How Ian Irvine writes Australian

This Interview was originally on Suite 101

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/write_australian/71661

 1. Your series "The View from the Mirror" is complex and extensive. Could you tell us something about its genesis?

It goes way back to the 1970's, when I was supposed to be writing my PhD thesis (on pollution in the bottom of Sydney Harbour) a task which, you can imagine, one is easily distracted from. I'd only been reading fantasy for a few years at that stage, having switched over from my initial love, SF. I became rather involved in worldbuilding, creating my own worlds from first principles (continental drift and so forth) and equipping them with ecosystems, peoples and ten thousand years of history. I'd begun writing some years earlier, a contemporary novel, but found I had little to say.

I did a lot of work on the history of my worlds while travelling around Europe in '79, and it was a natural step from there to writing some scenes set in that world. One of those I subsequently used in The View from the Mirror Quartet (Chapter 27 of Dark is the Moon, for those who are interested in such things). Subsequently life overtook me and what with work, children and renovating the most decrepit old house in Sydney I did no more writing for six or seven years. It wasn't until '87 that the creative urge burst out and I began A Shadow on the Glass, the first of the quartet. I worked on the series continually for twelve years, doing draft after draft of one book, putting it aside while I worked on the others, then redrafting again and again. It's a way of working which suits my character, and results in the complex and intricately interwoven books I write.

2. Do you find readers hesitate when pronouncing some of your coined names such as Karan, Aachan and Llian? Could you explain your naming scheme?

I often hear readers pronouncing the names wrongly, which is fine by me; sometimes I pronounce them wrongly myself. There is an indicative guide to pronunciation in the back of each book but I don't expect readers to pay much attention to it. I wouldn't say that any of the names in my book are difficult by the standards of fantasy (or Russian novels for that matter). The principal rule is that all letters are pronounced, so that Llian becomes L'lian rather than simply beginning with a long 'l'.

I haven't gone to exhaustive lengths to develop naming systems for individual races or for the four species of humans in the quartet, as some authors do (eg Tad Williams does it brilliantly in his trilogy beginning The Dragonbone Chair). Perhaps I should have but one can't do everything.

3. This cycle of books has different species of humans. Would you tell us a little about these?

There are four human species, of which the first three are long-lived and powerful while the fourth, old humans, are much like us. The species are:

€ the mostly tall and mostly dark Aachim, who originally inhabited the small gloomy world of Aachan, a place of jagged volcanic ranges, impenetrable rifts, oily bogs and darkly luminous blossoms. They are a brilliantly creative species, great architects, designers and builders, though melancholy. They can also be arrogant with a tendency to hubris. One of their clans, though, are different; small, pale of skin and red of hair. Karan is descended from this clan, Clan Elienor.

€ the Charon, also big people who came fleeing out of the void between the worlds, on the edge of extinction and desperate to have a world of their own. Just a hundred of them survived and they (The Hundred) took Aachan from the Aachim and enslaved them. But they could not thrive on Aachan, could not reproduce there, so they looked to another world ...

€ The Faellem, a small dour people who shun technology but are masters of the Secret Art. They inhabit the world of Tallallame, an unspoiled paradise. They believe that the universe is but an illusion made by themselves. But they also have a shameful secret.

€ Old humans, who dwell on the world of Santhenar. Thousands of years ago Rulke the Charon came to Santhenar, searching for the stolen Golden Flute, a device that could open the Way between the Worlds. He brought a host of Aachim with him, as slaves, though many later became free and built their magnificent lost cities in the mountains. The Faellem, led by Faelamor, also came to Santhenar at that time, to restore the balance.

Now, thousands of years later, all four human species dwell on Santhenar in an uneasy peace. There are also blendings, people descended from more than one human species. Most are mad, but some can have extraordinary talents. Karan is one of them.

4. How satisfied are you with your "Mirror" cycle? Did you achieve what you wanted?

It began so long ago that I can hardly remember what I wanted, except to tell the best story I could, a really long one (I've always thought that the main failing of The Lord of the Rings was that it was too short). I don't begin a book with a fixed idea of what it will be about, or what its theme will be. I've tried plotting out books in advance but that often feels 'made up' so these days I just start at page one and write like fury, making it up as I go along, until I've finished the first draft. That's when the real work begins. I guess I am pretty satisfied with the Quartet though I'm aware that it's far from perfect, and if I were writing it now I'd do it differently. Fortunately it's out there, in print, and after twelve years of it I desperately needed a break. Torment would be having to redraft it now.

As a writer all I really want to do is entertain people, and judging by the sales and the mail I get it has entertained a lot of people. I also wanted to write for the world market, not just for Australian audiences. That ambition is on the way with the quartet being published in the UK, US and in translations. The new fantasy trilogy which I am presently writing has also been sold to the UK, so I guess I am achieving what I wanted.

5. Are you the same Ian Irvine who writes cooking books?

No; I haven't come across him. Nor am I the Ian Irvine who is an academic and poet in Victoria.

6. What books do you enjoy reading, aside from your own?

I don't read my own books once they've been published. Perhaps I will in ten or fifteen years time, just to see what I think of them. I read very widely, in just about every genre except horror, which I have an aversion to. Fantasy/SF writers I like include Tad Williams, Jack Vance, Ursula le Guin, CJ Cherryh. I also like the sea stories of Patrick O'Brian, the novels of Robertson Davies. I enjoy romance occasionally, also the so called 'chick books' genre (Bridget Jones etc), the occasional techno-thriller as long as they have real characters. I also read a lot of non-fiction: science, history, astronomy, whatever.

7. If you were advising a new writer, what would you say?

It's difficult to give advice to others because everyone works in a different way. Some writers plan literally everything in advance before they begin, and know everything about their characters. Others make it up as they go along. Some writers do a quick draft and lots of redrafting, while others might spend 6 months writing the first draft, polishing continually as they go along, then tidy it up and it's finished.

If you want to write, just write. I mean, don't spend too much time thinking about it, just start. Put your characters in a difficult or problematic situation and write them out of it, then put them in another one. Write a bit every day, if you can. Don't look back over what you've written, because the editor that lurks inside every writer will find so much to hate that it'll put you off writing. Keep going, as fast as you can, to the end, then don't read it for a few days or weeks or months. Then start from the beginning and read it all the way through. You'll find a lot you don't like, but also a fair bit that you do, so then you can start on the real part of writing, which is revising over and over again until you're happy with what you're written.

It takes me (and most writers), the best part of a year to produce a finished book. The first draft of a 600 page book takes me a couple of months, but by the time I send it to my editor I will have done another five or 6 drafts, starting at the beginning and working to the end. It's the rewriting that produces the quality, I reckon.

Joining a writer's group or taking a creative writing course can also provide useful feedback, though I've not done either.