It is a truth universally acknowledged that people are jerks on the internet

So my attention over the last few hours has been drawn to Stop the GR Bullies. For those of you who've managed to dodge this internet oddity, GR stands for GoodReads, which apparently has bullies or something.

Now, when I first heard of this site, I thought it was an author blog complaining about reviewers, which lead to RAGE, but then I read a little deeper, and I discovered I was wrong. Stop the GR Bullies appears to be a site cataloging the wrongs of certain GoodReads posters who team up to "take down" badly behaving authors through scathing forum posts. Stop the GR Bullies aims to stop these "bullies" by, wait for it, engaging in similar types of personal attacks under the flag of righteous defense, complete with twitter stalking of the proclaimed "bullies," personal attacks, real life pictures, and other general creepiness.

Annnnnnnnd this is about where my palm hit my face.

Okay, people, I realize it's 2012, and a decade and a half might not have been enough time for you to properly realize the truth of the internet. For sake of clarity, allow me to employ a (crude) visual aid from the ever helpful Penny Arcade:

People on the internet are jerks. Not all people, but enough that you're sure to find them anywhere opinions can be expressed. Jerks say terrible things without regard for the feelings of others, often for attention. Arguing with these people, pleading with them, or attempting to shame them into better behavior is fruitless because the same wall of distance combined with the megaphone of the internet that gave them the power to make you so mad in the first place protects them from any real retaliation. It's all one giant shouting match, and anyone who's watched a political debate can tell you just how effective those are at changing people's minds.

Honestly, I have a lot of sympathy for victims of internet trolling. It can make you feel powerless and desperate, which is not a fun way to be. But, for the love of little green apples, surely, surely you can see the irony of "fighting online bullying" by becoming bullies yourself.  I mean, that's some Nietzsche "Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster" shit right there.

GoodReads is an internet community frequented by thousands of vistors every day. 99% of those are perfectly lovely people who rate books, leave reviews, and generally use the site as intended. The remaining 1% are the crazies. You can't stop people from being jerks. It's the part of human condition. But you can stop feeding the trolls, and you can refrain from becoming a troll yourself.

Haters gonna hate, y'all. But unlike in Elementary school, these bullies can't actually shove you in a locker. So just let them be, don't give them attention, and they'll go away. Even if they don't, it doesn't matter. The only real defeat comes when you let them win. Never do that, and you can never lose. 

It's just the internet, guys. Go have a coffee and cool off. And lay off the twitter stalking, that's creepy.

This has been a friendly message from you nosy neighborhood author,

Rachel

Learning from Gaming

First, I just wanted to mention that all the parts of the podcast interview I did with the guys from The First Million Words are now up! Go check them out!

• Rachel Aaron Interview
• 1 Weird Trick to Increase Your Word-Count with Rachel Aaron
• World/Voice Building with Rachel Aaron
• Pretentious Titles with Rachel Aaron (where we discuss blogging and how bad I am at it!

Again, thanks so much to Ben and Guillermo for having me on! They did a great job :D

Now, on to real content!

(Honesty demands that I admit this is actually a repost of a blog I wrote for The Magic District back in 2009, but I've been in a blog slump lately and I figured something old was better than nothing. New writing posts coming soon, I swear! In the meanwhile, please enjoy this hopefully new-to-you post. If you want more Rachel Aaron writing advice backlist or just want to laugh at how starry-eyed I was in the halcyon days of weekly blogging, you can read all my old Magic District on-writing posts here.)

I make no secret of my nerd nature (not that I could, really, but whatever). Part of the awesome combination of being a huge nerd and being an author is that you get to steal from everywhere, including things that don’t have anything to do novels. Case in point: the other day my husband (who makes and runs role playing games and is thus an even larger nerd than myself) was talking to me about the theory behind how a good GM decides what kind of threat to throw at players.

According to him, there are 4 types of challenges players face:

1 – Easy

This is a problem the characters can face without stretching at all. Think small scale bandit attack. The characters have to act and address the problem, but they’re not really threatened.

2 – Challenging

This problem forces characters to actually dig into their resources. It’s a serious fight where the characters are threatened and may be wounded, but if they don’t botch, there’s no real risk to their lives and they don’t have to do anything particularly clever to triumph.

3 – Difficult

This is a fight where the characters are outmatched. Their lives are really threatened, and they won’t be able to win unless they use their powers in new and interesting ways. Screw ups, bad decisions, and/or sloppy planning have real consequences in a difficult challenge. Think boss fight.

4 – Overwhelming

The characters are too short for this ride. Overwhelming challenges are large scale plot events the players aren’t meant to be able to face, and are often used by the GM to railroad wandering characters back into the plot. These world-sized roadblocks can only be conquered with help from the GM through deus ex machina or a powerful NPC taking pity on the players. 

Generally my eyes glaze over when my husband starts talking about game theory, but every now and then, he comes out with something brilliant. This was one of those times. While all of these are framed in terms of players and a game, it doesn’t take much rearranging to see how diving challenges up into these categories can help with pacing a novel.

For example, an easy challenge at the beginning of the novel is a quick way to give characters instant cool factor. You simply set up a challenge that looks hard, but is actually something the character can do with ease. Stopping an assassin, say, or slaying a demon, it’s rough stuff for us normal people, but all in a day’s work for our heroes. However, this sort of thing can’t be used exclusively. A novel where the challenge level never gets above 2 (challenging) has no teeth. If the characters are never truly pushed, they’ll never grow, and you’re left with dull, static people. Plus, no one likes a main villain who goes out like a punk.

On the other hand, though, you almost never want to use an overwhelming challenge, and certainly never multiple ones. When you give your people a hurdle they can’t possibly jump on their own, you’re taking the power of the story out of your character’s hands, turning them into passengers on their own plot. While taking power away from a normally powerful character can create great tension, powerless characters are boring over the long term, and no one likes to see their favorite heroine get the shaft at the very end.

I’m constantly amazed at how many novels, especially fantasy adventures (my favorites!), start at level 1 and end at level 4 but skip everything in the middle. Or they start at 3 and never let up, so the characters are constantly in over their heads, and we as readers never really get a feel for them as competent people (which isn’t to say there haven’t been novels that have pulled this off, but it’s not an easy trick to have your character constantly on the losing side and not get beaten down or, even worse, unbelievable).

My ideal story (assuming a fresh book, not #2 in a series) starts at 1 or 2 and then slowly builds up (through a series of 2s and 3s) to a 3.5. This is a difficult challenge that looks like an overwhelming one until the characters apply some new trick and cut it down to size, tipping the situation on its head to come out on top. Those are the best! I love seeing characters start at the top of their game, and then get in more and more over their heads as things get tougher until they’re using every weapon in their arsenal, plus a few they had to make up along the way, to get out of the mess they’ve gotten themselves into.

Again, this is stuff I always kind of knew, and I’m sure none of this is new to any readers of this blog. However, for me, the act of organizing challenge into set levels gives a degree of control over what is otherwise an abstract concept (which is the whole point of role playing games – assigning numbers to concepts). This system of levels allows me, as the architect of the story, to think about the challenges my characters face in a measurable way so as to preserve tension without working myself into an impossible scenario I’m going to have to hand-of-god (or as I call it, WRITER SMASH!) my way out of. When writers smash, books get broken.

Anyway, just another one of those unexpected story paradigms I love and wanted to share, and I hope you found it useful, or at least interesting. For those of you who write, how do you approach conflict and challenge for your characters? Also, do any of you game, and does that experience have any influence on how you approach your stories? Inquiring minds want to know!

Thanks for reading!

- R

More Spirit War news!

Hello all!

Well, it's been a pretty exciting month here at Casa de Aaron. First off, I got the news that The Spirit War has gone into its second printing! This means ya'll bought enough books that they had to reprint them, so those of you who already have books are now in possession of first editions. How cool is that? Answer: Quite.

But that's not all! The Spirit War hit a list! Okay, not a big list, not even a very well known list, but it did hit #8 for Books on Board's best selling titles of June. Apparently, Books on Board is the "largest independent online retailer of eBooks," so thank you for that, Google alerts! I'll take whatever list I can get :D.

In reviews, we've got two new ones, and they're both awesome. First up, SciFi Chick ate up the Spirit War! Next, we have Owlcat Mountain's thoughtful review that I really enjoyed. Thank you to everyone who reviews the book, it really, really helps.

And finally, on the writing front, my friend John Hartness, author of The Black Knight chronicles and all around hilarious individual, used my 2k-10k method to double his daily writing. Folks, this is what it's all about. It doesn't matter if you hit 10k or 1k, so long as I helped you write more, I am super happy!

And that's about it! Just finished up a huge deadline, so I am taking it chillllllll. I hope you're beating the heat as well :D

<3
Rachel

When writing fast is not enough

Last Friday night I finished my 10th book. Hooray! That's a million and a half words (not counting the ones I tossed) over the 8 years I've been writing seriously. And of those 10 novels, 4 were written last year and 2 were written this year so far. Ahh, the difference of life in the fast lane...

But that's not actually what I wanted to talk about today. I wanted to talk about what happens when plans fall through. If you look at the numbers above, you might notice something odd. Most novels run about 100-120k. At 10k a day, it should only take me 10-12 days to write a book. 14 days if you count in backtracking. Oh, hell, why be stingy? Let's make it a month per book. Add in another month for editing and I should be clearing 6 books a year no sweat.

Last year I wrote 4 books, but I didn't figure out the 2k-10k trick until May, so that was 5 months of bad numbers. Also, 2 of those books (the final 2 Eli novels) were 170k plus, so that also put me back. Still, 4 books ain't bad, especially in my first year of fast writing. Back in January, I was pumped for 2012 to be a banner year. I was ready to go for broke with 7 books in 12 months. I already had the blog posts in mind. :D

But it didn't work out that way. Today is 6/18, over halfway through the year, and I'm just finishing my second book of 2012. This with the first book (currently with my agent) mostly written last year. Looking at my records, I've been working on the first draft of book #10 since 3/13/2012. That's almost 3 months exactly on a 120k novel that's the sequel to the novel I wrote in 12 days last year.

*Insert incoherent noises of rage*

I've spent my downtime this weekend trying to figure out what went wrong here to make sure it never happens again. Unfortunately, the answer isn't that simple, because it ties into the nature of writing itself.

If you keep up with my blog, you've probably already heard that novels are wicked problems. You don't know how to solve them until you've solved them, or, more poetically, you have to write the book to learn how to write the book. For novel #10, this applied in spades.

See, when I sat down to write it, I was pretty confident. I had a rock solid plot planned out, I was writing a sequel, so world building was already done, and I love love loved my main character. This was the novel I was supposed to write during my #novelin14days hashtag on twitter, and for 10 of those days, I was golden. Then the problems began.

First, I'd just like to say it wasn't a plotting problem. The story map I wrote out way back in March changed very little from the planning stage to the finished novel. What changed was the execution, the how of what happened, not the what.

Execution problems are the worst kind to have in a novel because there have no right answers, but some answers are more right than others, and you don't know which answer is better until after you've written one that doesn't work. For example, my book opens with the main character burying a friend. Plot wise, it's pretty simple: Main character digs grave in desert, but I rewrote this scene 5 times because I just couldn't get the tone right. It's a first scene, so it has to be punchy, but we're digging a grave, so it has to be somber. I have to remind the reader what happened in the last book (and why we're digging this grave) without info dumping. I also have to sum up my MC's extremely convoluted mental state in a few snappy sentences that would actually make sense for her to say.

But Rachel, you say, that's writing. Of course you have to do all this stuff! And to you I say, you're right. I just had a really hard time of it this time around.

Before I marked the book officially done on Friday, I'd rewritten it completely 3 times. I'd rewritten the beginning 5 times, added a prologue and completely redone the sequence of events at the end. I also cut and redid countless individual scenes. When I compiled my final copy in Scrivener, my cuts document was over 70k long. Seventy thousand words! That's nearly a whole novel of words just thrown away!

So what does all this mean? Well, in the final tally, my words per day average on this novel was 7.5k. Not 10k (though I had several 10k days), but not bad either. It wasn't like I was slacking. My writing speed was pretty good, but this is one of those cases where writing fast isn't enough. Even though I like to measure words in numbers, stories are not widgets. Some take longer than others, some give you fits. I planned this novel the same way I planned the first book in this series. That one took 12 days, this one took 3 months. The plot didn't change, I just refused to settle for bad scenes, so I kept writing until I figured it out.

This is the difference between being a hack and being a writer who writes fast. Even though it meant doing a lot of rewriting and taking a lot of extra time, I refused to settle for a scene that didn't fit or didn't do everything I wanted it to. Because in the end, it's not how fast you write, but how well.

No book leaves my house unless I'm proud of it. No scene stays in a book unless it's the right scene. Ten thousand words a day doesn't mean squat unless they're the right words. I'm two months behind where I thought I'd be and facing the fact that I might only get 4 books done this year instead of the 7 I wanted, but I finally have a book I'm proud of, and that's what matters.

Pretty damn awesome

I'm working on a new writing post about dealing with a novel that was giving me fits (even when you write it fast, you don't always write it right :(. More on that in a bit.). In the meanwhile, I wanted to pass on some awesome links!

First up, 7th Station reviewed THE SPIRIT WAR! Yay! Reviews are hugely important, thank you so much!

Next, and probably my most favorite thing ever, we have the new Eli Monpress fan tumbler, The Greatest Thief in the World. Eli approves enormously!

Okay, back to finishing up the paying work. <3s all around!

- R

In which I talk... ON THE INTERNET!

First up, I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who bought and reviewed THE SPIRIT WAR! You guys rock my world hard core! I've had a lot of requests for a sample of SPIRIT'S END, the final novel, and I'll be putting that up as we get closer to November. Promise! Thank you all again for being so awesome, and remember, if you read a book and have an opinion, please review! Good or bad, every review goes a long long way to helping authors.

Okay, now for writing news!

I've been a busy girl these past few weeks, but two of my favorite projects both just came out at once. First, I did a really awesome podcast interview with the guys from The First Million Words about plotting, going faster, world development, all kinds of stuff! The questions were really insightful and I had a ton of fun. Get under some headphones and listen at work. If your boss asks, tell him/her you're learning about efficiency.

The other thing that just came out is my interview with Verbose Veracity. It was a very good interview where we dug deep into such weighty topics as tropes, keeping the excitement up for your work even when you're really sick of it, and beating writer's block.

Tons of thanks to the guys at First Million words and E.F. Jace at Verbose Veracity for putting up with my incredibly long winded answers. The proved what I've been saying all along: that I can and will talk shop forever.

Thank you to everyone and I really hope you enjoy!

- R

How to buy THE SPIRIT WAR in the UK

This is a blog post specifically for my fans across the waters, so everyone else can go look at cats or something.

So, as we all know, THE SPIRIT WAR is not coming out in print form in the UK until November when it will be released bundled together with SPIRIT'S END in a new omnibus edition called THE REVENGE OF ELI MONPRESS. 

But do not fret! There is still hope! If you don't mind reading with technology instead of with your fingers, THE SPIRIT WAR is out today in the UK in ebook form! Here are the links:

Amazon Kindle

Apple iBookstore
Kobo
Anobii
Google Play

That's it for now, but I'll add more as they come up. I hope this helps people find the book before November!

- Rachel

EDITED TO ADD: If you don't mind reading American, you can also get the American version of THE SPIRIT WAR in print from The Book Depository with free world wide shipping! Only £7.89!

Two Blog Posts

Prepare for ultimate meta, for this is a blog post about blog posts!

It doesn't get more meta than this...

First, the lovely Book Smugglers are hosting me for a talk about inspirations for the Eli series and a book give away! So if you ever wondered how I came up with this lunacy (or if you just want to win a free book), head on over and check it out!

And second, I have a new blog over at Orbit Books called "Ten Things I Will Never Do." Here's a sample:

Now that the fourth Eli Monpress book, The Spirit War, is officially out, I feel the time has come to make some commitments. Three books is a long time, but four? That’s an investment. You, gentle reader, have stuck with me through two years, multiple covers, and an omnibus makeover, and for that you deserve something concrete. So, without further ado, here are ten things I swear to you on my still living mother’s grave that I will never do in the Eli series.

1. I will not place all power in an easily losable object

This is a classic, and better writers than I have fallen for its simple charms. But the Eli Monpress books have always been about personal problems on a global scale, and ain’t no one getting out that easily. So, despite the absolutely insane amount of epic magic flying around in the final Eli books, there is no Tesseract, One Ring, Sword of Omens, or Holy Grail. I know I’m killing my merchandising options here, but art requires sacrifice.

2. It will not end in a wedding or an awards ceremony

I couldn’t book John Williams or Hans Zimmer to do the music, so the plot had to be rewritten. Also, Eli refused to wear anything that might make him look respectable. A man has to think of his reputation.

3. Those fed to the Balrog will not come back

If you fall into a black pit beneath the world’s heart with a dark beast of legend to save the lives of your fellows, you’re staying down there. There will be no convenient reappearances later for plot’s sake. Kindly keep party members where you can see them at all times to prevent unnecessary loss.

Go over to Orbit and read the whole thing!

The Spirit War launches today!

So, today is the official launch day for THE SPIRIT WAR! I am very excited. You can buy it at bookstores everywhere or online at Amazon in print here or for Kindle here. And even though the book isn't coming out in the UK until November, you can still find it in ebook here starting June 7.

Of course, it's already been in stores for a few days...

but hey, today it's official. And the few early reviews have been really awesome! Seriously, I am blushing and jumping for glee at the same time. See for yourself:

• "All in all an amazing read that I would whole heartedly recommend to anyone." - Watchamacallit Reviews
• "All in all, you can not afford to miss The Spirit War. If I gave books ratings on a scale of one to ten, this one would go all the way up to eleven." - Stellar Four

I'll post more as they come in. If you have a review, please let me know and I'll totally put it up. 

So happy book birthday, Eli! Only one more to go...

A very good weekend!

I spent this weekend at ConCarolinas and it was amazing! Also, I got to meet fans!!

Me with @NillaCream @KaliArren and @kcawood! They drove a very long way to see me, and I gave them as much free stuff as I could. Lesson learned: Rachel will gladly bribe you to spend time with her! Thank you all so much for coming down!

I got to hang out with some amazing people, picked up some wicked books, and got called the octomom of novels, which I'm considering having engraved on my tombstone. But the best thing might have been when I got to hold a GIANT STUFFED APPA!

Happiness, it was mine. Sadly, Appa belonged to someone else and I could not steal him. I will just have to scour the internet until I find my own.

Again, I had an amazing time. Thanks to everyone who came to see me!