Martyn Stanley's Blog - Posts Tagged "epic"

Well, it's been a slog getting stuck into Deathsworn 2 I must admit - but a pleasurable. I'm really trying to take all the good elements of part one and expand on them in part 2. My editor is adamant the second part is a real step up from the first and I think he's right.

I'm currently about 35,000 words into the story - the survivors have spent some time stuck in the town of 'Strak' needless to say their visit to Strak did not go as intended.

I'm now at a really exciting part to write, I'm on the verge, the very cusp of getting into the nitty gritty of 'the truth' Having met a fellow gravian in the strangest of places, Brael is desperately trying to convince them to unspeak his curse. Of course given the devastation 'the truth' has wreaked, they are reluctant.

All I know is it's a long way to Cormaroth, and getting there is not going to be easy. When they do get there I have new characters ready to join the band, and an encounter with the Empress that will really explain the true, hidden nature of the quest given to Saul Karza in part 1.

I'm really enjoying writing it, I just hope a few folk enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it!

Well, part 2 WAS going to be 'The Temple of the Mad God' but I got to a point in the story and realised. 'I've just written a complete story!'.

It's about 60,000 words, the same length as the first one, but the trouble was the companions are nowhere near 'The Temple of the Mad God' so I've had to come up with a new title - as to use that wouldn't have made sense. I didn't want to keep everyone waiting until autumn to find out what happens after 'The Last Dragon Slayer' so I've re-structured the series, though not really the central plot.

1. The Last Dragon Slayer
2. The Verkreath Horror
3. The Temple of the Mad God
4. Emergence

I have a solid plot line for all of these books, my main fear is it will take too long to move the characters from the places they are to the places they need to be. I've found writing a journey, without skipping huge chunks takes a defined amount of writing you can't spend 60,000 words writing them halfway up the map, then get them the whole way back down in 60,000 words, it simply doesn't work!

I am really pleased with 'The Verkreath Horror' though, I've given the companions a horrible, horrible time together in this book, they really have been through the wringer. But they are a stronger group for it I think.

I've thrown a few paragraphs into my Free Prequel to the 'Deathsworn Arc: The Last Dragon Slayer'

It's here: -

http://www.wattpad.com/40626548-death...

It's a slow moving project, and it's very, very rough. I'm not editing or proof-reading or polishing, I'm just throwing my thoughts out as they come.

When it IS complete, I may remove it, edit it and polish it, proof-read it and get a couple more pairs of eyes cast over it, then publish it as a Kindle Title. It's far too rough to publish at the moment, and it's a slow burner - I'm more focused on 'Deathsworn Arc 3: The Blood Queen' and 'Deathsworn Arc 4: The Temple of the Mad God'

New blog post about this here:-

http://martynstanley.com/?p=101

Explaining where it is free and why I finally decided to bite the bullet and give book 1 away.

It's free everywhere now, so you have no excuse! Pick up a copy today!

The Last Dragon Slayer

I will be releasing 'The Blood Queen' on paperback and other digital formats once I've finalized the current version 1.2

Expect it to be a couple of weeks.

It's been nearly two years in the making! Which seems ridiculous... But it's here. Somehow yesterday I had the courage to click 'Publish'. I'm already paranoid it isn't 'spot on'.

So what's it like? Well, it's 94,000 words long. So 12,000 words longer than The Blood Queen and Rise of the Archmage

It's also horrendously complicated (At least to me! It'll probably seem simple to the readers!) Why? Well at one point there are five separate storylines going on at the same time. They DO converge, but keeping time in sync for each story and making sure I know who knows what and stuff...

The process of battling with this book has actually led me to think. 'Maybe I should sit down and plan out book 6?'

Will book 6 be the last book in the series? I don't know. I looked at my read-through statistics today. Book 1 - 2 has a bizarrely low 2 - 4% readthrough rate. now the rest of the books have a 75-100% readthrough rate.

Are people DNF'ing book 1 because it's not their cup of tea? I honestly don't know. I DO know people generally say my writing gets stronger with every book. I really didn't think book 2 was THAT much better than book 1 though. Certainly not enough to explain a 4% read through to a 90% readthrough!

I might actually try and wrap this series up in the next book. It'll be another monster, it might well end up 120,000 words or more. But it would kind of be nice? Failing that, maybe book 7?

Will that be it for Deathsworn Arc? Well, probably yes. I DO have plans for a future series following the on-going story of Fox Fletcher. It might be called Torea Tales or something... I don't know yet. At the moment I just can't wait to hear what people think of book 5. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Best wishes,

Martyn Stanley

Yes! After an agonizing two days in review... Amazon has now made Deathsworn Arc 5: The Temple of the Mad God available for pre-order!

US: http://amzn.to/2B3AQLv

UK: http://amzn.to/2jCPAHa

Please, please: If your a Deathsworn Arc fan pick it up! I can't wait to hear what people think of it. This book has been two years in the making. I really have to know if you guys are enjoying the story. Finally, you'll understand how everything fits together and where the story is going!

Martyn

Well, over the Christmas break, I've been catching up. I've started watching Season 5 of Game of Thrones. I'm six episodes in at the moment. I DO like the series. It's gritty, brutal and unforgiving. It also has some very human characters who you can empathise with.

I've been telling myself for a long time I ought to start reading the books. When I was in Smith's just after Christmas I saw the first book on sale for £4. I thought, what the hell - why not? I'm nearly finished The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro and I haven't really taken on a monster read since 'The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I never read the sequel to that - World Without End because after 'Pillars' I was a bit 'Ken Follett'd out'.

The interesting thing about A Game of Thrones is the first book is about 1000 pages. Looking at the trim size and my own page counts, I'd estimate that the first book of George R.R. Martin series is actually about the same length as my entire 5 book series.

I'll be honest, though I like self-publishing I'd really like to move to the hybrid model and end up in a position where I publish most of my work through the traditional routes. I'd also like to write a longer, more complex series like Game of Thrones, maybe even set in a post-Deathsworn Arc Torea. However would anyone publish it?

I tend to think a journeyman author, dumping a manuscript as long as 'Game of Thrones' on an agent's desk and explaining it's the FIRST book of a SEVEN book series would be laughed at best.

Let's be honest it would have zero chance of being picked up - even if it was amazing.

This leaves me in a situation where ultimately if I want to go trad pub, I probably need to write a specific book. What book? It should probably be a stand-alone novel, which is 85,000 - 120,000 words long MAX. It should probably leave the ending open for an optional sequel but not be a book 1 in a series.

To write this sort of book probably requires a different approach than 'The Deathsworn Arc' it probably needs a degree of planning. Martin spent a long time meticulously planning aspects of Game of Thrones, then altered his plans as he wrote. He calls himself a 'gardener' when asked what sort of writer he is. Neither a planner, nor pantser but something in between.

At the moment I'm bogged down writing scripts for film as part of A363 Advanced Creative Writing. I also don't want to continue Deathsworn Arc until I've had more detailed feedback on book 5. I know what needs to happen, but I'm at a point where I'm thinking, do I try and wrap up the series in one big book? Or spread the ending over two or three titles?

I know some of my readers LIKE my writing, but want to see what else I've got besides Deathsworn Arc. Maybe I should take a break and write something submit to an agent? I sold well over 200 books in December 2017. If the rising trend continues and I can submit a manuscript to an agent at a time when my stats are looking particularly good... Well, that might just stand in my favour. In some ways you might ask why I want to begin publishing through an agent or publisher.

It isn't a financial consideration. I don't think being trad published automatically means you'll earn more. I think in many cases it can mean you earn less. No, I think for me at least, it's a matter of wanting what all writers want - READERS!

I recently took The Last Dragon Slayer out of perma-free. I was getting over 1000 downloads a month, but not that many sales of book 2. I've always suspected this is simply down to people downloading it because it's free, then forgetting about it. Since I've made it a paid book I've sold triple figures of book 1 in only half a month! I've also already had a great month for the rest of the series.

Was going perma-free a bad idea? I don't think it was. At least not at the time. At the moment though I don't think it's the way forward. I sold more books in 2016 than 2017. I did that by giving away tons and tons of copies of book 1. When I sit back and look at the figures though, it was disheartening. I sold a lot of books, but I had a read-through rate of less than 5%. My read-through of rate of books 2 - 3 was over 75%. That's too much of a discrepancy and really proves my suspicion that most people who downloaded perma-free book one will probably never read it.

It's a tough game, writing and publishing. You have to stick at it. And you have to analyse how your books are selling and what's working or not, then be prepared to change your strategy. If you want to make a go of it, you've really got to be prepared to wear a lot of hats.

That's the attraction of trad pub of course. But that's not to say it'll be easy, or that you'll instantly sell a ton of books. It'll still take time. I think ultimately if you want to make a success of your writing career your goals have to be to write more, writer better and to always be prepared to look at your marketing strategy.

Oh, hopefully 'The Temple of the Mad God will have it's paperback edition out this month!

Happy New Year everyone, and happy reading and writing!

Martyn

I did it! I finished the Buried Giant and reviewed it in detail! Check out my review here, please like and comment!
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Martyn