SeverBronny

Quite a bit. I actually started a book in my teens, only to lose it in a hard drive crash, which was utterly devastating. Took me until well into adulthood to give it another serious go.

I used to write stories for my role-playing games too, having been a dungeon master/game master for years. I'd love weaving mini tales for my campaigns, crafting maps, plot lines, etc. RPG's built me a strong foundation to work from for my writing.

But most of all, I went through like twelve robust drafts of the first book before publishing it. Really worked out the kinks. Studied the craft of writing like a first-year med student. Left as little to chance as I could whilst writing the adventure I wanted to go on.

The rest, so to speak, is history.

Oh brutal, lol.

It's unfair for me to critique the work of masters. That said, having read both series' multiple times, I can sympathize with authors whose works get massively successful in a short period of time. Like, that's a huge weight of responsibility and expectation. And even with the relatively minor success I've seen, I get thousands of emails asking about all sorts of plot lines; can't imagine the pressure these guys are under.

Now, if the three of us were in a room sipping scotch and wearing our douchey tweed writer jackets with our douchey elbow patches and smoking douchey cigars and the conversation was flowing, I *would * ask each of them what it was that made them stop, and what it would take for each of them to be in a place in life where they could wrap up the works. I'd take that shot and see how they replied, and I would honor their responses.

And then I'd pour us another scotch and we would go on griping about douchey author things.

Keep things simple to start, adding complexity as you go along. Ask yourself pertinent questions like, "What's the most interesting thing that could have happened in this kingdom's history?" or "What can I construct here that would interest me?"

When it comes to creation, the key is to entertain yourself, because if it doesn't entertain you, it won't entertain the reader. And if you're bored with an aspect of your world, don't ask yourself why it's boring, ask yourself what you ca do to make it interesting.

I read history to get inspired. Everything from the dawn of mankind to Marcus Aurellius's Roman era to medieval times. History is just so interesting and can show us authors a path we never would have even thought of.

Yeah. I was determined not to fail again. My first career in music tanked along with Myspace. I vowed not to half-ass my attempt with authoring, hence studying the craft of writing like a first-year med student. I took it very, very seriously and studied the industry for almost two years whilst editing the living hell out of my book.

I'm going to stick to the world I created because I love it. As to different characters, there's an old woman in my world named Anna Atticus Stone who everybody loved (and I loved writing about). I want to write at least one book from her point of view because she is so bad ass (they didn't call her "The Arcane Artist" for nothing!).

But I will also write another series about my beloved trio, Augum, Bridget and Leera, who I never tire of.