The Hypocricy of Political Correctness

I keep reading in various places around the web about people bashing fantasy and sci-fi writers for so often writing white characters. They always want to make it be about racism, rather than about what it really is, at least in my opinion.

If an African writes a story about Africa, or an Asian about Asia, these same people, more often than not, praise that person and even give them awards for their authentic cultural writing. Why exactly is it that a person of European extraction is supposed to be different? True, for authenticity's sake, when I write a contemporary or futuristic piece, I will include non-white main characters, because that is what life is like now. But, when I write fantasy, I take the viewpoint of the European Middle or Dark Ages.

Why shouldn't I? I love history, and I have both taken courses and read many books about non-European history. It is interesting, however it doesn't resonate with me the same way that European history does. When I read about the Romans, Charlemagne, or William the Conqueror I have an innate feeling that this is my own history that I am studying. I can wonder where exactly all of my ancestors were in relation to these events. I have a personal stake in it. So why exactly is it fine for anyone else to have such feelings, but not me just because I am white?

I am as against racism as anyone, but I am not against common sense. I see it as natural that any culture will more often wish to write about itself, and I don't find it fair to say this applies to everyone except those of European extraction.

The Deaths of Major Characters

I just read this post from Jim Hines about the killing of major characters, and it reminded me of a pet peeve. Basically, it seems that everyone I read on this topic believes that any death of a major character needs to have a good reason within the context of the story. I really disagree with this.

How many deaths have you seen in real life that fit neatly into the 'story' being played out by the friends and family of the deceased? The truth is that death tends to come rather randomly, except in the case of those dying of natural old age.

I have a character that is traveling with two others through a land where most people are fleeing an invasion. While passing through a nearly deserted, looted village, a couple of refugee teens throw rocks at the men from behind a house, striking the horse of one character in the eye, causing it to buck crazily. The character is thrown, and unfortunately his neck strikes a fence post. He is paralyzed from the neck down, and after some fuss convinces his comrades to put him out of his misery.

Does this death fit neatly into a storyline? Not really. I liked it, because it contributed to the realism of the story. This is what life does - it throws randomness into things. People may not like it, but I see it as if I am writing the history of what happened, rather than trying to tailor every last point to specifically fit the story.

Art for The Shard

I love art. As a child I had some small talent at it, but I didn't pursue it. I really admire those who have the talent to create great art. My favorite artist is Alan Lee, though Ted Nasmith and John Howe are not bad also. Obviously, my love for Tolkien bleeds over into my art interest, but I have to say that Alan Lee is just amazing. His colors and subtle attention to detail blow me away.

I have long dreamed, in an ideal world, of being wealthy enough to commission Alan Lee to do loads of art for my novels. Of course, that would never happen. I am trying, though, in some small ways to hunt around for some art that I can afford. I am doing a little search here in Azerbaijan, and a friend of mine has a daughter that wants to take a stab at a painting. I have also hired an artist, named Shane Tyree, to do a scene from my novel. He is very good and seems to be a nice and reasonable fellow. He has similar tastes in fiction as myself, which is what made me try writing to him in the first place.

Today he sent me a position sketch, and I think it is very promising. I can't wait to see what he does with it finally. Naturally, it is too brightly lit for a single torch, but that is just because it is a position sketch. This is a scene where the ancient elf lady Alvanaria enters the lair of the terrible black dragon Kathkalan only to find it has died a natural death. Lord Midas, though frightened half to death, is more than fond of Alvanaria, and so has followed her into the beast's lair (a vast hall inside a deserted city under a mountain). He just about has a heart attack when Alvanaria lights a torch...

Snapshots

Despite my basic worship of the writing of George R.R. Martin and J.R.R. Tolkien (or anyone with R.R. for middle initials?), my manner of writing is very different from both of them. They tend to write quite significant chapters, telling a full story in each one, while I like writing small chapters. I am not sure that my style works professionally, because I can not think of other writers who use this 'snapshot' style that I like.

I view it as if I am showing photographs, that when shown all together tell a complete story. I don't worry about whether any individual chapter tells a tale or not. The reaction from those who have read the book has been mixed on this element, though mainly positive. Several of the readers have specifically told me how much they liked the short chapters. It was only when I tried the Share Your Work pages on Absolute Write that I got some negative comments.

These comments basically stated that my small chapters did not have enough character development. I don't disagree that this is the case; I just disagree that it is necessary. I prefer to be faithful to my Point of View character and describe things completely realistically, and thus have my character development spread out through multiple snapshot chapters. I can't, for instance, have Midas describe himself in his intro chapter, because he is the POV character. He also is not in the mood to be talkative (not to mention it is not in his character to be so) given the scene he is viewing, so I can't develop much of his character through dialogue in that intro chapter either.

So, a critic may ask why even include that chapter? Well, to me the point of my snapshot chapters is to hit important moments, and what could be more important at the beginning of a book than to show the moments that completely changed the life of the POV character? When Midas is gazing at the dead at the edge of the forest, he knows that the 800 years of peace the lands have known is cracking, if not shattering completely, and he is internally despairing, because nothing matters more to him at that time than to raise his sons and daughter to be healthy, happy people.

Is it wrong to do snapshot chapters? I honestly would like to know. I do it because it feels natural to me, and I enjoy unfolding the story in this manner. But, I can see why many readers could be put off by it.

eBook Readers

I haven't bothered to look at eBook readers yet, because I love old-fashioned books on paper. However, the little I have read about them offers up some intriguing possibilities. I like that they came up with eInk to reduce strain on eyes, though I have yet to see it myself.

I hope that any good eReader will have easy access buttons to maps and/or art that the book may contain. When I am reading, say, The Sword of Shannara, then at any point in the book I should be able to push a button and see the map. And, when the appropriate scene comes up, I want to be able to see the corresponding artwork.

How long before a book has a soundtrack developed specifically for it? I can imagine reading along in The Lord of the Rings and hearing the soft strains of Enya's "Council of Elrond" floating up from the eReader at just the right time. Probably it would be annoying, but of course you could turn it off.

Publishers Should Rethink Advances

In my opinion, some publisher should innovate in this bad book economy and rethink the idea of advances. This could help authors like me get books published that wouldn't normally be given a chance. I don't need an advance. I have a good career and can take care of myself. I just want my book published.

The drawback of advances is that this is how agents make their money, so no agent is going to want to deal with a book that brings no advance. There have been some new publishers who do smaller or no advances, and I would bet few agents bother to direct books to them. Why should they if they will not get paid? I say try a new model, in which no advance is paid, but the agent can get a percentage of whatever the author makes on the book. That way agents will be happy to direct books to such publishers, and authors like me can have a better shot at getting our work published. By making it a percentage of the book's profits, this forces the agent to still work to make the book the best it can be. Sure, there would be a number of bad agents who would be willing to just toss any trash out there, hoping to make money from whatever the book happens to take in, but I think such agents would be identified pretty quickly by the marketplace, or at the very least the good agents would become identifiable.

Editing My Book

I am still in the long process of editing my first novel. I began editing on my computer, which saves a lot of time when doing searches for certain words or doing mass substitutions. I also followed the standard advice about reading the story out loud - I read the book to my wife and kids, and this did allow me to find other obvious mistakes.

However, I have found a far more useful way of doing the editing, and I have not seen anyone mention doing this before (though I admit I have certainly not read everyone’s blogs). I 'published' my book on LuLu.com. I did it only for myself and did not reserve an ISBN number. What I found is that holding what appears to be an actual book in my hand allowed me to find so many more problems than I have ever found while reading the text on the computer. Somehow, just seeing the story as a book is both satisfying in some odd way (odd since it is not a truly published book) and also gives me a deeper view of the material as I read it, thus letting me fix things better. I highly recommend this method!