RIP Robert Holdstock

David Langford reports that fantasy author Robert Holdstock has passed away at the age of 61. A sad loss indeed - he was one of the greats.

It's all a plot

I'm plotting three novels at once and it's melting my brain. In a good way, of course. The best way really, because in some ways plotting is the most exciting part about writing fiction. At this stage of the game, anything goes.

To explain, I'm between books in the ongoing ghost-writing project that's taken up most of my year so far (and will continue to occupy me for the first few months of 2010). So I'm taking the opportunity to work up a proposal for a new series of fantasy novels I've been planning for a while. Three books to begin with - as for what happens after that, well, it depends whether I get a publisher to bite or not.

Yes, that means I'm plotting books for which I don't yet have a deal. Trust me, that happens all the time. Which is where the excitement and the brain-melting comes in. Because, much as I'm conscious of market trends and projected page counts and all the conflicting demands of a publishing industry that's feeling the pinch, there's nothing more thrilling than planning your next book. So I'm plotting. And plotting. And plotting.

These days I work mostly in a notebook. Sometimes I draw mind-maps and flow-charts but with this project, for some reason, it all wants to come out in words. A lot of the notes I make are conversations with myself, peppered with frustrated outbursts when I can't get things to hang together. I plot anywhere: on the sofa, in coffee shops, on public transport. I suspect, however, that the real work's going on in the back of my mind when I'm doing other things. Either that or at three in the morning when my brain just won't let an idea go.

You have to be careful though. Plotting's all very well, but plot's not everything. If you read a book that's entirely plot-driven, you know it. The characters do things not because they come naturally but because the plot demands it. They act, well, out of character. Lots of plot often means lots of coincidences. Trails lead neatly to resolutions. Story arcs curve like rainbows towards conveniently placed pots of gold. Everything fits just a little too neatly.

So even when you're plotting you have to keep it messy. Or at least leave yourself room to make a decent mess when you come to write the damn thing. You still have to look at the action through the eyes of your characters, make sure they're properly motivated. It has to feel right, which doesn't necessarily mean it all has to add up.

And the end result of all this? Well, I'll have a page of background on the series as a whole, plus a page of synopsis for each of the three novels. I'll have a character list for the first book, and a detailed chapter breakdown that runs to maybe eight thousand words. Once I'm happy with all that, I'll write the first five or six chapters of the first book. Then I'll get some feedback from my agent. Then I'll know if I'm on the right track.

Excuse me now. I've broken off the plotting to have lunch and write this blog entry. But I reckon one of my villains isn't being nearly villainous enough, and I've just realised there's a cracking revenge story to be told in the middle of book three. The plot thickens.

Dino-blog

There's a bunch of great artist blogs out there. One of my favourites is this one by James Gurney, creator of the Dinotopia books.

Dig the zero-g pen ...

... in 2001: A Space Odyssey. To make Dr Heywood Floyd's pen float across the shuttle's interior, Kubrick's team stuck it on a piece of glass mounted on a rotating rig. The camera shoots straight through the glass and bingo - all you see is the pen. Of all the still-stunning effects in this SF classic, the zero-g pen's the one that really makes me smile.

The author trail

It's like a nature trail, only better. You know how it works; you read a book by an author you never read before, get hooked and follow their trail forever after. It's a kind of literary stalking. We've all done it. There's no shame.

The author trail works in two distinct ways. First there's the backlist trail. This is where you discover a book, only to find the author's written a ton of stuff you never read before. Such trails can result in exhaustion, particularly when the list is long. I first experienced this when I discovered Isaac Asimov at some remote and tender age. Foundation led me to, well, the other Foundation books, and then to I, Robot and The Rest of the Robots and Earth is Room Enough and The End of Eternity and ... well, you get the picture. The same with Larry Niven. Ringworld begat Protector and thence to World of Ptavvs ... these lists can get biblical, can't they?

The second kind of trail is when you discover an author with their very first book. This happened to me with Pratchett's The Colour of Magic and Iain M Banks's Consider Phlebas and a host of others. This kind of trail is a game of patience, as you wait for the next delivery from your new favourite author.

There is, of course, a hybrid third kind of author trail. It's a combination of the first two. Here you discover someone with a backlist but who's also still writing. You devour the oldies and set about waiting for the newies. For me this is probably the biggest list of all. A few years ago I discovered Neal Stephenson through Cryptonomicon, read his earlier works and am now eagerly awaiting the moment I get far enough down my to-read pile to immerse myself in Anathem.

And it never ends. Stephen King's new novel Under the Dome is out today and I'm only just catching my breath from finishing Robert Holdstock's Avilion. And then there's a whole heap of talented new writers who simply have to be sampled. Check out the publishing schedule of outfits like Angry Robot Books if you don't believe me.

Some of you may be wondering where my own trail's headed. As I've mentioned here before, I'm currently tied up with a bunch of ghost-writing projects. They'll take me through into next spring. All good work but it means my own output drops accordingly. Like most writers, I do have unpublished novels in manuscript form, plus other irons in the fire in the form of proposals for novels I haven't yet written. And I'll be working on a new project over the next few weeks – something I'm really excited about but don't want to talk about just yet. But it's tough out there. So right now I'm doing what I do best: concentrating on the words and letting the deals come when they will. Following the trail, if you like. Like they say, it's all in the journey.

Green man reviews best horror

There's another great review for The Best Horror of the Year: Volume One, edited by Ellen Datlow, this time over at The Green Man Review. All the stories in the anthology get a mention. Here's mine:

"Graham Edwards's "Girl in Pieces" is a SF-myth-noir mash-up about a P.I. investigating the murder of a young woman after a golem claims he was framed for the murder. This is a delightfully witty and funny story and provides a much-welcome sense of B movie humor to the collection."

For more info on the story at me website, click here.