote stories to. Um, they weren't particularly good, but you know, it was something he did, it was something he did that was interesting and cool, and it's very easy to like laugh at a lot of artistic people, especially when you're like in school and stuff. Because you know, when you're starting off with your art, but those people on a certain level are fundamentally superior to the people who don't do anything, because the act of destroying and tearing things down is intrinsically inferior to the act of creation. In my opinion, parodies, this is why parodies are always inferior to a sincere work, because the parody on some level is always parasitic, similar to the dynamic between destruction and creation, and I wanted to have something that I created, so I started writing, and I didn't really have a goal, I just had this idea of like a story. I think I went walking, and when I came back home, I had this idea of like I want to write a chapter of a story every single day, every single day. I don't know if it was a chapter or it was literally just a paragraph every every day. And obviously, in my first session, I was like, Oh, I'm just gonna write something quick, but I ended up just getting lost and having a lot of fun in that descriptive process. In fact, somewhere in my old house, I still have the the notebook in which I have that first novel. In fact, I should probably digitize that at one point, assuming I haven't lost it yet, because it's been a while since I found it, but that's like a very important part of like my own lore, and it would be a tragedy if that was just lost, even though it sucks, it's complete ass, right? But it it'd be fun to go over that. I think it's very this is something I can do another episode about. It's the joy that I find in reading people's first creations, right? I I've had a very unique experience, I have a lot, I've had a lot of unique experiences with people like giving me, especially in like high school and middle school, like the first stories that they've worked on. And I just there's just something about that sort of amateur work that you can feel the excitement in it, even though it's crap, like in terms of quality, it's complete garbage, but there's something visceral about the fact of like you can feel the energy of like this is someone's first story, and they're really enjoying just the process of writing it for its own sake, and and there's just there's something to that, but that's a topic for another day, and I think that'll be a much longer episode because there's a there's a lot of stuff I wanna I wanna talk about there on that topic, but that's how I started writing my first novel. I just you know, I went for it, I did the thing, and it was complete, complete and utter garbage. And I feel that a lot of people, you know, I gave up on that first book, but I didn't give up on writing. But I feel that most people who think about writing something, they see they have that experience of like that first story they do and abandon, and they're like, Man, I suck at this, I'm not, I'm not good at this, and they stop. And that's what happens. A lot of people, a lot of people stop because they they cannot handle the gap that exists between your creative vision and your creative capacity or ability, which in the very beginning is a massive gap. It's a unless you're just like some prodigy or something, but that's rare. But it's usually a massive gap. And most people it's kind of like you stare at the abyss and and you can never you can never go back because you know you s you you're confronted with this reality that you just suck, that on a fundamental level you are just garbage at this, and that that kind of takes the winds out of your sail a lot, right? But fortunately, that did not happen to me. Fortunately, I gave up on that story, but I kept writing other stories, and for a while those stories were garbage, but each story got better than the last one, and because they got better than the last one, at one point, uh, I s I'm still I'm still undecided as to which novel I wrote where I felt that I actually got good at it. But at one point, it definitely was not my first novel, but uh at one point I was like, you know what? I'm actually good at this. And or at least I feel comfortable with my skill level with regard to writing, and I'm satisfied with the direction that things are that things are going in. And that's when writing becomes easier, right? The hardest novel and at is at the same time the most the novel you'll be the most excited for, which is like the first book you write, I think. I think that the first book you write, well, I haven't been, you know, I've just been writing for a decade basically. Um, but I feel that in some level the excitement that you feel in the first book you write, especially in those first levels, is is unparalleled. That's something that I want to recreate, right? But at the same time, the the reality as you keep on writing that book, the reality that will dawn on you with that book is how much you suck, how much you you are utter garbage at what you're doing, and a lot of people cannot confront that reality, and a lot of people are not able to undergo the long via cruises that that it takes to to get to a place where you can be where you can be pretty good. I think Brandon Sanderson said something really interesting, um, that uh it's it on the Writing Excused podcast, which is something like Um You only start getting good around like your fifth book or something like that. Obviously, it you know, there's no use in attaching hard numbers to something abstract like that, but there's some truth to that where it's like it takes a couple books before you're good at writing books, because really you only increase experience when you finish writing a book, when you bring it to fruition, because it you know you you have that structural experience of bringing something, bringing something together. But there's just something magical about that very first book you write, that very first thing you write, that I guess we're it's a high that every artist is pursuing again on some level, I think. Whether it's possible to reach, I I'm not I'm not sure. I've had moments where I think I've gotten close, but I don't think I've gotten quite to the point of like of being there. But at least I'm I'm at a point where I do feel I do enjoy the process of drafting in a way that I feel that most most people who try to write don't. And I think part of the reason why I've gotten to that point is is because I've reached a point where my skill level the gap between my skill level and my creative vision is much much less, and that allows me to have an easier time acclimatizing to the process of writing, but when you're starting out, you just gotta power through it on a on a fundamental on a fundamental level. And so what's the plan going forward? I usually follow roughly like Stephen King's advice where I try to when I'm writing a book, I try to write like 2,000 words a day. Or or you know, if it's a good day, sometimes I write like 3,000. And that makes it so that by one month I will roughly be around 60,000 words for the book. And in another month, I'll be around 120,000 words, which means that you know, assuming that I keep up the pace perfectly, um, I will have a novel, a first draft of a novel within two months. And that's how I like it. I like it relatively fast that way. Uh in practice, it usually ends up being like two and a half months, three months. Um but but yeah, most of the books I've written recently, they fall like on the 150k, 110 to 150k range of like of novels, which I think is a very solid range for a fantasy novel. It's actually quite short for a fantasy novel, all things considered. Not short, it's it's it's short leaning to average length, right? And you know, I'm I'm fine with that. I don't think I'm capable of like of like writing a like five 400,000 plus word story again. Actually, I uh yeah, the closest I came to that was like I think it was like the third novel I finished, which was like a 282,000 words long, but I never want to make a story that long, and I I just I feel that a lot of fantasy fiction is needlessly long, especially when you look at the Lord of the Rings. The Lord of the Rings is not as long as people say it is, it's only really long when you consider the entire trilogy as a single book, which is how it was meant to be. But when you consider its volumes, it's actually not that long. So I think that's a good that's a good aim to be. You don't need to be a long story to be an epic story. I think that's a good that that's a good mentality to have. So we're gonna keep writing and we're gonna keep updating on it. And you know, I'm excited, I'm especially excited to see like the the unexpected turns and the gaps that I will be able to fill in in the process of writing because I deliberately leave gaps when I start outlining. So I'm excited to see what unexpected corners the story will lead me in.