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Jul
19
Sandy Lender’s Writer’s Life - Choices Meant for Gods
July 19, 2007 |
Today I showcase a new epic fantasy novel. Now, this is not something I often do, but it’s fun to shake things up from time to time. AND of course this blog is all about telling better stories and knowing the power of stories. So as you read this itnerview, please consider what you can learn from Sandy Lender that is relevant to your own life or your own business or your own writing.
Presenting…Sandy Lender, author of Choices Meant for Gods
Book Description
Not even the gods noticed when Chariss was born with the mark of The Protector. Now she and her wizard guardian seek shelter from a mad sorcerer in a household not just full of secrets and false hope, but watched by the god who will unwittingly reveal her role in an impending war. When an orphan sets aside a lifetime of running and fear to accept the responsibilities of guarding an arrogant deity, can she face the trials in the prophecies she uncovers? Will Nigel Taiman of her latest refuge dare to use his dragon heritage to bind her to his estate or to help her in her duty? “Choices Meant for Gods is without a doubt the freshest most engaging high fantasy novel to come out in years and breathes new life into a tired genre. The characters leap off the page and the plot is lightning quick and deftly written with many layers that tease the mind and imagination. Choices Meant for Gods is not a mere novel; it is a gorgeous piece of written art. I can hardly wait for the second book!” Jamieson Wolf, Linear Reflections Author of Hope Falls, Electric Pink, Electric Blue, and Garden City “In Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender takes her readers of fantasy fiction by the hand and leads them through an exciting world filled with sorcerers, gods, goddesses, dragons, and other mythical creatures. Through the use of interesting characters and clever dialogue (”Try not to think, Nicolas. You look so much more handsome when you’re bewildered.”), she weaves a spell of magic and fantasy. The only problem for the reader may occur at the end of the book when they find themselves wanting more and discover they will have to wait for book two!” Gary R. Hoffman, Author for Short Story Anthologies including Seven By Seven and Never Safe
And now for the interview!
The Story lady: Everyone asks how long it takes an author to write a book, but you started making up your fantasy world long before you wrote it. Can you talk about that?
Sandy Lender: It takes an inordinate amount of thought to create a fantasy world if you’re going to do it right, and I think Cat Muldoon would agree 100%. There are rivers to place and mountains to get just right; stars that have to be in just the right section of the sky during certain critical events; landscape changes that have taken place in the past that an author has to keep track of; gods and goddesses that have stepped in to effect changes in peoples’ family histories; etc. All of this takes time to get right. When I tell people that I sat down to write Choices Meant for Gods in the year 2000 and completed it in June of 2003, that doesn’t mean it took three years to create. It took me three years to write after I’d spent about seventeen years thinking about the characters and their world. Chariss’s story isn’t something to be told in a couple hundred pages and off we go to the next trilogy in my head…
The Story Lady: I’m always telling people to keep a notebook with them at all times and/or a pocket voice recorder to capture any thoughts while you can’t write. How do you keep track of the elements of a story?
Sandy Lender: For a story as complex as the Choices Meant for Gods trilogy, I keep track of things by writing everything down. Unfortunately, that practice has been haphazard over the years. I have notes everywhere. There’s a yellow sticky note on my phone in my writing den that says “Lenors-on the continent to the north” to help me keep track of where the city of Lenordell is. There are spiralbound notebooks in my closet from college with scenes that turned into just backstory for the books, but they’re still important scenes for me to keep track of.
I have a recipe card file full of Old English words (as well as a couple Old English dictionaries) that includes the fantasy words I built from those OE words. I have a desk calendar with sticky notes and bits of paper and white-out smears all over it propped up next to my writing desk that is “The Master Calendar” as far as I’m concerned. It details all the major events that take place on any given day during the actual story of the trilogy. There are some pretty dark days on that calendar… So I employ everything except a storyboard, which my publisher is constantly teaching new authors to use.
The Story Lady: You have a fulltime job “during the day”. Many of my readers are working hard to live their passion and hold down a job. When do you find time to write your books?
Sandy Lender: I joke with people that I’ve given up sleep. Then one day, around 2 or 3 a.m., I realized…it isn’t a joke. Writing books is my passion, and I believe that people will find a way to do what is their passion. Whether that’s playing baseball, reading stories to their kids before bed, volunteering at the humane society, going on a vacation to the mountains once a year, or writing the stories that are screaming to get out of their heads, people will find a way to “do” their passion at some point. So I go to work everyday after I’ve updated my blogs for marketing and promotional purposes each morning.
And I write snippits of scenes and ideas that occur to me while I’m in traffic (I have an hour commute). Then I write when I’m at home in the evenings. Sometimes that writing is purely marketing and promotional material. Sometimes it’s a piece that has nothing to do with the Choices trilogy, but is for a different speculative fiction project. And sometimes it is editing Book II. Yes, I’ve given up sleep in favor of living my dream, but I figure I can sleep when I’m dead.
The Story Lady: I tell authors a couple of things about editing. One is to follow the guidance from the character of Forrester in the movie Finding Forrester: “Write from your heart. Edit with your mind - later.” I may not have that quote exactly right, but it’s close. The other thing I tell people is that we’re all too close to our own work and need to have someone else’s eyes on it. So my question…Is it true that you edit your own work, and would you recommend authors incorporate that practice in their writing?
Sandy Lender: Let me handle this question carefully. First of all, all authors should edit their manuscripts before sending them anywhere for additional work. That additional work should be to be edited. By another editor. Here’s what I mean: I think it is vital for an author to let a professional editor handle his or her manuscript prior to submitting it to a publisher for publication. If the book/novel/whatever is already under contract, the publishing house probably has an editor who will take care of it, and there are no worries.
But it’s of utmost importance to have someone who is not “on top of” the work and who is not intimately involved with the work, characters, scenes, and story read the manuscript to catch the plot holes (yes, there will be one or two) and to catch the name mix-ups and to catch the odd turn of phrase that one character uses that he just really would never use… Editors can save an author a lot of embarrassment. Now, having said all that, yes, I did edit Choices Meant for Gods. I’ve been an editor in the magazine publishing industry for fifteen years. I’m familiar with what needed to be done.
Luckily, my publisher also took a swing at it. He suggested some changes to the scenes in Bellan and Tiurlang that were spot on that I absolutely needed to make, and the book is stronger for them. Thank God he was editing and not just taking the manuscript and throwing it on the press!
The Story Lady: What was the most enjoyable part of writing Choices Meant for Gods, and what is most enjoyable about writing in general?
Sandy Lender: When I finally sat down to start typing Choices Meant for Gods, the best aspect was seeing the characters interact with each other. You know what it’s like when they start taking over a scene. You have to let them run with it or the scene turns out forced and contrived. Once I started typing, I had to turn the whole book over to the characters. They were the ones writing it because they were the ones telling the story. And I think they did a marvelous job.
As for writing in general, the part I enjoy most is stepping into some other world where these people I’ve only recently met look at me with utmost trust, utmost love, utmost confidence in me, and start telling me their stories in a way that loses me in the new world. Seven or eight hours later, I look up from the keyboard and the writing den is dark and the candles have burned out and my stomach is growling and I know I’ve got a fabulous story going on the screen before me. I love that.
The Story Lady: Sandy, thank you so much for stopping by today!And to YOU - the person reading this post right now - what have you learned? Have you discovered something about yourself? Have you made a decision about your own writing? Respond and let me know.
Ronda Del Boccio, The Story Lady of www.Storyation.com
Tags: Kama Sutra of Storytelling, I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\’ll Push You Steer, legend, , folklore, Awaken The Author Within
Ronda Del Boccio, The Story Lady of Storyation.com is an author, dynamic speaker, author coach, story coach.
She is the author of I'll Push, You Steer: The Definitive Guide to Stumbling Through Life with Blinders On
The Kama Sutra of Storytelling: Positioning, Power and Profit
and her upcoming book...
The Geometry of Success: 5 Simple Shapes that Shape Your Life
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What a fantastic interview! I too have the habit of making notes and leaving them everywhere. But what an eye opening look into the world of a writer and different tips on writing. Fantastic stuff! Thanks so much for sharing this Story Lady and thanks to Sandy! Cheers, Jamieso
Once I finished the first draft of my book I went through it more times than I can count, editing. I wanted to ADD more for a long time but finally drew a line in the sand regarding that issue.
From there, I found typos every time I reread my work. I mean like, after 8 rereadings! Or I saw a way to say something better, etc. I also learned that you cannot trust MS Word to find everything or trust everything it suggests you fix.