Indie Book Club discussion

Hi All,

As my current writing has stalled, I thought I would talk a bit today about a few ideas I have been pondering in recent times.

1) Putting music to my E-Books.

Has anybody else thought of this, or know of anybody using it? I have heard of it being used, and was wondering at the process. I assume it involved embedding a sound file into the book?? I am thinking of trying out some indie musician sites to see if anybody can come up with something long enough to be put into an Ebook: long enough to not be annoying and repetitive, but short enough to not be an enormous file. I think that especially with fantasy, a little background music MIGHT be good, but you would have to weigh up the potential benefits vs the possible cons. Some people obviously prefer to read in absolute silence, so some sort of 'on/off' would likely be helpful as well :)

2) Series following a single protagonist, with parallel sub-character books.

A few comments I have had with regards to Ashar'an Risinghave been that it goes from Book 1 following the main character, to a second book with other characters, sometimes over the course of dozens of pages. While I can see how this can be annoying to some readers, I was wondering what the laternatives are.

* ignore feedback from my wonderful followers and write exactly what i want to write, hoping that the readers who prefer the multi-path style outweigh the single-path fans.

* re-write, following one POV, one character.

* re-write, following one POV, one character, but have offshoot books following other characters, running parallel with the main story arc.

Now, although I do not see it as disregarding feedback from my loyal and funding audience, I do think my style of writing suits the multi-arc story, and would prefer to keep it that way, perhaps re-shaping what I write to have less 'gaps' between the main character and the secondary characters.

However, the more I think about it, the more I see some merit in the third option! Imagine (for those who have read Demon Gates and Ashar'an Rising, having a seperate book following Janantar, (view spoiler)[ from the time he leaves the Elven forest, where he meets Andrak, (hide spoiler)] documenting more of his thoughts, feelings, background while highlighting his own quest and sub-plot within the major story. Then there would also be the seperate book following Andrak, telling of the times we do not see him in the main story, but ALSO (same with Janantar and other secondary characters) telling the same JOINED story events but from a different POV. So for the times when the characters are not in the MAIN story, they would have their own experiences and 'life', brought together as a more complete story to augment and bring depth to the MAIN story arc.

What are people's thoughts on this? It would be quite complex, i think, especially with a story as diverse in characters as mine and many others I have read of late. But would it attract an audience? Think Dragonlance, and rather than read the TALES years or months after the main series, imagine reading them simultaneously, or at least the ones pertaining to the events of the main Dragons and Twins series'. It also adds volumes to a series that, while already classed as Epic, would truly fit within that label. Oh, not to mention the potential sales, although the size of the parallel books might be significantly smaller than the main story, but there is no reason they could not be made a lot cheaper, or used as freebies to sell the main story. but with extra books comes the need for more writing, for more covers, for more 'depth', so would it be worthwhile for any style of writing in particular, not just fantasy???


I look forward to reading your thoughts on both matters :)

~Rob

p.s. any ideas on beating this writer's block would be greatly appreciated! However, I believe denying me my Ipad and its games, as well as my PC with its games, would be a big start! But alas, there are too few hours in the day when so many great games beckon!

Rob,
Maybe what you are experiencing as a "block" is just your imagination needing a break or some time to form the ideas for your next novel? If things aren't moving as quickly as you wanted on Book III then maybe try writing something in a different genre? How about a Sci-Fi short?
Bill

That's usually the best way to resolve writer's block. Give your brain a break and work on a side project for a little while. Bill has a great suggestion. Come up with an obscure story idea and write a novella. Something you wouldn't normally write about. Get your mind off of Valdieron for a little while let those creative juices flow again!

I can't speak for anyone else, but I sure as heck would like to check out the next installment, so if that means you have to write about butterflies, get to it man!!! :)

Big J

Robert wrote: "A few comments I have had with regards to Ashar'an Rising have been that it goes from Book 1 following the main character, to a second book with other characters, sometimes over the course of dozens of pages. While I can see how this can be annoying to some readers, I was wondering what the laternatives are."

I'm not an author, so forgive me if this is out of place, but as a reader I would far, far rather an author followed the story wherever it lead, even if that means a shift in POV, or additional POVs, than try to shoehorn the plot into a particular structure. It's not uncommon in fantasy for the story to open out dramatically in the second and third books, and sometimes the only way to do that is to use more POVs.

On the idea of additional books on the side, offering a different perspective, I'm not sure that it helps to see the same event from a different POV or to have the blanks filled in. It would seem repetitive (to me, anyway) to read what is essentially the same story from a different angle. If you want to offer your followers something extra, then short stories or novellas covering events in the backstory or something else completely different, fine, but if it's part of the main story, then put it in the main story.

I think that your readers will follow your story assuming that your giving them the POV that is the most interesting and relevant to the main plot. If you're switching POV's to follow multiple plots that may take some time to converge, as Game of Thrones does, then you risk losing people, but that's a question of style. I haven't read your series yet, Robert, so I'm speaking broadly.

Writing spinoff stories is interesting, if those stories stand alone or tell something unique about the universe that we didn't know before. But I think retelling a story through another character's POV will be dissatisfying for a lot of your readers if they don't get something entirely new in the process.

I was just listening to a podcast with Damon Lindelof where he was talking about meeting expectation vs. giving the audience something new and surprising. I think all of us who are writing in series struggle with that question.