As the word of our novel, Skein of Shadows continues to spread; we Wandering Men often hear the question asked:
"How did five guys who live no where near one another write a book together?"
The common answer, conjoined with a chuckle and a smile, is, "It wasn't easy..." While this is a true enough statement, it does not really do justice to the answer. Over the next several weeks, I, Ashy hope to bring you a little light into the process that we used to write Skein of Shadows and are using again to write the sequel.
First of all, I am a very visually-inspired person. I believe that is one of the reasons that Hall and I work so well together; my words play off of his art and vice-versa. As such, when I am formulating a new idea or concept, it really helps me to sketch things out, or even write them out on a big board where I can then work out the inter-relations and linkages between them. For a book like Skein of Shadows, with its tightly-integrated plot and distinctive interwoven storyline, performing a task like this was (for me at least) paramount.
As such, I can distinctly remember one of the first things that I did was to nab my children's white boards and begin writing words and phrases that I thought would either be major plots, themes, and of course, characters in the books. While it made for a bit of a mess visually, it actually helped to cement some of the initial storyline-concepts (some of which were kept, and others which were scrapped) that would eventually become Skein of Shadows. I remember Corey coming up the street to my house and he and I pouring over this for nearly an hour, generating ideas and discussion that we later took to, initially, our first draft outlines, and later, to our Wandering Men Writing Retreat (the second of which, is occurring next weekend, in fact!)
It is interesting to note this mess of words and squiggly lines, which I dubbed the "Crown Cloud" now that the book is in print. There are some telling tales here and there, which are interesting: for example: Tenet did not yet have a name at this point, while Gritgut was named "Grigg" or "Grogg" and whereas the "Diversion" plotline was entirely scrapped, the connections between the Cult, the blood rituals and the Pit Fighting and "Triple F" remained strong even from the beginning.
I think that it will be really interesting to see if this same sort of "early emergence" of plot and theme is again see with the sequel to Skein of Shadows...
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