About writing

The interesting thing about being an author is I finally get to understand how writing happens. Long before I even thought about writing Windows, I read. Wow did I ever read. Literature is my life, as people who know me can attest. But I never truly figured out how writers came up with what they do.

You can teach someone to write. There are textbooks out there, classes to take, etc... But they only teach you the technical aspects. I'm not saying that authors are these brilliant minds that non-authors should be in awe of. Far from it. From what I've learned by writing these books is that authors rarely have a clue about what's going to happen next.

I've said it before, but I know how the whole series wraps up. I know how each book ends too. Getting there is as much a journey of discovery for me as it is for you, my readers, though. And Cleedus, who doesn't read but listens to me talk about it. The problem is, I've got to fill five volumes with three simple truths: Raven likes pie and Sarah's squishy bits; Sarah thinks Raven is insane; Malleus wants to kill everybody. That's a whole lot of filler I need to come up with.

So where does it come from? Well, I have no clue. Tonight I was working on a chapter and realized that what was supposed to be a one shot character winds up being in most of, if not the rest of, the series. Heck, this post was supposed to focus on another minor character instead of the one I just told you about.

A professor once told me that PhD stands for "Piled Higher and Deeper". That's writing. On a journey of discovery, the readers are looking to the author as a guide. Meanwhile the author is standing there with the map upside down, suggesting everybody follow the star that's really a satellite. 

So we're just as lost as you. We just make up stuff to look cool.