How often to write a book

"If you're a person to writes one book every three years...High-five yourself, because most people write one book every NEVER." --Chuck Wendig

RavenCon: Writing the Other

When you're writing a character who is another sex, race or culture, how do you handle it?

Remember that you're not writing "a stereotypical white" or "a stereotypical male" or "a stereotypical straight"; you're writing a person, who happens to be white or male or straight. However, their situation will color their experience. You have to relate to them.

Do research. Find people who belong to that group and ask them. And if a member of that group complains, don't be a jerk by arguing.  Ask them what they felt was wrong. Use it as a learning experience.

Or avoid the problem by taking bits from different cultures, filing the serial numbers off, and mashing them together. This works better with fantasy settings than it does with contemporary.


Kate Paulk: "I'm actually disappointed I haven't gotten a fatwa over Impaler."
Eric Bakutis: "There's always the sequel. It's important to have goals!"

John C Wright

Part of an interview with John C Wright:

Q: What else about your book might pique the interest of readers?

A: My goal was to have one violent fight, one disaster, or one eruption of bizarre magic, once each fifteen pages or so.

Burning Gold

The Sun has gone out.

Ordinarily in an emergency we'd send word to the Duke, and he might send word to the King, but it's getting colder every day...well, there aren't any more days, because the Sun has gone out. And with Her light no longer shining, the land is getting cold. In the endless night, frost giants and werewolves prowl, undead rise from their mounds, and worse than that, things are coming out of the mountains.

We need the greatest heroes of the kingdom to head into the dwarven ruins and find the secret of Burning Gold (You thought the dwarves loved gold because it was shiny? No, it's because they knew how to set it ablaze, to provide light and warmth in the deep places of the earth). Then we need those selfsame heroes to take all the gold they can carry, to light their way through the mountains to the Edge of the World, and to find the place from which the Sun rises. Once there, those mighty warriors and subtle wizards could surely find a way to release Her, or heal Her, or persuade Her to take up her shining shield again.

Unfortunately, we're out of time, and the great heroes of the kingdom aren't here. We're sending you.