August 20, 2022 - Update

Hi!

This week proved challenging, and I didn’t get as much written as I would have liked. I did however add something to the world building that I am excited about. I will be interested to hear everyone’s thoughts on it.

I spent some time thinking about “Wonder” again this week. As some of you know, I spent over a decade working hard on my writing craft, and it resulted in me getting signed by a literary agent. In fact, a very early version of The Grey Warden (the other chapters I am releasing) is the manuscript that started that relationship. Anyway, one of the things she told me, before we parted ways, was I should try and add more “wonder” to the manuscript.

For a long time, I didn’t know what that actually meant. How did I add wonder? What was it?

One of the methods I used to improve my writing craft was conferences. One in particular had some great authors, including the late Dave Wolverton. Dave had mentored some giants in genre fiction and had been instrumental in talking a US Publisher into taking a chance on Harry Potter. During the conference he spoke about “wonder” as the defining quality of Harry Potter.

After Dave’s class, I approached him and asked if he could define “wonder” for me, as it had become a hurdle for my writing.

In hindsight I feel like an idiot, but I truly didn’t understand until he explained it. “Wonder is anything that makes a person feel wonder.”

Almost self-evident isn’t it. And yet that hit me like a ton of bricks. Because I had not approached the writing from the readers’ point of view. He explained how Harry Potter had item after item that made a child stop and wonder. Wonder about jellybeans that tasted like ear wax, or snakes that could talk, or train stops hidden behind magic walls. Things that caused wonder.

The other piece of advice I thought about this week was from Brandon Sanderson (one of Dave Wolverton’s students). Brandon puts his graduate level writing class up on Youtube for free. A fantastic resource. One of the things he mentions is that an author should never “save” good ideas for later. That you should cram everything you can into your work.

In my writing, I have taken both of those pieces of advice to heart. If I think of something amazing or cool and it fits within the world building, I add it. It has made the Divine Apostasy what it is today. A universe filled with wonder. Thank you Dave and Brandon for helping me on my way.

Wow, all this to say, it happened again this week. Something I had thought about before but didn’t know how to implement suddenly made sense in the story. Should I add it? I already have a complex and wonder filled universe. Could I overdo it?

For some, at some point, that answer will be yes. But for me, it makes the universe even richer, and still causes me “wonder.” I hope you agree.

I opened up chapters 6 and 7 to Root.

I opened up chapters 8 and 9 to Harvester.

I added chapters 10 and 11 to Step Master, Blapy’s Favorite, and Divine.

Enjoy!

Thank you for supporting these stories which gives me the assistance I need to make them as packed full of “wonder” as I can. I appreciate you so much for that.

Take care,

AFK