Understanding the process by which your brain generates stories is to understand something intrinsic to your own person. To be able to see the sequence of events which led to a short story or a novel – which created characters to act and speak and live: which created a scene, or scenes, or perhaps an entire world in which they could have their existence, and which then set up the mechanisms of a plot that would drive these characters through this world… if we knew exactly how we did it, then we might be able to do it better. And it might even get to be easier.
Of course, everyone has a different process. In general terms, writers are often split into ‘architects’ who plan everything before they start writing, and gardeners, who start with the seed of an idea, water it, and watch what comes up! Most of us will fall somewhere on a spectrum between the two, and many of us might slide up and down that spectrum depending on what approach works best for our current project.
I’ve always preferred to think of myself as an explorer. Not a well organised one who prepares carefully and follows a plan. I’m more of an eccentric Victorian adventurer: one who comes across a fragment of roughly drawn map and immediately packs a sandwich, selects a stout walking stick, and marches off into the jungle to discover a lost city or a buried treasure.
That’s me, writing. I have a place to start from, I have a rough idea of where I want to end up, the rest I’ll work out on the way. I very often don’t know where the stories going more than a few pages ahead (it’s a very thick jungle) – at least at the beginning. By the time I’ve got a little way in, the outline of the journey starts to become clearer. But there’s plenty of scope for surprises along the way.
And that, I find, is how I like it and how I work best. I have tried planning things out more carefully – it would be a much more precise and efficient way of going about things. But if I over-plan it, I find I get bored with the story and run out of interest. I’m in it for the adventure.
But this is the process of writing. I still haven’t answered the question of where these stories come from. In terms of my slightly mad explorer, where did I find that fragment of map that started the whole thing off?
In many cases, I’ll probably never know. Whatever inspiration set off the writing process is so deeply buried, in past time and in my subconscious, that I have no chance of digging it up again. But sometimes something comes to light: sometimes I can say ‘That’s where it started!’
Take, for example, the Empire of Silence. (Spoiler alert: reading this reveals a bit about the plot.)
So far, there are two novels in my ‘Empire of Silence’ series. The first, ‘The Empress’s Lover’ (not as raunchy as it sounds – sorry!) was published back in 2013. I started thinking about a sequel straight away, but progress was slow, and ‘The Hidden Libraries’ didn’t appear in public until last year – December 2021. Both are set in the Eskarin Empire (The Empire of Silence). And central to the plot of both are the Gifts.
The Gifts are empathy, strength and longevity. By them the ruling class - the First Order - have retained power for centuries. But in the time of my books, those gifts are failing, the First Order are losing control, and the Empire is on the verge of chaos.
The key to saving the Empire is to restore the Gifts, but the truth about them has been suppressed for so long that it is almost forgotten. Only a humble religious order remembers where the Gifts came from - and why they were given.
In ‘The Empress’s Lover’, the Friar Thylan tells the Empress Anatarna the story of Kerranard, who was the first King in the Land, long before it became an Empire…
“Kerranard came to his coronation with some reluctance, as his own journals record. He felt inadequate for the task. For though he had forged a peace between the tribes, he knew full well how fragile that peace was. There were deep and bitter hatreds still held, born of the many years of war and bloodshed. The unity he had created was held as much by fear as by trust, for none of the tribes could risk being left outside the new kingdom.”
“Kerranard himself felt a deep love for all the people, all the tribes, not just his own. He knew that that love was not shared by others, and he doubted his own ability to hold together the alliance he had created. It is written that he came alone to Eskarin, the night before the coronation, and at Mirrion’s shrine set himself to pray through the night, seeking some wisdom, seeking a way by which he could hold the tribes together. Some way by which the new kingdom might be founded on trust and love, instead of fear and suspicion. He fasted and prayed throughout the night: and sometime in the last hours before dawn, fell into a deep sleep. And in that sleep, he dreamt that God spoke to him, saying that his prayers had been heard, and his heart was known. Therefore, he would be granted a gift to help him rule: but he must choose what it should be.
Kerranard pondered this for some time, considering what he should best ask for. And then he besought God that he should be granted one thing only: that the people should know his heart for them. For he reasoned that if they understood his love and his desire for their blessing, it would overcome fear and distrust.
God was pleased with his answer, and said this – I quote from Kerranard’s own words, recorded in the Hidden Writings… ‘I will grant it to you, that all whom you love shall know your heart towards them: and moreover, that those who love you, their hearts shall be known and open to you. This I grant to you and to your descendants for as long as love abides and hearts are true. And, since you have asked this for the blessing of your people, and not sought wealth or strength or honour for yourself, I will also grant you long life, beyond that of other men, and a fullness of health and vigour throughout it, that you may rule your people well and wisely for many years hence.’ ”
This is the key to the Empire, and the basis for the entire ‘Empire of Silence’ series.
But now compare it with this passage from the Bible (1 Kings Chapter 3, NIV):
5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
6 Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.
7 “Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11 So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. 13 Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both wealth and honour—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. 14 And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.” 15 Then Solomon awoke—and he realized it had been a dream.
It seems like Solomon had made a good choice. Certainly, God thought so! But even so, was it the best possible choice?
The problem was, his famous wisdom, his Gift of discernment, did not prevent him from falling into sin. Towards the end of his reign, it all went a bit pear-shaped for Solomon. His immense wealth and power corrupted him. Tensions were created that, in his sons reign, tore the nation apart.
What should he have asked for? What Gift could he have been given that would have worked better than wisdom?
I wondered about that a long time ago. And the Empire of Silence was my attempt to offer an answer: Love is better than Wisdom.
(Feel free to debate the point! In fact, I’d be delighted if you did - there’s no greater compliment to a writer than that what they wrote made people think).
But that was the starting point, the fragment of map that led me off into the jungle.
From an obscure passage of scripture I grew an Empire. Which is a grand way of describing a whole lot of daydreaming, but that’s what authors do!
And that is where stories come from.