James Barclay

[Darrick]

Firstly, being new here, its probably appropriate for me to say hello , so hello .

i was wondering if you tipped your hat to any of your own favourite authors in The Raven books? and also, what was the hardest part for you when first writing planning The Raven stories?

nothing is quite as fun as researching, is it? but characterisation, or naming places/people etc, which do you feel was hardest, and what do you feel you've developed most at, as a result of The Raven? i know they say theres always room for improvement or that you're always improving, whats left that you feel you could improve on?

thanks, see you guys soon.
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miracles by their very definition are meaningless, everything that can happen, does happen.

[James]

Hello Darrick. Welcome to the forum.

I haven't deliberately tipped my hat to any other author until Ravensoul. Ravensoul is part homage to David Gemmell and reflects some of the things he believed in most strongly - Courage, Love, Friendship, Honour and Redemption. No further tipping is planned...

Hardest part was never the planning. I don't do a lot of planning as a rule as I prefer the story to develop organically around a most basic structure. The hardest part of writing is writing the death of a loved character. very tricky, very emotional and fill of questions and doubt.

I have to say I don't really enjoy researching but it is necessary and occasionally rewarding. Writing a compelling chracter is hard and I have to say that I think there is where I've improved most - developing characters.

And absolutely, I can improve in every area. Hard to say which areas need most. Probably writing strong female leads.

Good questions. Keep em coming.
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'A human with a hand outstretched in friendship carries the fangs of a taipan in his palm.' A TaiGethen saying.

[Darrick]

thanks i had thought that somewhere youd have acknowledged the works of David Gemmell so its good to know that you have, though, ashamedly, ive not read Ravensoul just yet, though it is in the post. i look forward to enjoying it.

planning is something i was never sure about, hearing of some writers preferring to plan the story, and others, like yourself, preferring the story to develop, i wasn't sure which way i wanted to go. but it feels to me like natural development is somewhat more rewarding.

to save me starting a new topic. i know you have explained how you go about naming characters and what not, but i was wondering if you had some kind of formula for elven places and place names etc.
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miracles by their very definition are meaningless, everything that can happen, does happen.

[James]

I don't really have a formula but they have to sound right to me. Most TaiGethen have a double letter within their names. I also use double vowels as I like the way it lengthens a name... Taanepol, Rebraal etc.

The apostrophe in the middle of female elven names is an abbreviation, meaning 'of the' and refers to their family name, which follows the apostrophe.

Generally, I try to make the elven names a little softer than human names but like I say everything has to pass the 'does it sound right?' test.
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'A human with a hand outstretched in friendship carries the fangs of a taipan in his palm.' A TaiGethen saying.

[Max Power]

I'm currently reading Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F Hamilton (absolutely fabulous), and when I mentioned this elsewhere on the site, you said that you really enjoyed it, James. Is the Wesman Shamens' white fire that features in The Raven series influenced by the white fire of the possessed in Hamilton's series?

I also have a question about how you develop characters - you've said a number of times that Jhered was never meant to be such a major character, and I get the impression that Auum 'seduced' you when you first created him. Does that make your writing more difficult, therefore, if you have a plot arc, but not a clear way to deliver that plot? I think that if I ever tried to write a book, I'd be a details person, needing lots of background info in place so I could focus on the plot and characters.
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If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

[James]

Hi Max,

The white fire isn't consciously drawn from Night's Dawn but it's possible it influenced me nonetheless. Can't really say.

The fact that some characters take on roles far bigger than I'd planned doesn't make things more tricky normally. For instance, the things Jhered did were originally planned for someone else - Vasselis in this case. But Jhered was so strong that he effectively demanded to take on the bigger role. I think it worked well in another way because it allowed Vasselis to become an important adviser and thorn in Koroyan's side.

For me the way I work means I'm not driven down one route. I like the flexibility to move in a direction that is plainly better than the one I'd envisaged. It's a question of getting used to a way of writing that works for you.
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'A human with a hand outstretched in friendship carries the fangs of a taipan in his palm.' A TaiGethen saying.