Project Notes
This page is where I am gathering my general observations and thoughts about this project and writing as a whole.
These notes are a guide, they tell you how to write. The template helps you get the outline, and these notes help you write that outline into a story.
Having the project best seller formula won't make you a best selling author, just as having the formulas for string theory doesn't make you Sheldon Cooper. You still need talent, skill, and hard work.
There are no rules. It seems like you can write however you like, and as long as you do it well you can sell it. Write what and how you would want to read. That said, follow the rules I lay out below.
Do not spoon feed your readers. Do not over explain things. Do not be too heavy handed. Write as if they already know what is going on. Write for the character’s sake, not your reader’s.
Your characters should be well defined, and they should always act according to who they are. Define them, and make them work within those boundaries, and have their actions and descriptions constantly reinforce those traits.
Every single sentence should either reinforce something or provide info that is important later. Do not waste the reader’s time with words that do not matter.
Subtlety. Drop subtle hints about things, don’t go bustin’ through the wall like the koolaid man.
Condense the long boring bits down as much as possible. Both Chirs and Rowling can make weeks of tedium pass in a sentence or less.
Write from and for the character’s perspective. If the character doesn’t need explanation, don’t give it. If they are new to a place, so will be the reader. Writing this way is what makes good books so good on the second, third, and fourth reads.
Do Not use words that a commoner will have to look up unless it is really necessary, or if the character using those words actually talks like that.
Do not over describe things, especially your characters. Provide a loose structure with a few key details and let the reader’s imagination fill in the rest to create the places an people.
Leave little bread crumbs, little subtle things that a reader will not understand the significance of the first time they read the book, and maybe not until they have finished the series.
Decide on a feel for your book. Should it read more like a children’s book, or a bit more serious? Be consistent with it through the book, and perhaps through the series.
You should have everything defined before you write, similar to how Chris knew everything about his dragons well before we ever learn. This allows you two write and describe in such a way that your readers will catch on and learn what you know.
Filter the words you write through the character’s perspective. This is very important. If they don’t know, the reader doesn’t know. The reader sees and hears what the main character does when they do.
Your main character is going to be plunged into a new world, or see parts of the world that they had never expected to be part of. They will be ignorant and will have to learn. Use this to your advantage as you build the world for the reader.
Before the big nexus moment, you must write as if things will continue on as normal, because as far as your character is concerned, they will.
You must keep track of the small details like times, distances, limits, etc.
Your characters should exhibit real human emotions, especially the ones we all have that we try to hide from others, like envy, lust, jealousy, hate, greed, etc.
Give the readers a calculated lack of information. Make them work for their meal, don’t give it to them.
It is okay to show something, or have your character notice it, and not explain it until later, or in some rare cases, ever. You can provide enough info later that a second read reveals what it is without ever flat out explaining it. I think this is crucial. The first mention must be subtle though, a throwaway sentence tucked into the meat of the story.
You should have as much of the series set up in the first book as possible. I cannot stress this enough. Recurring things are very important in both of these series, and it just makes it all feel right and less retcon-ed.
You HAVE to know your characters and how they act and talk.
Whenever you write about any character, the words you write about them should reinforce who they are, their personality. Not just what they are doing and saying, but how you write about them.
If you do not yet know about a place, person, or thing, but you want to leave yourself room to explore it later without setting anything in stone that you will have to later stick to or overcome, then shroud that thing in mystery and/or suspicion, like the Spine and Angela.
Both of these are young adult books, and we all know that kids read them. As such, you should give those kids something to make them feel like they are a grown up. In Harry Potter, Rowling has Uncle Vernon say the word “damn” early in the book. Of course, kids are not supposed to swear, so when they see this in their book they feel more invested in it, kind of like a woman secretly reading her romance novels. It gives the kids something they are not supposed to have, and therefore they love it all the more for it. Other examples are of the students int he Harry Potter series drinking, sneaking around school, and generally doing things you are not supposed to do.
Other Notes
I feel like I have to put this somewhere. Based on everything I have watched, read, and seen while analyzing these two books, I strongly believe that a good portion of what makes a book or author famous, a best seller, popular, has less to do with how good the book is and more to do with how much work the author and/or their team is willing to put into all of it. From the editing and revisions to the marketing. Chris himself has said that some of his books he had to almost completely rewrite, or at least large chunks of them. I feel like many people might get a first draft and quit there. You have to be willing to go through the book multiple times, over and over, revising what needs to be. And after all of that, once you have a book that is best seller material, then you have to put in the hours doing marketing. I strongly believe, and hope to test, that if an author works hard enough, long enough, that they can have a successful book. Maybe even a best seller.
Chris has a map. I want a map. I’m gonna do a map.
The editing process is so important. During the first draft you are writing your words. The problem is, your readers will be reading your words, not writing them. That is why you have to read your words so you know what your audience is going to experience. This is also why taking a break between drafts is important. You should always, if you can, put the work away when yo finish a round of revisions and let it sit for as long as you can, then come back to it and reread it.
I feel that if a series is well written you should be able to get sucked into the story of the third book without ever having read the first two. I did exactly this when I was a kid with the Artemis Fowl series.
Write in scenes. Use them to define sections of the book. Chris often seems to do one to three scenes per chapter. Rowling does more I think.
Ask questions and answer them. Your readers will be asking questions and you want to have answers for them. What would happen if a boy tried to raise a dragon in the woods? Wouldn’t people notice?
There is no such thing as a coincidence in a novel, just things that are written to appear as such. Be convincing if you want something to seem like a coincidence.
I am fascinated by how a story reads different of a first and subsequent reads. You can put so much in a book that it is almost impossible to grasp the importance of on the first read because you just don’t know yet.
Define the major things you want to happen, the skeleton of the story, and then construct everything else to support it. This support has to be natural though, not forced. An example is that Roran had to be out of town so he didn’t die with Garrow, so, he is sent to Therinsford right before it happens. But, all the reasons he leaves are completely logical.
What if you printed something on the side of the book, like on the page’s edges?
Sprinkle in little jokes.
You may choose to give your character false hope at some point.
Your story must support itself and not feel forced.
The story should be written, and the characters act, as if all the past actually happened to them. Their lives are real to them, their pasts are real to them, write it as such, get in their heads, be them as you write them.
Write in things that have some small meaning on the first read, and five times as much on subsequent reads.
Filter each characters actions and descriptions of them, their dialogue, their past, their emotions, EVERYTHING through their personality.
Remember: You are writing for yourself. What critics and teachers may say is far less important than what your true audience thinks.
You should have some grey area villains. People or cults who are bad, but really only because of what we accept as societal norms. Also, you should have multiple mini bosses in your story along with the main boss. These mini bosses aren’t really defeat-able though, because they are secret and their reach runs deep. You may kill the cultist that is the face of the operation, but the whole body still remains, its roots are hidden deep. Perhaps the main character killing the face was intentional by the body, to free it from scrutiny.
Include philosophy in your story.
Foreshadow as much as you can about later books in your first book. Be very subtle though, a relevant conversation can be foreshadowing. “I’ve always wanted a dragon.”
Even your D list characters should come back for micro cameos. Think of Tom the barman in Harry Potter.
Subtlety is key. Foreshadow everything so subtly that nobody even realizes it.
I want there to be little jokes thrown in, like Harry and Hagrid do.
I want my world to be old mechanical tech. I do not want a super steam punk vibe, but a little is okay. I am more shooting for like, the 1920’s maybe.
Do not fully explain anything right away. It would not be normal for a person to sit down and explain to you every single detail of how fighter jets are constructed, flown, their history, etc. so don’t do it to your reader. Take magic for example. First we learn that it exists. Then later we learn a bit about it’s rules. Then maybe later we learn about how it is used. You should have all of this figured out before you write anything, but don’t explain it all right away, ease your readers into it. Spread it out a bit. Teasing is more fun anyway ;)
Everything in your world needs rules. Create them with your outline, before you ever start writing, and stick to them. You don’t always have to explain them to the reader, but you should have them. This goes for locations as well, and history. You don’t have to use it, but you have to have it.
Don’t be afraid to have your characters lie to your reader. Chris did it a lot with Brom. Know this though, that may make readers dislike that character a bit. It May. Plenty of people still love Brom, despite his lies and restrictions.
Distances and times and changes over time and distance should be realistic and proportional. If you have to pass boring time but your characters are still practicing and gaining proficiency during this time, make sure they gain proportional amount of skill to the time you pass.
Distract, lie to, and in otherwise throw readers off the scent, so that they may subconsciously think they know what will happen, but will doubt it or just not know. Have a surprise that upon a second read appears to be beautifully choreographed.
Make sure you understand what you are writing about. Don’t say stupid things. Don’t cock the shotgun ten times for the sound effect or show blanks falling from the gun while it shoots. Go get the experience if you must. Write what you know, and if you don’t know, go do it or get someone who does know to review it.
Ask all questions about your book. Good, bad, supporting, defeating. Be a scientist. Be the hater and the enthusiast. Cover all you bases.
I find a good mental place after I have started and once I have been going for a bit. Some days I start not feeling in the right mood, but then I get in the zone. This is why it is important to do it even if you don’t feel like it. I have felt this “in the zone” feeling many times before, where all the pieces fit and the knowledge flows. This goes hand in hand with something that many writers say, “Do it every day.” Not just writers. Any elite person high in their class will tell you this.
Be sure to include little scenes that show the characters slowly gaining proficiency in a skill. They should be brief, at least after the first one. These small scenes should be about a specific skill and shall carry on through the series. There can be some lapse in proficiency as long as it makes sense. Think of Eragon and his swordplay.
I believe Chris said in an interview, or Youtube video or something, that writing is just answering a bunch of questions to yourself. You start with an idea and then start asking questions about it and answering them, and that is how you get your story, your world. I like this philosophy. I think it is true.
Do not stop the story just to describe things. Describe things as the story moves forward.
If you want readers to forget something and be surprised later, make the thing seem resolved. Give it a false end, an end that is far less significant than the actual resolution, less significant than the actual truth.
Write with easy, normal sentences.
What is Harry Potter’s character arc in the first book? Eragon’s? All their companions?
Editing Notes
Look for similes and replace them with metaphors when it makes sense.
Remove things that do not add to the story, things that don’t move it forward.
Show, don’t tell when it makes sense. Telling is okay when it is called for. You know the difference, now you just have to figure out how to explain it.
Do what you can to limit adverbs.
Use exclamation points rarely if at all.
Dialogue tags should be simple. He said, she said.
Use all the senses, not just sight and sound.