Daniel Diehl, author, writer and investigative historian, has over thirty years’ experience in his field. His canon of work includes twenty non-fiction books (translated into ten foreign languages) and scripts for more than one hundred and seventy hours of documentary television for A&E, Discovery, History Channel, History International and Biography networks.
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Guest Post
Approaching the Writer’s Craft and the Fantasy Novel
People have been led to believe that writing – as
opposed to almost any other profession with the possible exception of
painting pictures – is somehow magical.
According to most sources – most of which are my fellow writers –
writing is ‘inspired’, it takes endless amounts of time (possibly augmented
with alcohol, pot, insanity, or some other outside stimuli) to ‘get in the
mood’ or to ‘be inspired’. Playwright
George Bernard Shaw once said of the Victorian romantic poet, Algernon
Swinburn, “Algernon could only write once he had found his muse;
unfortunately his muse lived at the bottom of the second bottle of
port”. Seriously, folks, this is all a
lot of propaganda put out by writers to make their job look somehow magical.
There
is nothing magical about writing.
Being a writer is a job just like any other skilled trade or
profession; you have learn your craft through a lot of study and hard work
and you have to practice for years to get it right. Obviously it helps if you have a real flair
for storytelling, in the same way that the difference between being a good
cook and a great chef is having a built-in affinity for creative cooking. But both the competent cook and the great
chef had to start out learning how to boil water.
If
writing is not magical it is certainly mythical – at least in the way
non-writers seem to imagine it. People
think writers can work when they want, take endless vacations lying under
palm trees and drinking tall, cool Cervesa beer. Wrong.
Writing is done in private and if you are not a self-starter who can
spend days and weeks on end shut off from the world you will never be a
serious writer.
Writing
is lonely, generally badly paid and most people who know them think writers
are more than a little ‘weird’, but the fact is I write because I love
writing. I enjoy writing more than I
enjoy anything else I have ever done.
Where else can you invent a world, or an entire reality, of your own
choosing and then sculpt it and mold it – along with all of the people in it
- into whatever shape you want? The
only other place I am aware of that you can shape your own reality is during
a psychotic break from reality and while writing probably won’t ever make me
rich it does pay a lot better than insanity.
While writing is a serious undertaking, the writer’s
work need not be serious in tone – indeed, if you are writing fantasy it is
my humble opinion that your characters should never take themselves too
seriously. The characters in a
fantasy novel probably don’t have much to say that is really important to
life in general, so they need to have the capacity to laugh at themselves and
the absurdity of their world. At
least, that is my view of fantasy literature.
I am
not going to name names of those who suffer from the malady of over-serious
fantasies, because that would look like sour grapes, but in my humble opinion
any writer who dips into the vast and fun-filled well of fantasy and can’t
find a few jokes has probably had their funny bone surgically removed. Fantasy is GREAT. It is just designed to poke fun at itself
and the whole real world on which it is based. I think my three favorite living fantasy
novelists are Terry Pratchett, author of endless dozens of DiscWorld novels,
and the less known but just as weird Christopher Moore, author of such mind
bending wonders as ‘Practical Demonkeeping’ and ‘Lust Lizard of Melancholy
Cove’ and Malcolm Pryce author of some of the weirdest Welsh fantasies ever
to crawl out of a human mind. These
guys, along with dozens of other contemporary fantasy writers, really know
how to have fun.
I
have tried to bring this sense of fun to my latest novel ‘Revelations: book
one of The Merlin Chronicles’. Sure,
there are times of serious peril, desperate situations, more adventure than
you can shake a stick at; and in the person of Morgana leFay we have a
wonderfully vile baddy that you will just love to hate; but more than anything
this is a book about having fun. Real
life, particularly in today’s politically, economically and environmentally
uncertain world doesn’t offer a lot of chuckles so we all need somewhere to
hide from the ugliness and enjoy a ripping good yarn with a few good
laughs. Today’s prescription to
overcome reality-induced melancholy: Read two chapters of ‘Revelations: book
one of The Merlin Chronicles’ tonight and call me in the morning.
Excerpt
Jason reached his arm around her and pulled her close. “I think I wish I was crazy. At least that would make some kind of sense. But the fact is that neither Merlin nor I are crazy and this is all too real.” Then, turning to Merlin, he continued. “I think you need to prove to Beverley who you are.”
At first
she didn’t see anything unusual. But
then, after a moment, Merlin’s legs, just above the top edge of the coffee
table, began to shimmer and fade until they disappeared altogether. The process continued upward till all that
was left of the old man was one disembodied hand holding a glass of
wine. Slowly, the glass raised itself
toward unseen lips, spilling its contents down an invisible gullet.
“Oh, my
God! That’s so amazing. How did you do that?” Eyes shining, she stared at the vacant
space where the wizard should be. “Do
it again. Do it again.”
Instantly Merlin reappeared, sound and whole. “I’m glad I didn’t frighten you, Beverley,
but the important thing is that you understand that I really am who I say I
am and that everything we have told you is quite real.”
Laying her
hand on her chest to catch her breath, Beverley suddenly sat up; her eyes
sparkling. “How did you do that?” Then, glancing toward Jason, “That was
amazing. Did you see that? How did he do that?”
Jason
reached out and hugged her close, knowing it would be ok. He wasn’t going to lose Beverley, and she
would be able to accept everything he and Merlin might do in the coming
weeks.
"Mr.
Carpenter. I mean, Merlin. Would you do another one? Please?”
Theatrically, Merlin thrust his right hand forward, throwing the
sleeve back to the elbow. Twisting his
hand as though turning a doorknob, his fingers began to close. As they clenched inward, the illumination
from the floor lamp halfway across the room left the bulb and floated through
the air, coming to rest in his palm.
The room was as brightly lit as ever, but the bulb in the lamp was
completely dark. Merlin massaged the
ball of light in his hand, causing it to pulse and shift like a ball of
putty. Suddenly he snapped his hand
shut into a tight fist, sending tiny shards of light spiraling through the
room like a thousand miniature spiral nebula.
One by one, the sparkles spun homeward toward the light bulb as Merlin
brushed his hands together as though clapping off dust, sending the last few
sparks into the air.
It was a
long minute before Jason finally broke the silence. “How the hell did you do that? I’ve never seen you do anything like that
before?” His face was a mask of pure
amazement while Beverley’s shone with delight.
“My boy
that is nothing to what you may witness over the upcoming weeks. I have used very little of my power over
the centuries, but I think it is time I got back into practice.”
“You
really are a wizard, aren’t you old man?”
“I told
you before, there are no such things as wizards. But the things I do, I do very well. Now,
are you ready to help me take on that le Fay creature?”
Jason kept
his voice calm and even when he repeated the question “You’re a wizard,
aren’t you?”
“Oh,
alright, I lied. I am Merlin Emrys ap
Morfryn, the greatest wizard in the history of the world. My power transcends science, nature and
time itself, and I need your help. Are
you up to the challenge?”
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What do you do in your free time?
Honestly,
I have very little free time. When I
am not actively working on a book I am developing a book or television
documentary or keeping up with publicity work on my most recent
projects. I think the concept of
writers taking time off whenever they want and laying on some beach swilling
cocktails laced with fruit and paper umbrellas, while they wait for
‘inspiration’ to strike, is about as far from reality as anything can
be. Writing is hard, emotionally
draining, time consuming work and I have never learned how to make the
process any easier. Maybe if a writer
is on the level of Dean Koontz, Anne Rice, J K Rowling or Steven King they
can afford to take time off between books, but mid-level writers who depend
on their writing for their total income just don’t have that luxury.
Do you prefer to write in silence
or with music?
As
I mentioned in the above question, writing is extremely time consuming work
and it demands 100 percent of the writer’s concentration. I have to work in complete silence; if I
have music playing at least some part of my brain will be processing that and
I just can’t risk being distracted by noise, no matter how pleasant that
noise might be. In truth, I do not own
a radio nor a television set.
How do you overcome writer's
block?
I
never understood what ‘writer’s block’ was.
I have vastly more ideas for books than I could possibly write in any
one lifetime, so there is no problem there.
Writing itself is not an art or a process that requires some magical
inspiration to take place. Writing is
a learned craft. Like any craft skill,
say becoming a chef, only those with a real knack will become great but
anybody can learn the process. So, if
I have plenty of ideas, and know how the writing process works, what is there
that would ‘block’ the process?
Do your friends or enemies ever
find themselves in your books?
I
often use physical likenesses of people I know when creating my characters
but never their personality traits.
Not only do I think this would be an invasion of privacy but a
character needs to develop their own personality, not borrow one from someone
else. The same is true for putting
myself into my books. In ‘Revelations:
book one of The Merlin Chronicles’ I physically appear as Dr Carver Daniels
but he and I are nothing alike.
About how long does
it take to write a book?
When
I moved into fiction after writing 20 nonfiction books I thought the writing process would speed
up. I had always assumed that about 70
percent of my nonfiction writing time was consumed by research and I thought
that by eliminating that step I would save tons of time. Because I demand that my locations and
background information be historically correct I still put about 20 to 25
percent of my time into research and creating situations out of thin air –
rather than taking them from reference material - demands considerably extra
time not required in nonfiction.
Consequently, I find that I don’t save one minute. Whether it is fiction or nonfiction, I need
4 to 5 months (8 hours a day, 6 days a week) to write a book. At least that
is true under normal circumstances. I
have one work of historical fiction, which I have not released yet, that
devoured more than 2,000 hours of work time – that is a full year with no
time off for vacation.
Favorite Literary Characters
I tend to like classic literary misfits.
I always gravitated toward Sherlock Holmes (a high-functioning
sociopath) and Hercule Poirot (a smug, egotistical prig). I have no idea why these people fascinate
me – I certainly wouldn’t want to know either of them in real life.
Pieces of Advice you have for aspiring writers. Become a plumber instead, it is less demanding and pays WAY better.
Things you wish you knew before you
published
That only a crazy person would ever depend on writing for their income.
Words you try not to use.
Stygian – Time and time again I see some really good author rambling on about ‘stygian darkness’. There are plenty of words to describe the night and darkness other than stygian and I have never once used this thread-bare old word.
Movie you watch over and over
again
I
suppose my two favorite movies are ‘The Maltese Falcon’ and ‘The Lion in Winter’. The first is not only the film for with the
term films noir was coined but it has one of the greatest ensemble casts in
all film history. The second, Lion in
Winter, features both Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn at their finest and
is one of the most historically accurate film representations of the middle
ages ever made.
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Giveaway Details
2 winners will each receive an Ebook of Revelations
Ends 2/3/13
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Great interview & post! I've added Revelations to my ever-growing TBR!
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