Author Spotlight: Rosemary Sutcliff

I have decided to try an Author Spotlight to draw attention to authors who I think are worth your time and that some people might not know about. I could think of no better author to start this off with than Rosemary Sutcliff.
For those of you who have not read Sutcliff, you are missing out on a rare treat. She is, to my mind, one of the most underrated writers of the 20^th Century.

She wrote primarily historical fiction, mainly focusing on early Britain and Saxon times, though she branched out to Greece with Black Ships Before Troy, as well as the Vikings in several other works. Even if you are not a huge fan of historical fiction, those of you who want to be writers should still read her for the mastery she displays in the art of writing.

Sutcliff does two things better than any writer I have read; she creates poignant sense of atmosphere and she tells deep, complex stories in a compact, straightforward style.

I am still trying to understand exactly how Sutcliff is able to make her settings so vivid and complete in my mind, but I think part of it comes from her deep understanding of them. She had a well-developed picture of the world in which her characters lived, something I think young writers can hurry through. As a writer, I believe the words on the paper should be the tip of the iceberg you have imagined and thought about. Simply by seeing that bit of ice peeking over the waves, we can sense the vastness of what lies beneath. If you only imagine enough to fill in your pages, it will seem flat and cheap without you really being able to tell what the issue is.

The second thing I love is that Sutcliff’s writing is the definition of tight and compact. Mark of the Horse Lords is a prime example, it is a short (less than three hundred pages) novel that covers over a year of complex action in depth and detail with complex and well developed characters. Yet Sutcliff tells only those scenes that directly move forward the story. I was stunned when she skipped over what I thought would be the pivotal moment in the book, preferring instead to relay the aftermath. Looking back I realized, the aftermath was what mattered, she cut at least twenty pages of action out of the story and only left in what was important.  It is a good lesson for some of us writers who feel the need to include every step from beginning to end. Some things can be told in brief, in a flashback, or left out entirely. Sutcliff did this masterfully.
If you're looking to get started on Sutcliff, I recommend starting with her Roman Britain Trilogy, Eagle of the Ninth, Silver Branch, and Lantern Bearers. These are not only some of her best work, but they should be relatively easy to find. You can find many of her books on Amazon here, and some of her books, such as Frontier Wolf (If you are in any leadership position you should read this book) are difficult to find other than used outside of Kindle. You can also bookmark her works on Goodreads to get to later, and you'll want to. Her works are numerous and well worth reading, and you don't want to do what I did and find yourself accidentally starting with the middle  book in a series. 
I am currently working to outline the second book in her Eagle Trilogy, Silver Branch, part of trying to study how she wrote and specifically how she structured her novels. I'm hoping that once I have a good start on it, I can make it publicly available and maybe get some of your thoughts on it, both my outline and Sutcliff's writing, so stay tuned for that.
Who are some of your favorite under appreciated authors? Hopefully I can learn about a few hidden gems from you as well, and perhaps I can focus on them for a future Author Spotlight.

The Sagas

Having just published ‘The Dragon of Kveldmir’, I’m switching gears and setting to work on a couple of other projects that I have planned out and filling my tank in preparation for these as well. Thus, I am back to reading the Sagas.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Sagas, they are various collections of old stories from the North in general and Iceland in particular. Written down sometime in the 13-14^th centuries, they reflect historical, or quasi historical, happenings and heroes from the 9^th-11^th centuries in Iceland. They are, in my mind, a branch of the Northern school of literature, closely related in style and purpose to not only the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, but also to tales such as Beowulf.

These stories are laced with commentary, sometimes veiled, sometimes overt, on the actions of the characters. And I think this is part of what makes them so special.

They were not just meant to entertain, but also to instruct young men in how they should behave. The actions of the men and women in the stories are shown to have consequences in their lives. A greedy king may find himself in conflict with great warriors who might otherwise have served him, while a gracious and generous lord may find no lack of men to give him aid.

The Sagas are fascinating tales of tangled loyalties, great battles, cunning ambushes, and men seeking their fame and fortune. They are well worth your time to read, and think about. The world these men lived in is not too far from our own. They knew that chance often takes choice from our hands and dashes our hopes on the rocks, but they also knew that they could survive the rocks if they fought hard and lived well.

Probably the best starting point if you want to read the Sagas would be Sagas of the Icelanders, an epic collection which contains the enthralling Egil's Saga, a tale of adventure and expansion. If you don't have a Goodreads account, by the way, I encourage you to get one.

I’ll address the Sagas in more detail in a post I have coming up, where I intend to talk about why I became and English Major with no intention of becoming a Teacher. For those of us who write, it is incredibly important for us to understand why we are writing and why we are telling stories. Our readers’ time is a valuable commodity and if we don’t have compelling reason for creating it, we can’t expect them to have one for reading it.  

Also keep an eye peeled for a couple new pages here at Writing Adventures. I have a few posts that deal with some of the more technical aspects of writing that some of you might enjoy. And hey, while you're on Goodreads, check out my book "The Dragon of Kveldmir". Maybe you can be one of the first ones to write a review! 

What are some of your out-of-the-way favorites when you need inspiration? What are some old stories that you keep coming back to?

My Writing

My short story The Dragon of Kveldmir is now available on the Kindle Store!
I wrote the first draft of this story several years ago, and have picked it up several times to polish it but something always felt missing. It was originally inspired by the stories from Andrew Lang's Colored Fairy Books, but it drifted farther and farther away the more I worked at it.
Then I started reading the Icelandic Sagas. Grettir's Saga and The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki in particular made me think and using a few elements from those works with a bit of my own spin, I filled in what I felt were missing holes.

I think it works well, and I have a lot that I'm ready to follow it up with. Head over to Amazon or Goodreads, check it out, rate it, and let me know what you think.!

Characters and Worlds

I was talking the other day with a close friend about different types of stories and readers. She is very interested in characters, she wants to see them change, develop, etc. She is also a huge fan of George R. R. Martin. I am much more interested in setting, when I right my characters can sometimes go unchanged for long periods, while I get lost in developing the world in which they live. I prefer J.R. R. Tolkien to Martin.

As we were talking, it brought to mind some stuff that I have read in the past about what drives stories and authors. I think this is important not just for own writing, to know our tendencies and where we may need to be more deliberate, but also to properly understand other author’s work. Tolkien and Martin are spectacular contrasting examples.

The primary appeal of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit is built around the setting and the new world that Tolkien is showing.  The characters are meant to be windows into that world. Merry and Pippen are supposed to show us what hobbits are like, no what individuals they are. The same can be said of Gimli, Legolas, and Eomer. These characters have only minor arcs and their primary identity is wrapped up in the cultures, the people groups, they represent. This is also why the movies felt the need to add in so much with Aragorn, while a fascinating (and I think) compelling character, he does not have a lot of development or arc in the story.

By contrast, Game of Thrones is built around character. The world of Westeros, for all it’s differences, is far more similar to our own than Middle Earth. Characters such as Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow, and Petyr Baelish do not give us windows into a people group or setting. Rather they drive the story and shape it as characters themselves.

Readers do not come away from Lord of the Rings talking about the great character development, just as they do not come away from Game of Thrones talking about how much they really got a sense of King’s landing. The two stories are driven differently.

Both however, do utilize the opposite method in crafting their story. Bilbo and Thorin in The Hobbit, and Frodo and Sam, go through a slight character arc that, especially in Bilbo’s case, can be very important to the point of the story. Danaerys’ Blood Riders have very little to make them unique or special, their role is to give the reader a sense of the Dothraki culture, and characterization in that role would distort the picture they represent.

The reason I think this is important is it means a lot to the story. When you are reading, try to understand what you’re reading. Is the author trying to show character arcs and changes, or are they more focused on revealing a new and interesting world. It will help you get more out of the story along with a better understanding of what the author is trying to communicate.

Also, if you are a writer, understanding the difference between setting vs. character writing can help you identify where you need to be more intentional. I know I have to go back and work long and hard on my characters, otherwise they can come across as cardboard set pieces moving around a beautifully drawn map. 

An excellent read on this subject by the way, Orison Scot Card's Character & Viewpoint, one of the few writing books I wholeheartedly recommend.

What do you prefer? Are you looking for characters? Or are you more interested in a beautifully developed world? If you’re a writer, what do you prefer to write?

A Deeper World

On my most recent trip to the book store I picked up a copy of Bernard Cornwell’s book The Empty Throne, part of his Saxon Tales series, which I have enjoyed and will post about soon. One of the things I enjoy about Cornwell is the depth he gives his world and as I read this time I paid special attention to how he does this and I think that part of it has to do with his background characters.

Depth is one of the things that I think separates a good story from a great story. You can have a good all-around story, but if you don’t color in the back ground and give a good sense of the world in which it takes place, you can end up with it feeling rather flat and two dimensional. 

Cornwell does a wonderful job of filling out his world with characters who may only appear once or twice, but he keeps them connected. What his hero, Uhtred, does to one character may be heard of again from someone so that the reader gets the impression that there is a world outside of the main character’s plot, one that goes on when the main character isn’t there.

Take for example King Hywell, who appears on one of Uhtred’s travels to Wales. Uhtred is only around Hywell for about 30 pages in a 300 page story, and Hywell isn’t even mentioned in most of it.  Uhtred just happens to be going about his business in the same area, and the two interact for a bit before parting ways. As they part, Hywell says 

                “ ‘So’ he continued, 'your Aethelflaed will hear of war in our land, but assure her it is not her business. It is ours. Leave us alone and we will leave you alone.’”

There is little mention elsewhere of Hywell or the wars he speaks of, and Uhtred soon sails back to England to go back to fighting the Danes, but those pages spent with Hywell give the story a sense of depth, and the sense that Cornwell is telling a story that takes place in a complex and deep world, as opposed to a two-dimensional set containing just his primary characters. 

Other authors utilize secondary characters similarly, such as The Gaffer and the innkeeper Barliman Butterbur or the warden Hama in The Lord of the Rings. The Gaffer especially does little to further the plot, but these characters help to fill out the story and give a sense of place that makes the reading experience more in-depth. Secondary characters are often used to move the plot along, but it is important to remember, if you are a writer, that these characters are characters, not plot devices, and they have their own motivations and personalities. Not all of it may make it into the story, but it needs to be imagined to create a sense of realism and to avoid the impression that they exist soley for the benefit of the plot.

…All of which is illustrated hilariously in this teaser for the Sherlock Holmes Special. Hope you enjoyed the read, and I’m curious who are some of your favorite secondary characters? Comment below!