Blog posts, articles and entire books have been written about how a writer should approach the creation and maintenance of characters. Then there is the other industry where folk examine famous works of literature and the characters therein from all sorts of angles; along with the motivation(s) of the author.
So then.
When you have passed the toe-twiddling stage at the water’s edge of the sea that is your project and are now wading out, determined to swim to the other side…
Opinions please:
At some stage is there part of you in one or maybe a few of the characters, reflecting various personal moods, views and the rest of the complexity of the average person?
Or.
Is there a little secret part in which you indulge in living through the character’s life. A place you can go to to shake off the usual frustrations of the daily life? Be someone else
Or.
Are you The Supreme Being of the world, moving everyone around as you see fit on a Four-Dimensional chessboard?
Or.
Having introduced these folk to a narration are you now running after them waving a document and crying after them ‘Plot! Don’t forget my plot!!’, only to have at least one of them turn around and smiling benignly say ‘But dear writer. Have you not read the sub-text? Do keep up,’
Or.
Is it a case of a combination of all or some of the above?
I looked at the Kindle Report page……Sales…….umm less than the first primary number….
As did we……..Oh…….oh….That this too solid flesh…….wouldst ……..melt
No….I don’t think the tragi-comic-self-referential ploy is going to work, we’ve done it once, and like I said at the time with Dostoyevsky references it might have worked better.
I wouldst suggest; the Bard. For have you not already allowed a quote in the opening sequence? Everyone is aware of some Shakespearean hex-tracts. T’would resonate.
Ahhh, yessss. TOOOOOO, BEEEEEE or NOT tooo BEEEEE…… THAT is the…….question????
We’ll let you know
Well, here’s one that occurred to me.
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Our Skirmishers of Lace, Steel and Fire is the sun
It’s cookin’ I tell ya!!
I don’t suppose they’d go with adapting The Prince of Verona’s last tines…. “For never was a story of more woe than this thy hapless marketing show”
Hmmmmm…..Maybe another of THE BARD’S works might be more…..shall we say…amenable to the project.
You got it chuckles!!
Chuckles!…I love it
This is a winner!
A book! A BOOK!! My kingdom for A….. BBohook!!
Do not worry
Do not fret
Here’s a choice, you’ll not regret.
Available on Amazon Kindle at 0.99
They got the link OK. I’ll give them that. I’d still go with Dostoevsky though.
Aye, “To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s.”…..I think we could use that
See what I mean. You got to go with Dignified Irony….Anyway let’s quit while we’re ahead for the day. Raya and the Last Dragon ok with you?
There is a form of dignity there.
Ya’ll have to admire the persistence though…. I mean, yeah Stupid… but still kinda admirable.
That’s true Flaxi, I kinda see wot they was tryin’ and if you’re not tryin’ to seriously sell stuff it’s a bit of fun. And since they are books about us anyhow, we should have a say….. See, like this…..Ahem…
“Now can the grumbly winter of your discontent at ol’ books Made glorious summer by these exciting volumes
An’ all the clouds that low’r’d upon your moods In the deep bosom of the ocean Kindle be buried”.
Aww, was fun…! Go on Whychie (That’s ‘Trelli ‘to you readers!) you give it a try
…. Alright then, otherwise I’ll never hear the end of it:…….(deep breath)…
“The quality of writing should not be force(d)
It should floweth as the small stream through the glade
Upon its happy way. It is twice blessed:
It blesseth them that writeth and those that do read
‘Tis fayre in its modesty. Yet becomes
The impressive volumes when written for their own sake.”
Yes, ok…That was a bit of a giggle. You’re turn now Arketre. Otherwise it won’t balance properly…
. Since you two are set on us being so singular; here’s mine then
“Writers, readers and easy-goers, gimme some time yeah?
I’ve come to tell you about these books, but not to sell them, right?
The intensity in some stories really holds many folk.
While the casual, feel good is also worth a read
So let it be with the Precipice Dominions series.
Right, we’re done………………..You take care, then…………..And we’ll be seeing you
(Chorus)……………BECAUSE THERE’S ONE MORE VOLUME TO COME !!!
.Masterful Delivery, I tip my hat…………………Yes, they saved it. Could get sales.
There will be scenes and commentaries which some readers may find disturbing, even offensive. Although to be fair there is something of a nascent allegory to certain themes within the volume which has given rise to these marketing ventures. I would also like to go on record as stating I had nothing to do with this post and even counselled against it…. Oh dear……oh dear.
Yes folks with each copy of
You get a free course of pogo-stick lessons
Wow! That’s a great idea. Why don’t you come into my office and we can discuss it in more detail.
Well, we’d love to help out but we’re off to Oshkagoodle to help publicise the annual Oshkagoodle Lychee Fruit Workshop Festival
Yeaaaa Team Lychee!!!
Naaah, there’s no joy to smacking such folk, they are already in their own painful world of existential denial….. OK Sis’ over to you.
Oh great here comes Ms Blue Collar again
Yeah, like one way-ticket to Cliché Central
Hi honey. Sorry to Skype in on you like this. Just to let you know I’ll be a bit late home tonight. Plumbing job. Anyway tell the girls they can watch Frozen II again, and they have to phone their Aunty Jane to wish her fiancé Sandra a Happy Birthday…OK…love you man of mine…Oh nearly forget would you be a sweetie and contact Professor Williams and tell him I’ve given it a lot of thought but I won’t be taken up the Lectureship on 16th Century Literature in Europe. Bye..darling……
Hi Ladies…….
That was mean!…..
Yeah!
You’re-you’re just so lucky we lost out phones in there otherwise we would twitter something…
Yeah!….
We’ve had enough, we’re off to Oshkagoodle to sneer at Lychees…..
Yeah!
Ah sometimes ya just gotta clear out the dead wood
Oh….. It’s gone all quiet… Well I guess that just leaves me…Ummmm… There’s this book.
And it’s one of those Fantasy sorts. There’s these three young women, a soldier, a kinda wacky traveller, and a housemaid, now she gets stuck with these…powers I guess… and the other two are hunting her, because they have to, y’see. Anyway, they all get together and bond, and have adventures beating up bad guys. And sort of grow in experience, stature and stuff like that. The wacky one and the soldier fall in love which is sorta sweet, and the housemaid becomes really powerful, brave, determined and respected. So it ends well, but it’s part one, of a trilogy….forgot to mention that . There are a few laughs, adult situations and girls talking, y’know girl-talk. And there are lots of other folk doing sneaky back ground things, but like I said it works out, OK…all upbeat. And costs 0.99 on Amazon Kindle. Was that OK?
Thank you……..I wish I’d asked you to do this in the first place.
“Comedies are fit for common wits: But to present a kingly troop withal, Give me a stately-written tragedy; Tragadia cothurnata, fitting kings, Containing matter, and not common things.”
Ah a quote from Kydd’s Spanish Tragedy …… How very apt.
I’d have gone from something out of Dostoevsky, but I guess that works.
Let’s be honest, we all have good cause to feel a little low these days
Oh woe. Oh misery. Oh lackaday. Ah me.
See what I mean?
I’ll hand you over to our expert of the matter.
Thank you. Whereas in the societal state in which the large vocalised majority of the population live in a status from in, a world view can be described as comfortable, there is an urge to experience from a safe distance (in this case the written word, or performed work) acts of violence, misfortune, tragedy and the triumph of evil over good. This socio-thrill seeking would have had a cathartic benefit as the emotions experienced would move the person out of the self induced torpor of relative complacency. However due to recent evidence of the pandemic and severe political turbulence, the level of the distress caused by the fear of actual personal harm has exponentially increased.
Yeah…Howdja feel about really gettin’ a big smack in the mouth instead of reading about or watching some poor shmuck gettin’ one?
Succinctly put sir. It can therefore be demonstrated that there is now an inherent need for a substantial number of individuals to experience the positive emotions in the traditional formats of Good over Evil, Harmless Humour, The individuals at the lower end of the social scale triumphing through hard work, loyalty and a sense of selflessness and of course a measure of Romance. However as the current world for the induvial is in a state of turbulence in which such imagery might jar, to place the narrative in a Fantasy Setting with its sense of detachment is a suitable location, in which the person can experience both positive emotions and harmless conjecture of this extraordinary non-threatening setting. As the actual demonstration of these circumstances are not my forte I will hand you over to someone more versed in the process….
It’s a great little book, I’m telling you. Three independent young women end up carrying out a battle against evil forces, in their own unique ways. There’s banter. There’s friendship. There’s bonding. There’s contradicting and defying authority. There’s getting the better of professional villains. There’s the beating up of evil guys. There’s bravery. There’s determination. There’s humour. There are frank discussions. There’s romance. There’s an up-beat ending! Yeah!!!
Annnnndddd it’s called?……………………….Not just me then.
Hey, Burbles! Yeah, you in the hipster hoops. You forget to mention the title, guy…. Never mind…I’ll do it. You like go and sit down and drink water…No caffeine. Right?…… Now those of you on justifiablyconfused.com this the source of all the preceding fuss ‘n feathers
It’s on Amazon Kindle. Naahh I’m not giving you a link. Y’ go to Amazon and select Kindle and type it all in. How hard can that be for Pity’s Sake? Oh, yeah, like I read it. It’s alright, y’know. Kinda mash-up, few thrills, few laughs, girls getting The Task done, bit of rewarding R & R afterwards, you get the drift?. If nothing else it’s bound to annoy various stick retained rectum types from all sides, which is a good thing. OK, that’s me done, dividing walls don’t demolish themselves folks.
Yesssss. Well she would like it wouldn’t she?…………. Yeah Ms Blue Collar Appeal
Ooooooh I think she might have heard that. Quick cut to the funnies.
Lighten up you day. Cease your dirge and wail. Away unto Amazon and buy this happy tale.
Oh we read it. We read it!! Lighten up you day. Cease your dirge and wail. Away unto Amazon and buy this happy tale
Hey! That’s catchy! Gee that cheers me up to no end. Hey sisters and brothers, let’s hear it!
Lighten up you day. Cease your dirge and wail. Away unto Amazon and buy this happy tale
Now that’s what I call Ironic .
O-M-G….Have you heard about this new book!
Lighten up you day. Cease your dirge and wail. Away unto Amazon to buy this happy tale
I take it, that is just a cartoon, otherwise the image is quite…wrong.
I think it’s what you folks call allegorical. Y’know a comment on the way your social media works.
Oh Arketre Beritt!…. How nice to meet you…. Err I would like to apologise on the behalf of the writer for all of this. He would be here, but he’s hiding under a kitchen table
Yeah… That’s where we usually have to go to find him. Anyway, don’ y’all worry none about the marketin’. Not your personal fault. It’ll all work out, somehow. Be seein’ y’all.
What luck. We were here for that special guest star appearance! Lighten up you day. Cease your dirge and wail. Away unto Amazon and buy this happy tale!
Lighten up you day. Cease your dirge and wail. Away unto Amazon and buy this happy tale
But Marcie. Wait I love ya! Marry me!!
Youse gonna ‘af ta wait Clyde, I gotta buy one of dem Kindles an’ get dat book everyone is talkin’ ’bout.
You got to admit folks…. That’s Marketing!! Hmmm…even so
……. or………..
Ending on a cliff-hanger eh? It’s an old ploy, but it could work.
Good day to you. My name is Merklin Silc and I come from the lands described in The Precipice Dominions . To be closer as it were, I come from the very busy and thriving city of Elinid, in which I and my brother Grenaww have certain influence, all done by hard work and intelligent applications of this and that.
(That’s Grenaww, he figures quite a lot in most of the books, but we don’t show him too much, he doesn’t like the portrait and he tends to unsettle folk anyway…until they get to know him and see his point of view)
Me, I’m more inclined to the friendly conversation and discourse of subjects. After all everyone has their point of view; true sometimes you need to give them a friendly hand to demonstrate they are wrong and guide them, but I say, it’s a lot neater than other, let’s call ’emcolourful ways. Other times you need to give folk confidence to do ‘Wot’s Wot’ as we say in Elinid. And there are times when you get the task of announcing to the wider world about things you reckon would enrich their lives. Normally for me that’s tied up in Trade Deals, Mutually Beneficial Arrangements or Negotiated Understandings and the like. But someone very close to me these days asked if I would help out on the matter of a series of books charting the adventures and I must say the more accurate histories of what took place a few years back. Well since I could never turn down a request from this particular person and as the tale is quite favourable to Elinid how could I refuse?
Before we go any further I have to say I’m not too keen on these images, Yeah, there’s alright for the ladies, adding a certain Indefinable Quality to their features, but us lads…well whatever was tried we still come out looking a bit like ‘walnuts’ (that’s ‘twits’ to you folk), however Wigran says, it’s all to do with the transmission of detail between worlds.
That’s Wigran by the way. You might say he started the whole business, him and his explorations of the Stommigheid but overall he’s good lad; these days he’s my Advisor on such matters, and has come on quite well.
Anyway, enough about us lot, let’s get you onto the real nub of the matter which is about the events laid out in the trilogy The Precipice Dominions and centring around the activities three rather remarkable woman, who to use a phrase you might recognise ‘were dropped right in it’ . All about how they got involved, teamed up, coped, worked together and prevailed despite others (At one later stage once I’d worked out Wot was Wot, I did warned Grenaww he was going too far, but I leave that for you to find out about way down the tale) the three of them prospered in their own ways.
There’s a lot of action, and since folk kept trying to cross them, quite an impressive body pile, of all races; the language and some of the humour you might not want to repeat in mixed society. It’s against a backdrop of a whole lot of cross-purposes, rivalries, hidden agendas, sharp workers, walnuts who thought they were sharp workers, mistakes made, opportunities snatched, strategies veering off in all directions, making up policy as you go, and all sorts of permutations . Some folk who read the whole account got confused, I didn’t. The accounts struck me as the Usual Sort of Business I deal in.
Basically these three women, they change, read the three volumes and you’ll see;
Like how Arketre Beritt of the LifeGuard (in Elinid we call them ‘The Grim’) goes from being a Healer (Medician) to Captain of a regiment (or what have you) holding the line at in a right nasty set to at what was thought a small, dowdy place called Yermetz .
And ….. also….later on…(Everyone is worried she’ll find out about the next picture because it’s not an image, portrait; it’s sort of live, at the time and she is very touchy about privacy during that bit of the narrative but I said I would square with her….we have a Negotiated Understanding)
Then we have The Puzzle, The Confusion, The Won’t Stand Still For A Moment, who claimed to have come from Elinid but had a whole different story
Trying to follow a conversation started by Karlyn Nahtinee is an acquired skill and as far as I know there are only two persons who can do that all the time (being the other two in the trio). You know there is something odd about it but you can’t pin it down, it’s only later she starts acting like this do you realise she’s got a history.
And finally there’s the one I reckon to be the True Hero of the whole story. Trelli, also known as Trelyvana Waywanderer (sometimes Lady Tee) the girl who started out as a not so simple but pretty shrewd orphan and housemaid, had to adapt quickly to this
And learning to work this way
Finally became this Lady
If you’ve been following this blog (Where the First Hell did you get that word from for a bit of writing?) you’ll know the old fellah who got the task of putting the words down has had all sorts of trials and tribulations getting here. You might also know Trelli, bless her got him to make this last final effort on the first volume and all the improvements are down to her (By the way, any comments about ‘What Improvements?’ will result in me visiting the unwise person to point out that making mean spirited, not well thought out statements can have repercussions).
I’m not going to go on about how wonderful a series of tales these are, how you might be missing an enjoyable reading experience and that there maybe enough for everyone in the pages. No, that would be pushing it a bit and no one really likes being pushed (even when they haven’t got the option). I’m here just to give you options, that’s fayre enough isn’t it? For a start off you can visit the site which gives more information about the tales at
Where the new version of the 1st Volume will be available free for a few days (I think it’s seven days, but Wigran says you should never make promises where Amazon is involved he reckons it’s short of ‘fully operational capabilities’- anyway he also says you folk will understandwhat that means)
I think that’s all I need to say on the subject. You’ve got the introduction, you’ve seen images of the girls and a rough idea of where they are going, you know where to go for more information, and you can get a free copy of the book.
There it is. This time. Finished. Honest. The final edition
It is common knowledge that the overwhelming majority of writers are never quite, truly satisfied with whatever they have written. Ignoring the ever persistent typos which cunningly ignore even the most dogged scanning or those fiendish tricks which all writing programmes keep hidden until after you have sent the completed work off, there is invariably something nagging at the recesses of the creative spirit.
Be it description of scenes, character development, pace of narrative, plot development or the conclusion, there always one aspect which remains ever out of reach; drifting through the indefinable borders between inspiration, creativity and physical presentation.
This can be something of a mire, dragging a writer down into a place of continued dissatisfaction which pollutes true creativity. There should always be a point when a writer says ‘Enough. There can never be perfection. This is as far as it goes,’
However in counterpoint we should not forget the feeling that maybe there is room for improvement.
In this I was fortunate to have two folk review my earlier endeavours on this book:
My thanks to both for their support and taking the time to read and review the book AND most importantly to point out the flaws which kept on flitting about my mind this way and that for some time, while I was forging ahead with Vol. III (Daughters of Circumstances. Arbiters of Consequences). All the while there was this tip-taping ‘You are going to have to go back to Vol I & Vol II (Our Skirmishers of Lace, Steel, and Fire) and tie everything up. Continuity is all shot to bits,’
So I proceeded; thanks to my very good friend (and major character) Trelli, who as you may recall recently explained the situation and process….
Trelli was, as always, invaluable (along with the grudging assistance of Word’s ‘Review’ & ‘Read Aloud’ facility), in that she continued to supply the correct information on the events and point out my errors in interpretation. Of course sometimes it was left up to me to use my own perception to illustrate the bare facts with some lyrical elaboration and reach a far smoother narrative. Therefore although the story and the major events remain the same I do believe the account has a better flow and truth be known shorn of some inconsistencies a more logical read.
And gosh! If the whole exercise wasn’t a great deal of fun seeing what was a strung together kind of effort, evolve. It may still never be a widely read, or successful work. To me that does not matter. What does count is that the volume is finally where it ought to be and does the characters more justice.
The next part of the plan is to try this time to make some attempt at marketing, publicising or whatever, then on either the 1st February or 1st March release the final edition via Kindle. It will be free for the first week (or was that 10 days?). Therefore, you good folk who purchased a copy will have the chance to get an updated copy for free.
And then onto Volume II.
While Volume III awaits a cover (That’s quite another story)
Hello everyone. Firstly I hope you are managing to cope as well as you can with all the trials and troubles in your world. They do seem to be very testing times.
Anyway, allow me to introduce myself to those of you not familiar with The Precipice Dominions stories, those being Of Patchwork Warriors; Our Skirmishers of Lace, Steel, and Fire and the concluding work Daughters of Circumstances. Arbiters of Consequences. My name is Trelli, as I am an orphan of unknown parents the folk looking after me never did get around to giving me a surname and until recently it never bothered me much. However under the influence of adventure, consequential excitement and of course ever the present Ethereal, in a fit of exuberance I titled myself Trelyvana Waywanderer and folk did seem to find it easier to cope with. It must be one of those quirks, that people do like a bit of the grandiose, at least when you are expected to place your Sanity, Integrity and Life all at risk for the good of…. a lot of people.
I am here as representative of the three of us. That is myself and my very good friends Arketre Beritt and Karlyn Nahtinee . Although Karlyn says she should be known as Karlyn Beritt now, but Arketre says in view of the situation there is a case for her being named Arketre Nahtinee. And then the whole business gets very tangled, so I say folk should read the three books and decide for themselves. (I understand that last statement could be read as ‘Marketing’- which Merklin says……Oh dear now I am getting ahead of myself and digressing; bear with me and I’ll start again).
Due to the events subsequent to Daughters of Circumstances. Arbiters ofConsequencesArketre and Karlyn are somewhat preoccupied with more pressing personal matters whereas since I am now in the heady world of politics it would seem to be a requirement to have (1) An Opinion on; (2) Advice to give about; and (3) The need to explain, everything you come across, which is where this, (I believe the term is) ‘Post’ originates.
I understand those of you who follow Roger’s blog will be aware the third volume is completed and awaiting a book cover. As I am very familiar with the frenetic pace at which he uses keyboards; which is very rarely in synchronicity with his thought processes and also his inclination to use very convoluted prose I thought it would be helpful to read back over the two previous volumes for errors in typing, transmissions, syntax and of course continuity, so I stole away a copy of each of the volumes and with feet up on my favourite sofa, a few small snacks and a large pot of herbal brew started off.
Oh dear, I thought. Although that maybe a bit of an exaggeration, more a case of ‘Hmmmm’. It’s not the errors in typing, apparently those seem to be something quite unavoidable unless you hire a team of at least five dedicated proof-readers and then there is the risk they can get into a fearful argument between themselves over punctuation and other rules of grammar, thus holding the whole business up.
No, the problem was, whereas he did get the general narrative correct, in a linear fashion, as it were, some of his details were quite incorrect.
For instance: When Arketre had her first conversation with Zweideutig and introduced us, while the discourse between the two went on Karlyn and I did not get into an undignified wrestling match which Arketre threatened to break up with a bucket of dirty water. We were simply having a spirited argument over my reading matter, how I had appropriated the said works and whether Karlyn had the right to go rummaging through my possessions, this was halted when Arketre in her best LifeGuard sergeant style required our opinions on a temporal displacement. I asked Roger how on The Good Lord God’s World he had decided his account was the correct version of events.
‘Well Karlyn told me-‘
‘Karlyn told you?’ I exclaimed ‘You’ll be believing one of those ridiculous YouTube or FaceBook accounts next!! I have told you before. Watch her eyes! If she blinks swiftly twice and her glance darts to the left, she’s up to mischief . Oh really Roger! You are a good sort, but you are too willing to listen to the words of the more lively folk,’
Then I had to take him to task about his assumption I had certain physical feelings for Wigran. He tried to defend himself by waffling about ‘subtext’ to which he was told in no uncertain terms to ask me about sub-texts as I had had to deal with them all, in the whole three volumes! Honestly, you would have thought someone of his age would have known better!!
Basically I have undertaken to guide him back through the account. For the reputations of everyone, be they good or bad, and to give full credit to those who played fleeting but important parts in the drama. As I understand it; historians in your world are doing this all the time; they write a book, new evidence turns up and every so often they write a new edition with some alteration or other. The basic story and the important elements, though, all remain the same.
I cannot comment on what he has written about the more private interludes Arketre and Karlyn shared. He has said they were written based on Arketre’s accounts and with her looming over his shoulder; he added this was most unnerving. She said he had left the best bits out, trying to type with his eyes shut was the most damn fool thing she had ever seen and if he had spent less time looking for references in a Thesaurus he would have got the thing done in half the time. Apparently there were other observations but he was not repeating them. And having found out what he had been writing Karlyn would not speak to him for days afterwards, which itself may have been to his advantage. In any case on this topic he has my sympathy. Personally I thought he has been most fayre in an adventurous wryly tasteful way on the subject of my own later experiences and so have forgiven him for being such a noddle over Wigran.
I am not very angry for it has been fun to read back over the adventures and he has been very sympathetic to us all but in matters of import, as these are to us, it is necessary to get the record straight.