Nick Kyme

Well, a belated Happy New Year to everyone!

Got to say I am pretty happy to see the back on 2009 for various, fairly tedious, reasons. There was some good stuff, don’t get me wrong, but the latter end of the year left a bitter taste in my mouth that was tough to shift.

Still, a new year is all about the future, right? So, what does it have in store for you my intrepid readers?

That’s easy.

After a mutha crusher of a mental block, I have finally started work on Firedrake. Seriously, it took me bloody ages to get around to this and, I don’t mind admitting, that for a time I wondered if I’d be able to write the book at all. Glad to report then that my mojo has returned and going, while not phenomenal, is steady.

There were lots of reasons for this. Some of it was down to the fact that I had a few lingering edits to sort out on Grimblades (my Empire novel, coming in July/August folks! – shameless plug over), then I took on the Fireborn audio and another short story for Fear the Alien. This was also on top of the fact I agreed to write a 5,000 word story for the BL Live! chapbook. This one’s called ‘The Burning’ and will be available at the event in a swanky looking booklet . Nice.

Truth be told, I still have a few edits to do on ‘Prometheus Requiem’ (that’s the one for Fear the Alien) but nothing major-doodle. Despite that, I’ve ‘gone in’, as it were, as far as Firedrake goes. I’m hoping to write a 1,000 words or so tonight and then do a big session at an unnamed coffee shop tomorrow (for some reason, I’m having difficulty focusing at home in my study right now).

You know, I could pour my heart out on this blog. I could bang on about emotional upheaval and soul searching and all that stuff, but that’s not what it’s here for. Those close to me know the score and they’ve been awesome, seriously awesome – I would have been royally screwed, I think, without their support – so I thank them, profusely, from the bottom of my still beating if bruised heart, for that. This blog is about writing, mad stuff, things that make me laugh, things that make me angry, confuse me or just make me go – ‘hell yeah!’

So, let’s stick to that shall we?

I touched on a couple of points earlier in my ramblings, and I’d like to go back to those now. The first one concerns location.

A lot of writers I know will actually put fingers to keyboard, pen to paper, stylus to PDA (or whatever) in a variety of locations. Most folks I speak to have a study. It’s their sanctum, the place that houses all of their books and… well, stuff, for want of a better word. I too have a study. Is a, now slightly less cramped, little room with books and DVDs and all manner of goofy stuff. Up until recently, it was the place where I went to create, I guess. I know it won’t always be like this, but it feels kind of like a prison to me now. I struggle to express myself in these confines, a strange sense of claustrophobia asserting itself on me, a desire to get out and meet people, see the world, interact. Yes, actually connect with the realm beyond the walls of this room and my house.

It’s important. Reaching out. It is all too easy to get inside your writer’s bubble and forget that life goes on outside of it. And, let’s face it, it’s pretty important to connect with it (even if that’s limited to a table at a coffee shop strapped into your ipod). Every writer needs a frame of reference, a line to the real world. Donning the 40K/Warhammer cap might mean a sortie into a very unreal, fantastical world but they are still populated what you are trying to make into ‘real’ characters. How can you do that if you don’t know what real people are actually like? What have you got to compare it too? Plus, peeps, it’s just not healthy to lock yourself away in a dingy cupboard. Don’t do it!

So, in spite of the fact that my study has become a prison for my mind (slightly melodramatic, I know but indulge a creative soul will ya), I’ll venture forth from the pit anyway. When I’m struggling to find the words and the inspiration, a trip to somewhere new often helps get the juices flowing again. Changing locale is something I do frequently and, for now at least, I’ll be doing most of my novel writing in the office or in some heavily commercialised coffee emporium – ooh, capitalism baby.

Point two I want to make concerns a word that sends a thrill of excitement and dread down my spine: sequel. Eek! Run for the hills! Save yourselves! Sequels are notoriously tricky beasts to get right. They suffer from that ’second album syndrome’ malaise. They have a long history of never being as good as the original. They will always be compared to something that came before, something that dare we even whisper it was… better.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hang on a moment. That’s not entirely true, though, is it. Well, is it?

No, of course it ain’t. As a movie fan I point you towards the following evidence in the case of the sequel versus the original: The Dark Knight, Spider-man 2, X-Men 2, Aliens, Superman 2, The Empire Strikes Back. The prosecution rests, your honour.

Fact is, there are a lot of really good, superior sequels out there. So it is then that I head into Firedrake with the notion fixed in my mind that it will be my Empire Strikes Back (no furry little critters in the third instalment, though – nope, nope, nope).

Writing a sequel does present some new challenges, though. Most of these, besides the desire to make it better than the original, are pretty fundamental concerns. I really need to make sure I get the details right that I’ve established in the earlier books/stories. It wouldn’t do to describe a character wielding some kick-ass weapon because I think it’s cool, only to discover that he had an entirely different kick-ass weapon in the original. Or that a character who was bald now had a funky haircut in the shape of a dragon or something. The devil’s in the details, as cliched as that sounds, it really is.

Go back. Read your original source material again. Reconnect with your original text. These are the only ways to ensure you don’t make any continuity screw-ups. Still, it’s a lot to remember, homes.

2010 then. A universally good year? I hope so. It’s looking up, so I’m down with that. Firedrake will be my first book of the New Year. This is the one that’ll prove to me that I can write this trilogy and make the best I can make it, something worthy, something that outstrips its predecessor. Watch this space to find out how I do.