The Delights - and Dangers - of "In Jokes"

"Protect the land and despoil the sea? It seems an odd bunch of rules to me."

This is a line from the story I'm currently writing - "The Giant of Tidesmouth." Obviously, there is more to it, and I expect many of my readers will get it and enjoy the reference.

But if you don't, I'm not telling you what it is. Neener neener.

Of course, if I hadn't told you there was something more to get, then those of you who saw nothing beyond the line of dialogue would not have known you were missing anything. Which, generally speaking, is good. In jokes are great for the people who share in them, but they make others feel excluded and that won't make readers feel welcome.

Thus, I try to make them subtly. I love making references, and homages, and little tributes to the artists and the people and the things that I love. I do it all the time. I even have some 'big' ones planned. Snippets of a song lyrics or a particularly poignant turn of phrase that I intend to - ahem - "borrow" into my books at some point. I do not intend to make them stick out. They will blend and only the people who instantly recognize the borrowed bit will know what I was doing - ideally,  the tribute will blend so completely that even those people wonder if it was intentional.

After all, too much reference becomes gratuitous and gets in the way of the story - even self-reference, which has the added sin of being masturbatory. I'm talking story-telling sin, not religious, folks. As I hint at in the post where I introduced The Wandering Tale, I want people to be able to read these stories, starting anywhere in the series, and never have the feeling they were missing anything. Characters and themes and events might reappear, but in a quiet way. Too much self-reference would ruin the stand-alone nature of each story. Readers would know that there was something there weren't getting, and feel like I was pushing them to read the other parts. I don't want that - I want them to read cuz the writing is just so damned good.

This may be one of the hardest parts of writing this series. Despite being in my anti-epic kick for a little while, I normally like an expansive narrative, and it is in my nature to write that way. Perhaps it will be good practice to ensure that each entry into The Wandering Tale can stand proudly alone.

The Wandering Tale

My published story The Swordsman of Carn Nebeth is the first in a series (but I must use the term loosely) of novellas I'm calling The Wandering Tale.

This is a series of stories for those who don't feel like starting another epic. Don't get me wrong, I love epic fantasy - Ice and Fire, Sword of Truth, Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Time, all great stuff - but sometimes I want a "one and done" deal. I don't always want to feel like I'm committing to an entire series by picking up a new book Some authors don't even bother completing a full story arc in their initial novel! Drives me nuts!

Turns out, both The Wandering Tale and my first novel are meant to be one-and-done. The Wandering Tale is a very, very loosely connected series. Each novella will be a completely stand-alone story arc, with one character existing as a connection between the last story and the present one.

The stories will exist in a single world, and yes I will continue to explore that world with each story - it's not like I don't want to reward people who stick with the series. I just don't want readers to feel like they need to read them all to get the whole story. Maybe this isn't good marketing, but I have plenty of EPIC SERIES in mind to write. The Wandering Tale is meant to fulfill a more casual fantasy reader's desires.

I do have a few small tie-ins brewing. Little things that I'm calling Loops where we eventually see previous characters return for a quick cameo. I'm not sure I'll even bring attention to the fact that they are returning characters, though. Returning readers will recognize them, but nobody else will be the wiser.

I'm actually quite excited for The Wandering Tale. I believe Swordsman to be one of the finest stories I've ever written, and I think The Three Fingers of Death - entry two of the Tale - is as good. It's also exciting to be 'discovering' a world as I write it. Many of my other stories, I do world-building as a separate task once the initial story is written (If you enjoy world-building as much as I do, check out the Mythic Archipelago). With the Tale, though, I don't have anything planned. I come up with it as the story needs it. It's like exploring in my own head!

It gets scary in there, sometimes...

Harnessing Excitement

Even though I love to write, it is occasionally hard to be enthusiastic about it. I often tell others - and myself - that "I write for me first." Meaning that I won't stop writing even if I don't see any success from it.

This is probably even true, but lets cut the bullshit for a second, shall we? I don't know of any writers, or painters, or other creative types that really do it 'just for themselves.' Sure, some work is private. Some is meant to be therapeutic for the creator first and foremost. Deep down in every single creator's heart, though, is the hope that someone, somewhere will want to read/see/enjoy their work. All their work. Even the stuff created purely for catharsis - because we all hope that our self-therapy is powerful enough to help somebody else, too.

So it can be disheartening when you're up at 4 a.m. writing a short story after receiving three rejection letters for your novel the day before. Your work ethic makes you want to finish the story, but the growing possibility of nobody but friends and family ever seeing your work - and the sneaking realization that they're probably just humoring you - can really harsh your buzz, man.

We need a reason to put words on the page, because we already know our stories. I have stories living in my head that I've been enjoying for years, and still haven't written. I don't want to get it on paper for myself - I can enjoy it right where it is. I want to get it on paper so others can enjoy it, and so they can then tell me how awesome I am. I need that validation.

I need that hope. Which is the reason this ePublishing thing has helped my productivity so much. I know that somebody is going to read my work. I don't know who or how many. Maybe my clever title will catch the eye of someone sitting bored on a long train ride. Maybe the beautiful cover will draw someone in. Better yet, maybe the well-crafted summary and sample pages will convince someone that this story, this author, is worth trying out.