Questions & Answers (Volume #1)

These are based on a survey I held a while back. Figured it would be fun to pull back the curtain and answer some of these every now and then! The first five questions in this posting will be Outcast-specific, while the last five will be about the general writing process.

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1. How did you come up with 13 million for Titan's Fist's damage?

I don't remember the exact calculations I used, but it went something like this:

-Start with the amount of damage, on average, Rob would take from a crate of Firebombs.

-Figure out how the explosive yield of a Firebomb crate compares to a certain amount of dynamite.

-Research how much stronger the explosive yield of a nuke is in comparison to that amount of dynamite.

-Add a bit of random variance to the projected number.

And voila! 13-something million. It was actually about as high as I expected it to be.

2. If the gang were released into a grocery store, which items would be cleared out?

The sweets section would be fucking demolished in record time. Rob would try to stop them for about five seconds before realizing that he hasn't had chocolate in almost a year and now has a supernaturally fit body. 

Everyone's stomachs would regret it afterwards.

3. Who would Keira want as an MMA mentor?

Whoever is winning the most, male or female. She'd focus on learning their techniques and expertise of the sport...with them as a coach, not a sparring partner. Rob will have made her aware ahead of time that even the strongest Earth fighters would get snapped like a twig by her.

4. Grass in Elatra is color-coded, but does it change color if you bring it across a border? If it doesn't, is it possible for one regions' grass to grow in another region? (Has anyone ever experimented with this?)

Grass does not change color if it's taken across borders, and it can in fact be grown in other territories as well. There's a bit in Book 2 that mentions how Humans imported soil from other territories to help grow crops in their shitheap of a wasteland.

Taken to an absurd extreme, that does mean that a territory could be 'erased' by replacing all the grass and plants of one territory with that of another (and killing all of its inhabitants, of course). If Queen Ragnavi was written to be more of a Dragonkin supremacist instead of a general narcissist, that's probably the villain plotline I would've gone with.

5. I think you covered before a set of alternate plot lines, one of which was Rob being an Elf from the beginning and it led to disaster... So now that we saw the dwarves a bit, what if Rob was isekai'd as a Dwarf, or just inside Dwarf territory?

Rob as a Dwarf honestly would've led a pretty quiet life...for about eight months. For funsies, let's assume he's living in Dhalerune City. That's when the Blight he's heard rumors of would suddenly surface in Dhalerune Mines. Without Purge Corruption, it would've eventually emerged from the Mines and killed a lot of Dwarves before being defeated by sheer numbers. Assuming Rob wasn't one of the dead, he'd then have to flee due to the Locus of Power's Corruption turning Dhalerune City into Blighted Lands.

Stonewarden Grant, assuming he survived the Blight, makes sure to launch Titan's Fist before abandoning Dhalerune. The smart thing would have been to take his research and move it elsewhere, stocking up on more Fists before making a move, but him creating a mega death weapon was never about strategic advantage in the first place. Fiend territory has no forewarning and suffers massive casualties. Once they regroup, they immediately go to war with an also-weakened Dwarven territory.

Then some other stuff I can't talk about yet happens.

6. What's your favorite crazy person to write, and how do you get into their headspace?

Most of my characters are at least a little crazy (can you blame them?) but Dragon Queen Ragnavi is very fun to write in short bursts because she's by far the most unhinged out of everyone in the cast. Most of the central Outcast characters (who have the most screen time) are fairly self-aware and empathetic. With Ragnavi, I get to ignore all that and write someone who is basically removed from societal mores. There's zero empathy, and what little self-awareness she has is just recognizing how close she is completely losing her marbles - while doing nothing to prevent that inevitability.

It's actually pretty easy to write someone like that, as there's deliberately less consideration put into her internal thoughts. Someone like Rob often thinks about fairness, or helping people, or responsibilities. I have to take a broader view of the world at large when writing him. In contrast, 95% of the time, Ragnavi only cares about Ragnavi. If anything, sometimes I go back and change lines that didn't sound self-centered enough.

I also had a lot of fun writing Krazan the Soul Eater for the few chapters he was in. Tortured, self-hating, addictive insanity is a gold mine for writing material. Don't worry, that's not a hint that he's coming back.

7. What does your writing process look like? (For example, do you have milestones you work toward and plan filler along the way, follow outlines, fly by the seat of your pants, etc.)

The amount of seat-of-the-pants writing has decreased with each book, while the length and details of my outlines have increased. When a story is starting out, it's okay to freestyle to a certain degree, specifically because you're starting out and haven't established everything. Doing so can help you discover ideas that you might not have considered otherwise. I would highly recommend having a strongly-defined central theme/endgame in mind, even from the beginning, but improv can reap unexpected rewards as well.

Now that we're well past the halfway point, though, the time for improv has mostly passed. I know the specific story and character beats I want to hit, and I know how much story space is left to work with. It's less experimenting and more puzzle-solving; fitting the pieces together into a way that works. I mentioned it in my last Patreon post, but the outline for Book 5 is over 20k words long, and it's growing as I continue to think of specific lines/details I want to include.

8. Do you have any advice for people looking to create their own literary worlds and get into fiction writing?

There's a lot I could say. Too much even if I dedicated this entire post just to this question. For now, I'll simply say that the answer to this question varies significantly depending on what a writer intends to do with their writing. If you're just writing for yourself and whoever happens to click on it at Royal Road? Then go crazy. Explore. Start out with a strong concept that appeals to you and grow the world/characters based off of that. Learn from the experience.

If you're trying to make a career out of writing, it's very different, because you have to balance your passion with marketing and economics. I was fortunate enough to write something that appeals to both myself and a wider audience. For a lot of people it's...not that easy. Certain genres are doomed to fail in the general marketplace, and certain trends are widely more successful than others. Do your market research on what to write.

Also do your market research on how to, well, market. Kindle releases require a lot of preparation (and luck) if you want them to succeed. Do you have an advertising budget? Do you know how to create effective advertisements? Who are you commissioning for the cover art? Do you need to hire an editor? Are you planning a series? Do you have a catchy title? Are you releasing too close to other big releases in the same genre? Did you sacrifice enough goats to the Elder Gods? You know, the basic stuff.

9. Do you write/have any other stories or ideas?

I currently have two story ideas (currently in the planning phase) for after Outcast finishes. That's all I'll say on that for now.

10. You're very cool for what you do, thanks!

Not a question, but I actually got a lot of comments like these in the survey results. You guys are always super nice, and believe me when I say it helps me keep my motivation to write.

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That's it for now! Will post more Q&A stuff...eventually.