Today I am delighted to welcome Canadian author Julie E. Czerneda with a guest post on her writing process, together with not just one but two fabulous giveaways — all part of her current tour celebrating the ninth and final novel in her very successful The Clan series.

I met Julie in 2009 when she was Guest of Honour at the NZ Natcon and we have stayed in touch ever since, which makes it doubly a pleasure to welcome her back to the blog today. So without further ado, here is her guest post. More information about Julie, as well as details of those giveaways, will come at the end. 🙂

~ HelenL

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Behind the Scenes of “The Clan” Chronicles, Take 2: The Process

In a previous stop on my tour, with Rebecca Lovatt at the Arched Doorway blog, I began answering readers’ questions about the series. On this stop, thanks to Helen, I’m able to answer more. I’ve gathered a group about how. My process. Tricks, so to speak, of writing a series.

Corina asked: “How about the type of research you have to do to start a project?”

Julie: I LOVE RESEARCH!!

Ahem. Pardon my enthusiasm. I feel there should be some sort of program for authors who love their research to the nth degree. You see, there’s really no end to its allure. Finding relevant, maybe relevant, not-at-all relevant but SO COOL bits of information is part of the job, yes, but it’s also the single greatest time-sucking device ever created—

::pauses to breathe:: I’m good now.

I do try to be organized about it. Sort of. My research is split between the “Urgent Now” (U.N.) and the “Happily to Come”(H.t.C.)  types. U.N. isn’t fun, to be honest. U.N. usually happens mid-writing when I’m typing madly away then BOOM.

I need to know a thing.

It could be which way taps turn. It could be what a coin looks like (oh gods, that one took me away for days). It could be anything at all, but whatever it is, I need to know it before I can write another word. I try not to cheat about this and leave a placeholder. “They ran into the [where you wash if you’re a fish] and came out sparkly clean.” It seems helpful, until the actual information changes everything. Here? Fish don’t wash themselves. They rub on sand, or have other creatures nibble their slime. So rewriting ensues: “They paused for a good rub and nibble at the neighbourhood spa, shaking sand from their fins for an hour afterwards.”

And the new version is more interesting, being more informed, and if I’d had it in hand first, I’d have written right by here humming with joy. Lesson learned.

Doesn’t mean I don’t growl every time I hit a U.N. that interrupts me for however long the info takes to find. (Honest, ask Roger. There could be colourful metaphors.)

Now the “Happily to Come” (H.t.C.) research? That’s ongoing. That’s the shiny.

For example, right now, I’m researching for four upcoming projects. No, make that five. Fine, six. Giving me permission and encouragement to delve into everything from anvils to plate tectonics, from quantum physics to calligraphy, let alone ALL THE BIOLOGY…

Therein lies the issue. This is all important to do. My job. Just not more important than writing the stories, let alone deadlines and time with the living. Hence being organized. I take a notebook with me and write down things I learn. I buy reference books when I come across  particularly useful ones and do my utmost to shelve them before their covers can open and they slurp me inside—Same idea, I save articles of interest, and pictures, etc. I constantly touch information.

Then let go, trusting it’ll be there when the next U.N. strikes me.

I should add, in all seriousness, that I will immerse myself in what will be the core of the very next project before I start to write. For example, Search Image is my current project and I spent two months researching the relevant biology until my bones purred. Also, street theatre. Because it’s all important!

Ginette asked: “As a writer what do you enjoy more, following a character/story through several books or creating a whole new story/world from scratch?”

Julie: This is a great question. I can tell, because I had to step back to think about it. From scratch? One of the confounding things is the volume of work involved. I’ve said I enjoy research, but it’s in service of telling the story I envision and intense and time-consuming. Still, I’m thrilled whenever I learn something completely new. It inspires even more and better stories, and makes me happy. Worldbuilding is another aspect I enjoy—again, to help tell that story. But to do it well is—again—intense and time-consuming and I find I fuss over what I don’t know. (There could be colourful metaphors.)

It is pure joy for me to revisit a character such as Esen (first met in Beholder’s Eye), whose continuing adventures let me play with new ideas and slime. A vacation, of sorts. Yet I love discovering a new character as the story unfolds, seeing how they’ll rise or fall with the challenges I present. Wisp (from the Night’s Edge Fantasy series) is like that. I don’t know everything about him. That’s—startling—and I smile thinking what may be ahead for my rather odd dragon.

I think my answer is yes. There’s joy in all of it, with grind, and joy again.
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Douglas asked: “I always marvel at the internal consistency of your books and series. How do you map a book to keep it consistent? How does this change when it’s a series? Also, as a bonus, how do you decide the breaking / end points between books in a series?”

Julie: A bonus question! Yay! (I was one of those students.) I’ll get to that after the first. 

Internal consistency. Thanks, Douglas. It’s something I care deeply about—I get literally twitchy if I think there’s something I’ve missed. (Ask Roger. Yup, colourful metaphors abound, with stomping, paper flinging, and the consumption of chocolate.) There’s always something, by the way, no matter how careful or thorough or how many eyeballs check things. So long as it doesn’t break the credibility for readers, or blow up the plot, that’s, well, not okay, but you live with it.

Sigh.

To prevent as much of that as possible from happening, I keep journals like the one here (below). With tabs. Lists. With a standalone story or book, I don’t need much. I can just check behind me, in the file itself. (I write, by the way, in one file and save over previous versions. There shall be only one! Which helps keep things straight too.)

For the series, I had to train myself to be diligent with information and to record it at once, because the urge was to keep writing and fill in later. It didn’t take too many “how many live here again?” moments for me to appreciate the value of writing down anything about time, numbers, and names. If you wonder why this isn’t digital? In large part, it’s because I need a break from looking at the screen and because I think differently when I have to write on paper. Plus I scribble maps and drawings, as well as tape stuff inside, which is easier like this. A little bitty part of me? Still likes the sound of scrunchy paper.

The bonus question! How do I decide where to break the plot within a series? When each book is long enough!

Sorry, couldn’t resist. There is a logic to it. I think in start/middle/end. I write that way too and you can see it in my books (until I became all manner of fancy in This Gulf of Time and Stars and had book 1/ book 2 inside one book. Ohh!). Within the Clan Chronicles, I made use of the same pattern.  Stratification starts the story of the Clan. The Trade Pact expands upon it, and sets up the climax. Reunification is all resolution/ending. In turn, each of those is a trilogy, each book a start/middle/end.

I’ll say start and middle are the easy part. To me, though, no book in the hand is complete without a satisfying ending, even if the entire plot rolls into a sequel and you just KNOW the bud’s coming. You need to read to the last page and be able to put it down with a sense of closure. (I’d say smiles, but many here have read Gate.) Thus I make sure to have endings.

While I don’t always outline, for Stratification and Reunification series it was essential. I may have known the endings, and in the former case, it was already out in print as the Trade Pact, but how to take readers there? That was the trick. Hopefully one I did well, but only readers can be the judge.

Heather asked: “Do your characters ever resist your original vision? I.e. You picture one ending but as you wrote they take you the other direction.”

No. However nice I may appear in public, I’m a bloody-minded omniscient goddess when I write. My characters are—not quite puppets, because that’s not fair to the thought behind them, but they’re certainly more tools in my hands than independent entities. I’ve put care into who and what they are. How they react better not be a surprise to me, or I haven’t put in enough work first.

Where the surprises come from, for me, is in the unfolding of plot. Moment by moment discoveries as I write. What was over the hill? Who steps in the room next? They come out of my head, clearly, but don’t feel that way when I’m in the zone. I’m as curious as if I’m reading someone else’s book, which is hilarious fun.

Does plot “resist” my intention?

No. I’m a…etc. I will let myself follow a tempting digression as long as it feels right. The moment it doesn’t, I delete and usually leave the writing to do something else for the rest of the day. Garden. Chase Roger.

I suspect my approach is because I write (a) quickly and (b) to a purpose. Every keystroke counts in my day. Not that I don’t daydream, but I leave those for when I’m not writing. (Taking notes in the bath being another topic altogether.)

Thanks to all for your questions, and to Helen for hosting!

~ Julie Czerneda

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About Julie E Czerneda:

For twenty years, Canadian author/ former biologist Julie E. Czerneda has shared her curiosity about living things through her science fiction, published by DAW Books, NY. Julie’s also written fantasy, the first installments of her Night’s Edge series (DAW) A Turn of Light and A Play of Shadow, winning consecutive Aurora Awards (Canada’s Hugo) for Best English Novel. Julie’s edited/co-edited sixteen anthologies of SF/F, two Aurora winners, the latest being SFWA’s 2017 Nebula Award Showcase. Next out will be an anthology of original stories set in her Clan Chronicles series: Tales from Plexis, out in 2018. Her new SF novel, finale to that series, To Guard Against the Dark, lands in stores October 2017. When not jumping between wonderful blogs, Julie’s at work on something very special: her highly anticipated new Esen novel, Search Image (Fall 2018). Visit www.czerneda.com for more.

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About The “Clan Chronicles” Series:

The Clan Chronicles is set in a far future where a mutual Trade Pact encourages peaceful commerce among a multitude of alien and Human worlds. The alien Clan, humanoid in appearance, have been living in secrecy and wealth on Human worlds, relying on their innate ability to move through the M’hir and bypass normal space. The Clan bred to increase that power, only to learn its terrible price: females who can’t help but kill prospective mates. Sira di Sarc is the first female of her kind facing that reality. With the help of a Human starship captain, Jason Morgan, himself a talented telepath, Sira must find a morally acceptable solution before it’s too late. But with the Clan exposed, her time is running out. The Stratification trilogy follows Sira’s ancestor, Aryl Sarc, and shows how their power first came to be as well as how the Clan came to live in the Trade Pact. The Trade Pact trilogy is the story of Sira and Morgan, and the trouble facing the Clan. Reunification concludes the series, answering these question at last. Who are the Clan?

And what will be the fate of all?

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And Now For #AgainstTheDark Giveaway Goodness!

Giveaway #1 — A Duo of To Guard Against the Dark (hardcover) plus a mass market of This Gulf of Time and Stars (mass market paperback)

How to enter: Just enter your comment below any time between now and midnight Sunday 8 October (NZ time.) 🙂

Notification: The winning entry will be notified by email on Monday 9 October. If I have not received a response by midnight Wednesday 11 October, I will redraw and notify by email as soon as possible afterward.

Note: All times are NZ time.

Terms: Giveaway #1 is fully international. The books will be supplied by DAW.

NOTE: Giveaway #1 has now closed and the result will be posted on the blog on Monday 9, October (in a separate post at the top of the blog masthead.) The winner will also be notified directly by email on the same day.

Giveawy #2 — A Tour-Wide Giveawayof All Nine “Clan Chronicles” Novels!

How to enter: Click on the following link and follow the entry instructions there:

https://sweeps.penguinrandomhouse.com/preview/vg5pud

Terms: Giveaway #2 is for US readers only. The books will be supplied by DAW.