Hidden Details and Meticulous Building

When it comes to writing a story, I believe that even the smallest details of the narrative help to build a larger world that can only be processed as something that the author had in mind all along.

Think back to your favorite stories. Was there a minor detail that they snuck in there that made you open your eyes and realize that they had everything planned from the beginning? The opening scene might establish a smaller version of the entire story arc, for example, or maybe a character decides not to kill for a certain reason that’s revealed later.

Whatever the case may be, planning things ahead and making sure you understand every facet of a character makes them compelling. Think about old examples like Rurouni Kenshin, how he was a bloodthirsty killer and ended up with a reverse-blade sword. That’s a beautiful detail because it shows his life is transformed, but sometimes he is tempted to go back to his former ways.

Thankfully, the character grew and, in doing so, found himself on the right side of redemption. I know that’s an example from something where you should definitely separate the art from the artist, but it stands anyway. There are beautiful details, though, in many works that I admire, and it’s because of these influences that I want to be very meticulous when it comes to writing my books.

So while I have again delayed my next novel, Crown of the Orphic Queen, I do think it’s worth it in the end because it’s little details like that that are placed within the narrative that truly allow everything to shine. I don’t mind what someone thinks about that. At least I’m doing something productive during a time when life is being difficult for me.

In saying this, when it comes to The Orchestrylus Odyssey, the character of Stanzielle Quintette will be formed and shaped by her experience in The Voided Promises of Noble Songs. In that novel, everything about her, from her past experiences to things that will come in seven to eight books, will take shape by the end of the narrative.

I’m looking forward to releasing that one, and this is one series that I truly believe in with all of my heart. I want this story to go somewhere, and I will do whatever it takes to make that happen. All of my books I have a fondness for, but the thing is, I don’t know how exactly to always make the story work from the outset.

So sometimes I go over the draft seven, eight, ten, twenty, sixty times until I get it right. That may seem like a lot of work, but it’s also because I often write in a stream of consciousness with a plan, and I write thousands upon thousands of words in a brief span of time that need refining and editing.

For example, I’m actually speaking all of this right now into existence, and it’s only in the editing phase that I’m doing any typing. I’m actually just speaking this into existence because I believe it’s the fastest way to write. I believe it’s the best way to write for me, and it reminds me of the New Testament authors who would actually use an amanuensis to write their letters.

I was actually shocked when I found out that the Apostle Paul dictated most of his work. Even Dante Alighieri dictated his works. Whether I agree with the theology behind Dante’s Inferno or not is not the point, but it is due to having to clean things up in this way that I take my time and go over it slowly, rhythmically, creating new prose until the words shine.

But it is in that process that I add little details.

For example, Stanzielle Quintette is a character bent on revenge, but to me that’s a one-dimensional facet of her character and her arc. Now, that doesn’t mean that she herself is a one-dimensional character. I just mean that’s only one dimension of what makes her who she is.

So on the subsequent passes in my drafts, I believe to make the character shine, you need to leave little hints, little references to things that might happen in twenty books. That’s how the best stories are told. Sometimes you’ll say once you get to the end of a book, “Wow, it was always supposed to go that way, and he had it planned from the very first chapter of the series.”

That’s the kind of story I want to write.

Now, whether other writers write that way, I don’t know. I can only speak for myself when it comes to writing. But I know other authors use techniques such as this that I admire, yet I will always keep such things my own—my own flavor.

It’s like if some band was influenced by The Smiths, that doesn’t mean they sound like The Smiths. It means The Smiths is an influence on them, and they want to be as innovative and as different as that was for the time. That’s how I feel about my novels.

Little details matter so much.

I outline my stories to such a degree that I know what character outfit changes will occur in book five. And I also know which characters will be missing from the narrative for a few books before they return, let’s say, in chapter eight of book ten.

You have to know these things to such a degree in order to make a long-spanning series succeed. That’s just the name of the game.

And if you discovery-write something this large, you fall into the danger of being someone like George R. R. Martin, whom I respect dearly. But because he is a discovery writer, keeping all these plot threads in his head is probably weighing on him quite a bit, and it takes a lot of time to sort those things out. Therefore, he hasn’t come out with The Winds of Winter yet.

I understand. I totally get it. Look, I’ve delayed my books multiple times. That’s just the name of the game sometimes, you know?

But in the end, when we writers do this—when we sneak little things into our fiction that you might pick up on a second or third read-through, or that you see and you just have that recognition within your soul as if a third eye had opened—then it’s a beautiful moment when it happens.

I want my fiction to cause someone to have shivers or to cry a tear. I want my fiction to demonstrate the depths of repentance, redemption, good and evil, and the complexities of what makes us human.

My villains will not be evil for the sake of being evil. For example, in my book Auminous, the Auminous Sect did some horrific things, but they did it in such a mundane way that they treated it like just an everyday experience—like someone would punch a clock every day.

But at the end of the day, they were still human. Especially in Chapter 30, the concept is very apparent. There’s a scene where two characters in the Auminous Sect are talking to each other, The Beatles is playing, and they’re just having a conversation that’s very human.

They themselves are monsters, but we must always humanize the monsters if we want to have a compelling narrative.

That’s my writing philosophy, and that is what I’m going to stick to for the rest of my days as a writer.

I’m looking forward to October. I’ll have a little bit more time to get things ready. I’m not interested in waiting too much longer for inspiration to strike on some of the projects I’m working on.

I am waiting for the right time to tackle some of my projects because my book, Lowella Re:Wind, will not be so easy to write, as it’ll be a choose-your-own-adventure-style novel. I want that book to come out next year.

That’s how things go, though. We make our plans, and here we are, shifting along with the ever-changing whims that life gives us.

I just wanted to touch a little on what it takes to write characters with depth, what it takes to make something out of a grand narrative arc where the smallest details could mean 99% of the thematic elements of the novel.

It’s just something I picked up with the art I love, and I want to bring that to other people. That’s why I write novels. I want to help someone somewhere feel something, help them escape a bit of pain for just a while.

I don’t write necessarily to preach or to be political. I just want to help people in some way, and this is the gift I’ve been given, so I’m gonna follow it, while looking forward to the next year ahead and to the rest of my days as a writer.

I would love to be only an artistic writer. That’s just not possible for me at this point, and I can accept that just fine. It’s just my real passion lies in creating and crafting stories and telling people what people who don’t exist are going through.

Maybe there’s a multiverse out there where our ideas exist. That’s a cool thought to think about. If infinity is a concept and it’s an actual concept in our reality, that would literally be true because that’s how infinity would work, right?

Anyway, that’s not the point of this post, and I don’t want to go off-kilter, but I just want to demonstrate what it takes for a series to feel alive.

You need every small detail hidden in the back of your mind to come to the forefront of the reader’s mind, and even if you don’t tell the reader everything, they need to have the sense that you know all about the characters—that you understand intricate depths that they might never see in their life or in their reading experience.

But that’s how I think about crafting the small details.

How might you make your stories intricate, and how might you leave little hints for the reader to pick up?

Just something to think about.

Happy writing.