Rising Book 2 - flashback/excerpt

I posted this picture months ago on my blog, but with the release of Rising Book 1: Resistance, it's a lot more relevant now. This is artwork that was done by Holly Robbins, my cover artist, of Lachlan and Brenna—two of the secondary characters in Resistance.

These were two characters that hadn't been planned for when I started the book; they both swept in for different purposes. As I came to the end of writing Rising Book 1, I realized that Lachlan and Brenna's story needed to be told too, and they became my narrators for Rising Book 2.

For any of you who have read Rising Book 1, you might understand when I tell you that the idea of telling their story terrified me. For those of you who haven't read it, I'll just say that these two characters have been through a lot, and their story is the most intense I've ever written. I'm actually telling their back story in scenes that take place between each chapter. I'd debated for a while about whether or not I should do that, but in the end, their history was way too complex and relevant to the story to tell it any other way.

The reason I mention all of this is because I'm going to share one of these flashback scenes from Rising Book 2 on my blog today. It was really hard to find one that wouldn't spoil certain things in the first book for anyone who hasn't read it, but I think I managed it.

So under the "read more" cut below, here's a flashback scene from Rising Book 2. It takes place around nine years before the start of Rising Book 1. (And it's still a work in progress--I'm not done writing the first draft of Book 2 yet.)

Rough draft of "Rising 1" blurb and concept cover art.

I think perhaps one of the most hair-pulling, head-desking things that comes with the whole writing/publishing process is writing the short summary. The blurb that would go on the back of the book. The bit of the query letter that hopefully makes someone want to read the story.

Because it's super easy to condense over 100,000 words into three paragraphs. (No, I'm not being sarcastic at all; why would you possibly think that?)

After hours of *head desking* and a dozen or so revisions, I have the basis for the blurb. I'll let it sit for a while and then come back to it to see about tweaking it more. Here is my current draft of the summary for Rising Book 1: Resistance:

EDIT: The first version is being reworked again; I will update it as soon as it's done being revised. Aiming for more specifics...wheeee!

EDIT 2: After even more revisions, I've got the next draft. (Subject to change upon further nitpickiness and tweaking. ;))  I'll get this eventually...

EDIT 3: Updated again. I think this might be it... (Watch me come back in a few hours with more tweaking...)

EDIT 4: HA! Yeah, I was wrong.  More revisions, and more to come as I play with it. I feel like it's a game of tug of war or something. ;) Go this way! No, go the other way!

******

When Alphonse's quiet summer is interrupted by the arrival of a half-dead stranger on his doorstep, he's given an urgent errand. He's sure he's the worst person for the job. He prefers reading over socializing, gets faint at the sight of blood, and the most adventurous thing he ever did was go on archaeological field trip.

Alphonse is tasked with delivering a message to the leader of his home country. He has no idea how he will accomplish this, but he gets on a train to try anyway. Only a few hours into his journey, he's attacked by knights, elite soldiers of a neighboring king. He's rescued by Mairwyn, a talented mechanic with a no-nonsense attitude and a troubled past. Alphonse and Mairwyn attempt to deliver the message, only to discover if they fail, countless people could die.

And even if they do succeed, there may be no stopping a war that's lurking on the horizon.

******

Also, last night my cover artist sent me the first draft of her concept for the cover art, and I LOVE IT. I am so beyond thrilled with it. So here's the first draft of what will become the book cover:

 Art Copyright © Holly Robbins

***

Tell me, dear readers, do you find writing the summary very difficult, or does it depend on the story? What is the hardest part of writing a book for you?

A plethora of writing thoughts and struggles--especially self-doubt.

As I mentioned recently, my next book, Rising Book 1: Resistance is coming out next month. I don't have the cover or the back blurb to show you all yet, as both are in development. I do have artwork for this book that some of you may recognize, because I posted it ages ago on my blog. I'll share that again, as it will give some visual of this book until I have the cover. These are my two narrators, Alphonse and Mairwyn. (Mairwyn is a Welsh name; it's pronounced mire-win.)


Artwork © Holly Robbins


I wanted to use this book to illustrate some thoughts and struggles that I've faced (and am still facing, to some degree). I've found that some books bring different issues and difficulties and insecurities. Rising in particular has given me more trouble than any other book I've ever written.


1. The plot was not only not what was planned, it was the complete opposite. This is fairly common--okay, totally common--in anything I write, but this was to an extreme degree. When I came up with the characters for this book, I planned it to be a super fun, lighthearted story. Instead, it ended up being the darkest, most emotionally exhausting, and intense book I have ever written.

2. It was only supposed to be one book. My co-author and I are writing a twelve book fantasy series. (We have four written. Only eight to go!) I was determined that eleven sequels to a book are enough; I wanted to stick with singular books for a while. 100,000 words in to this book, I realized I still had so much story left to tell, and I had to divide it into two novels.

3. Genre was ridiculously hard to pinpoint. Seriously. I tried to pinpoint the genre for a year. I talked to professionals. I had a friend who talked to professionals on my behalf. In the end, it has been decided that it is simply speculative fiction, as it's sort of in-between a few things. It's not quite sci-fi; it's science based, but not futuristic. It's in a fantasy sort of world, but there's no magic. The closest "feel" is probably steampunk, but there's no steam and no women wearing corsets, which, I hear, might be mandatory in steampunk. ;) (Though there are goggles!)

4. Marketing age was just as tricky to pinpoint at first. I had anticipated writing YA, as I always wrote YA. However, as the book developed, it grew into something that reads as more adult, and all of my main characters are adults. It could possibly have been marketed as YA if not for the development of the second book, which is definitely not YA.

5. The characters and plot gave me trouble unlike any other book. It took ages before I didn't feel like I was pulling teeth to get words out. None of my characters wanted to cooperate. Getting all of the pieces to fit together was a headache and a half. Again, this is normal for a lot of books, but it was to a degree I'd never known before.

6. Self-doubt. This the biggest. Every writer has experienced self-doubt at some point or other, I'm sure, but this was the worst for me. Perhaps because it was so different from anything I'd written before, and perhaps because I was writing it as my first book was approaching publication, and that seemed to raise the stakes for me. I was plagued with nagging self-doubt as I wrote this book. What if it's not good enough? What if the characters are unlikeable? What if everyone hates it? What if the plot doesn't make sense? What if I can't make it make sense? What if it's not publishable? And so on and so forth.

Here's the thing with self-doubt: it lies. It does. Because of course, not everyone is going to like what I write. I don't know about your first drafts, but mine are never going to be publishable--it's going to take a ton of editing and rewriting and critique partners and beta readers ripping it to shreds and helping me find the weak points.

I'll tell you a secret. I'm still tremendously a little nervous about the idea that this book is going to be published soon and available for anyone to read. Part of one of the prizes offered in the Favorite Character Blogfest is an ARC e-copy of this book. I believe in these characters and I'm super excited to share this book with you, but at the same time, I may have felt the need to go breathe into a paper bag. I've never felt quite that way before with my previously published books.  Every book is a new and different learning experience, that's for sure.

I've seen quite a few bloggers talking about the Self-Doubt voice lately. It's a nasty one. For those of you struggling with it, here are a few things it might be whispering, and some of my thoughts in response to those whispers.

This story is never going to be good enough. Nonsense. It's going to get better with everything you write, because practice makes better. You're going to write some crappy things, but don't let that stop you, because the crappy parts are going to get fixed. You're also going to write some amazing things, and only you can write them. You have something to say that only you can say, and I'm sure you've heard this before, but it's true. Maybe there are other books like yours, maybe there are other characters with similar personalities, but this is your story from your mind and your heart, and it is unique. Your story is going to get better with every draft, every rewrite, every bit of polishing.

Everyone is going to hate this. This is very unlikely. Are some people going to hate it? Possibly. Everyone has such wildly different tastes, and what one person loves, another person might loathe. Which means, if some people hate it...you're also going to have some people who love it.

If you're trying to please everyone, you're probably going to have a mediocre story. You need to be happy with your story. You. It is yours. Of course, you need to be open to listening to what your beta readers and critique partners have to say, and work to improve what you have, but if you're unhappy with your story, it's probably going to be evident to reader.

What if the characters are unlikeable/the plot doesn't make sense? This is where beta readers/critique partners are so important. If everyone hates the characters and tells you the plot doesn't make sense, you're going to need to reexamine what you're doing. That's the beauty of drafting stories, though: you can pinpoint what you're doing wrong or what you can do better. And again, there are so many things that are subjective. Some people don't like arrogant characters. Some don't like reluctant heroes, or whiny sidekicks, or damsels in distress. Some people love these. Write the characters as they're meant to be. Your character will grow through your story. Maybe a reader who hated a character in the beginning will love a character in the end. You won't know unless you write it and find out.

That's just it. You won't know what effect your story will have on a person, or lots of people, unless you smack that self-doubt in the face and write your story. And then make it the best you can. And then, when it's ready, open the doors and let people see into the world you created.

In the infamous words of Galaxy Quest (I mentioned the other day how very quotable this movie is), "Never give up, never surrender!"

Are you struggling with anything in your writing process right now?

Fear in Writing Characters. Also, Artwork!

I have this thing with artwork. I find it very, very inspiring--kind of like I find music inspiring when I write. There are certain songs that come to "belong" to certain stories or characters, and listening to those songs helps me so much when writing those characters or that story.

My friend Holly (who has done artwork from my books before, and who did the cover art for Confessions from the Realm of the Underworld (Also Known as High School), made more art from the books I'm currently writing. There are two books for this particular story, because it got too long to cram into one book. The first book is written, polished, betaed a gazillion times, and edited a gazillion more times. The second book is the one I'm writing, and so having art of my two main characters to look at makes me giddy and inspired more than I can say.

And because I am totally sharing her talent whenever possible, here is my friend Holly's art of my two characters, Lachlan and Brenna, from my books Rising and Rising 2.


Brenna and Lachlan, Rising and Rising 2 © Laura Josephsen
Art © Holly Robbins


This also gives me a chance to talk about fear in writing characters. Those two characters portrayed above? When I first realized that in order to do this story justice, I needed to use their points of view and tell their story, I was terrified. I have never been scared of writing characters before, because exploring characters gives me the opportunity to get out of my head and into theirs, and to delve deep into a lot of things, and I love that.

Delving deep into Lachlan and Brenna's heads was daunting and scary, because I knew it was going to push me out of all of my comfort zones. Writing quite a lot of parts of Rising was already difficult and emotional and intense, and I knew that Rising 2 was going to be even more so. My characters have been through a lot, and I'm only adding to what they're dealing with. I worried that I wouldn't be able to do justice to their story. I worried that I was going to cross some lines that I might not be comfortable with. I came to realize, though, that to not tell their story would be unfair. Characters aren't cookie cutter people. I couldn't just say, "These characters would only do this, because that is ALL I am willing to write." Well, I could, but it would have made for a really flat story and characters who weren't true to themselves.

Characters aren't me. I may not like what they do. I may not be comfortable with what they do. I may not agree with with it. But because they're not me, they're them, sometimes that means stepping way, way outside of my comfort zone to do justice to who they are and what their story is.

Nine months after realizing I was going to need to write their points of view, I am not terrified of writing them anymore. I am excited about it, and I'm plugging my way through the first draft of their story.

My questions to you today are: Have you ever been scared of writing a character? Did you do it anyway? Do you think that you could write a sympathetic character who behaves in ways that you completely disagree with?

I know there are a lot of people who write characters they disagree with, and by the end of the book, the character has seen the error of his/her ways based on what the author thinks is correct. That's fine. But what if the character never thinks what they're doing is wrong? People aren't clear-cut, and characters aren't either.

I'm very, very interested in others' thoughts on this, since I've spent many months contemplating a lot of this.