Ask the Author: Douglas Seacat
Answered Questions (6)
Douglas Seacat
I got started writing for WARMACHINE back in Apotheosis, one of the early Mk I expansions. I had already been writing for Privateer Press for several years, mostly for the original roleplaying game. I got my start around the time of the 2nd book of the Witchfire Trilogy for the RPG, and was soon recruited into doing a lot of work for the main setting books. This was a great experience, getting a chance to collaborate with the other early pioneers on defining the Iron Kingdoms and its complex nations, religions, and its history. Since that time I've continued to be heavily involved in the Iron Kingdoms RPG, including its newer evolution.
I was writing fiction in the setting since the start, though we didn't have a good venue for narrative initially. We put a couple of short stories up on our website but didn't have a good home for such work until later, with the launch of No Quarter Magazine, and eventually Skull Island eXpeditions. However, I started to write full time for Privateer around 2006, with the upcoming launch of HORDES. A lot of the "metafiction" was done in the miniature game expansion book, and I was heavily involved with that since that time.
Blood of Kings was my first full novel in the setting, and it was very gratifying to work on, as well as being a distinctly different experience than the fragmented stories in the expansion books. In the aggregate those represent several novels worth of narrative, but sliced down into connected short stories and novellas. This was always a challenging puzzle.
Thanks for the question!
I was writing fiction in the setting since the start, though we didn't have a good venue for narrative initially. We put a couple of short stories up on our website but didn't have a good home for such work until later, with the launch of No Quarter Magazine, and eventually Skull Island eXpeditions. However, I started to write full time for Privateer around 2006, with the upcoming launch of HORDES. A lot of the "metafiction" was done in the miniature game expansion book, and I was heavily involved with that since that time.
Blood of Kings was my first full novel in the setting, and it was very gratifying to work on, as well as being a distinctly different experience than the fragmented stories in the expansion books. In the aggregate those represent several novels worth of narrative, but sliced down into connected short stories and novellas. This was always a challenging puzzle.
Thanks for the question!
Douglas Seacat
I am usually working on stories that are collaborative in their origins. Our games and setting have an evolving meta-plot that isn't owned by any one person. The Blood of Kings arose from discussions between myself, Matt Wilson (co-owner and chief creative officer of Privateer Press) and Jason Soles (lead designer of our miniature games) perhaps eight years ago! The finale of this novel was discussed in detail at that time, and made it almost unchanged, though the trick was in getting there. My Iron Kingdoms writing is not dissimilar from what writers of historical fiction must do--it's often a matter of finding the most compelling story to tell within a larger established event.
Douglas Seacat
I'm in the planning stages for a novella featuring the other major war taking place elsewhere in our setting around the same time as the one in the Blood of Kings. This involves a war taking place outside the human Iron Kingdoms, after the elven nation of Ios is invaded by the aggressive Skorne Empire, the same conquerors Vinter IV brought to the west when he first returned to seize his throne. This Ios/Skorne conflict is a tricky puzzle but I'm looking forward to making it work. One challenge is that the person who should be the protagonist is one of the most nefarious villains of our setting. To call him an anti-hero is a severe understatement.
Douglas Seacat
Barring accidental success, writing must be an obsession if you're going to make any progress. You have to be willing to endure not being great at it for a while and being motivated by something other than selling your work or getting praise. That said, writing is something anyone can attempt, and with diligence a writer nearly always gets better with practice, if you invest the effort to learn. The more you write, the better you will get, especially if you listen to feedback and thoughtfully revise. Revision after feedback is the most important, painful, and easily overlooked part of writing. Because of this, aspiring writers need to learn not to get paralyzed by fears over the quality of the first draft. Get the ideas down first, then improve them later.
Douglas Seacat
Making up nonsense for a living is hard to beat. I also like that no real lives are at stake for any of my potentially dubious ideas or decisions.
Douglas Seacat
My solution to writer's block is to stop trying to write the story I'm working on and switch to something else for a little while. Often this means writing a journal style brainstorm to work through whatever issues are causing the hangup. While this may seem similar to running in circles in your own head, I find it works better to put something in writing and eventually an idea will form that will let me get back to the story. I may never go back to these journals later, though sometimes I'll come up with something that can be integrated into my living outline.
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