Interviews/ Views/ Reviews

The WOT Challenge

July 10, 2015 by andygraham Leave a Comment

In June 2014 I decided to undertake The WOT challenge.

In June 2015 I finished The WOT challenge.

Here is my interview about it with . . . err . . . me.

Q. What’s The WOT challenge?

A. Reading all The Wheel Of Time books back to back.

Q. Is that a trilogy?

A. 5 trilogies.

Q. ???????????????

A. Exactly, 15 books (including prologue). It’s a series of high fantasy novels by the late Robert Jordan (pen name of Oliver Rigney Jr.). Completed by Brandon Sanderson after Mr Jordan’s passing, it weighs in at a total of around 4.4 million words.

Q. 12 months reading 1 series of books? Was it worth it?

A. Yes.

Q. Will you do it again?

A. At some point – once I can look at someone with a braid in their hair and not think of the Two Rivers’ Womens’ Circle or see a skirt and not think of ‘smoothing it’ or ‘plucking at it’.

Q. Any regrets?

A. – There was a moment in the middle of the series where I wondered whether I had made the right decision. There were other (non swords & sorcery) books that I wanted to read, I was running out of space on my shelves and there are some passages that drag in places (Valan Luca, I’m looking at you…)

But . . .

Those other books weren’t going to go stale. And for every braid pulling, muttonheaded moment in The WOT there were passages that were gripping. For each dip in the middle of the central books, there was a rise towards the end that carried them over to the next. For every man that would never understand a woman and vice versa (Nynaeve, I’m looking at you…) there were moments of ‘how did he (they) come up with that?’ For every ‘good’ character that we lost, there was an equally satisfying comeuppance for the ‘bad’. And some of the sense of humour (Talmanes, I’m looking at you!) and creativity (e.g. the use of ‘Gateways’ in the Last Battle) towards the end is fantastic.

Q. “It’s all been done before/ it’s a rip off of LOTR/ what’s with the bible references/ it’s a black and white cliche/ just look at sentence X as an example of him being a bad writer…”

A. Blah blah woof woof. Yes. Many of the themes have been done before. Most stories have been ‘done before’, most songs have been sung before. Many stories, regardless of the setting, explore similar themes: loss, alienation, hate, revenge, jealousy and so on. In other words, love – feeling, ‘owning’, the lack of, search for or resentment of love. (And possibly also death and the fear of dying and failure, these fears are arguably very similar). Life and living comes down to one thing – love. All these essential elements of any type of story telling through words, sound or picture are present in The WOT.

And for those of you who are pulling out one sentence as an example of Mr Jordan being a ‘bad author’. Count the number of words in that sentence and then work that out as a percentage of the total number of words in the series.

Q. – Enough teenage cod psychology, back to the challenge! Why did you do it?

A. First reason – I hadn’t found time to read the last book (The Memory of Light) after it was published. When I started reading it I had forgotten some of the details. Logical solution: read everything again.

Second reason – I had given up on fantasy novels, I thought I was too old for them. Then George R.R. Martin became an ‘overnight success’. (1) All of a sudden, fantasy was acceptable again. I gave into peer pressure and read Game of Thrones and really enjoyed it. Yes, GOT is more graphic and realistic than many fantasy novels and has so been deemed by some as more ‘grown up’ (2) and so is ok to read. But for me, it was a logical step to read WOT again. Going back to my formative days as a reader (Druss, Belgarion, Sam Vimes and, yes even you, Frodo Baggins, I may be looking at all of you again at some point).

Third reason – why not? (3)

Fourth reason – a friend of mine had just started the challenge and inspired me to do the same.

Q. As a reader what did you get out of it?

A. A lot of enjoyment.

Q. As a rookie author what did you get out of it?

A. The imagination put into the world building (‘Randland’) and the histories are both inspiring and daunting. As for how the authors managed keep track of the various plots and characters, I have no idea. I have a lot to learn. A lot. Really. Lots…

Q. What was your thought on finishing the series?

A. Is there going to be a sequel?

– X –

1 – I’m being ‘ironical’.

2 – ‘Adult fantasy novels’ sound very different to ‘grown up fantasy novels.’

3 – This post is turning out a little more gushing that I planned. WOT is a fantasy series. It’s not everyone’s thing. I get it.

It’s my house!

July 6, 2015 by andygraham Leave a Comment

A friend of mine recently made a comment about feedback from beta readers and editors:

“It’s your house, you can paint it what colour you want.”

He’s right. You can do whatever you want with your house. You can paint it in an eyecurdling mix of colours. You can fill it with a smorgasbord of cultural goulash. Go obscure, contemporary, cool, sentimental or just ‘you’. Don’t even clean it! It’s your house.

However, if you want someone to rent or buy your house, or even visit from time to time, you may want to tone it down. If you want people to do more than just poke their head round the door, choose a less deafening combination of colours. If you don’t want your visitors to suddenly remember there’s a nicer place a few doors down, batten down your eccentric urges. People complain they get lost in the corridors? Get rid of the sprawling extension.

If your tastes are a little distinct and you want people to look at, eat, listen to or even read what you are creating, remember that not everyone will appreciate your individuality.

That said, standing by your principles and having faith in what you are doing is admirable. I need to do more of it. If more people ‘walked the walk’, the world would be a better place to live in.

A few of the colour schemes clash something awful.

I’ve built my house. I’m now redecorating it. Again. There are a few draughty windows that need fixing and a couple of leaks. Some of the cracks are now showing through the wall paper.

I’ve found a builder to have a look at it and make suggestions. Hopefully, I’ll soon be able to open the doors to the public. Hopefully, that public will want to come back, with their friends.

The great word cull

May 4, 2015 by andygraham 1 Comment

As I mentioned in my last post, the feedback is starting to come in from the ‘beta readers’. It’s been an interesting experience, trying to remain objective (and mature) while my babies are torn to pieces in front of me.

“Why are you capitalising a pronoun after speech marks?” He shouted.

Some of the comments are technical, typos and grammar errors which I missed. Some were careless mistakes. Others were things I wasn’t sure of while I was writing the rough draft and just pushed on in order to get the words down. It’s mildly annoying on a level as I was quietly smug about my grammar not being too bad (another bubble burst). But, it’s all part of the learning curve and avoiding these things in future will save time and make the reading smoother.

You say tomato…

There has been good feedback: “very evocative language”, “I like the plot and characters”; and negative: “too much going on”, “too many people”, “it’s a slow burner but now I’m hooked” (i.e. the beginning is boring). Some opinions have been polar opposites; Dr. Swann has been described as an irrelevance by one reader and one of the most rounded characters by another. Some readers prefer short sentences, others long (though to be fair, a few of my sentences seem to have an allergy to full stops).

Subtle is good. Obtuse isn’t.

I’ve had to explain why X happened or Y said Z. Sometimes the reader had missed something, other times the world which is so clear in my head hasn’t reached the page. But the more explaining I had to do with certain passages, the more I realised I hadn’t achieved what I wanted and needed to rework them.

There have been questions over the motives, reasonings and actions of some characters but all in all the overriding message has been “I enjoyed it.”

I was never expecting the story to come back with no concerns or question marks. Nice though it would have been to have someone say ‘It’s perfect, the best thing I’ve ever read!’, I’d’ve been a little suspicious and it wouldn’t have helped.

I’m immensely grateful to the people who have given me feedback and those that are waiting in the wings. The fairly blunt opinions I’ve had to listen have been both bruising at times and refreshing in an odd way.

Once the last few critiques come in I’ll see where I stand. Then, I’ll have to decide which of my babies (and there are just over 116K of them) I’m going to cut and paste into the great word graveyard in the sky.

Writing pain

May 1, 2015 by andygraham 4 Comments

In my other life I’m an osteopath (think badly dressed chiropractor). I regularly see people with bad backs (1). In the book Lieutenant Franklin hurts his back (have I mentioned recently I’ve written a book?).

Before you read on, please be aware that this is more of an opinion piece on pain science rather than a fully referenced document. It’s also longer than the previous blogs. It does tie in with Lieutenant Franklin, Dr. Swann and the other characters and it doesn’t take a huge leap to see why pain science became part of the plot.

there’s a ‘story arc,’ which is helped by Lieutenant Franklin’s injury.
I’ve been advised to ‘write about what you know about’. (2)
the current ideas as to why things may hurt are important to understand.
one of the themes of the book is myths vs science.

What would happen if a government treated anything non-scientific like alcohol in 1920s America?

I’ve tried to explore this idea in the story. I’ve also attempted to present some current concepts about pain without being too preachy, heavy-handed or ‘ranty’. Given that pain is a great leveler, I think it’s useful if people in pain have an idea of what may be happening. I don’t believe I’ve detracted from the plot too much but I’ve pulled into the mix some concepts in manual therapy which are now being challenged. Keeping it simple, they essentially they boil down to:

In the red corner (“You shouldn’t use that colour, it’s inflammatory and associated with danger. You’re influencing your reader already.”)

The bio-mechanical model of pain
Passive therapy
Posture and movement patterns being directly correlated with pain (they aren’t). (3)
The idea of ‘pain nerves’ (they don’t exist) and tissue damage being solely responsible for pain (it isn’t). (4)
A therapist doing something TO a patient.
Encouraging dependence.

Vs.

In the blue corner (I think you can guess by now which model I prefer).

The bio-psycho-social model of pain
Active therapy and empowerment of the patient with a focus on psycho social elements as well as (not instead of) biomechanics.
The idea that tissue damage is not always solely responsible or needed for pain. Pain is real but it is a perception; an output of the nervous system not an input. (5)
A therapist doing something FOR the patient.
Encouraging independence.

Some of the above may be dismissed as semantics but language is important (says the man trying to write a book). In my next post I’ll teach your grandmother how to suck eggs (see this by Matt Low and this by Martin Bonnevie-Svendsen on Adam Meakins’ superb Sports Physio site on the role of language in therapy).

Our knowledge and assumptions need to be challenged.

There are a lot of grey areas in therapy which are sometimes glossed over or avoided by practitioners. This can be for various reasons, some more benign than others. I don’t think there are many therapists deliberately setting out to mislead patients (though I have met a few I wonder about) but I think there are questions that need to be asked.

Is ‘experience’ a synonym for ‘bias’?

Facing up to questions is not always easy when your career has been built upon a certain set of beliefs, you identify with these beliefs and your income is riding on them. But if you are so insecure that you can’t deal with sensible questioning then you need a new job. You could consider becoming a cult leader charging exorbitant fees in pursuit of enlightenment or a guru selling a ‘new’ treatment or exercise regime (read this by Bret Contreras). We should have moved on from judging a technique’s efficacy on its age, how esoteric or holistic it seems, or purely on the basis that the ‘father’ of the profession had a long white beard. (If that continues, in a few years we’ll have health policy being dictated by ageing hipsters. Or Santa).

Massage makes most people feel good

Partly due to the bio-psycho-social model, my thoughts on what I’m actually doing as a therapist have changed over the years. With these changes have come more questions than answers (I’m hoping this is a sign of progress). These views may change again, though it’ll be easier for me if they don’t.

For the record, I believe that manual therapy is a ‘good thing’. I think it merits a supportive/ adjunctive role in dealing with pain and physical issues. This role still applies even if its efficacy is more due to psychological/ neurological reasons than mechanical. I don’t see this or the placebo effect as negative. The caveat with this is that we need to be honest about what we are doing, what we do and don’t know and open about the limitations. Just like with medicines, a short-term dose is usually ok, long-term treatment should be avoided if possible (unless the massage is just for ‘TLC’).

I’m biased. I use manual therapy in my job. I also teach other people ‘how’ to massage. This means I may not be as impartial as I should be when talking about it, no matter how much I try.

Confused yet?

For a very accessible intro into the bio-psycho-social model of pain, see these links:

Understanding pain: What to do about it in less than 5 minutes? (An animation).

Why things hurt. (A short, humorous TedX Adelaide talk by Professor Lorimer Moseley).

Explain Pain ebook by Lorimer Moseley and David Butler. Not free but HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! (And I hope I haven’t just blatantly plagiarised the book in this blog.)

How does this relate to Lieutenant Franklin, Nascimento, Dr. Swann, Orr and the Rukan bone-setter? In a few months I hope you’ll be able to find out for yourself. The feedback from beta readers is trickling in and I’m cautiously optimistic.

* * *

(1) Not bad backs, PEOPLE with a bad back. Big difference. Backs, whether ‘bad’ or ‘good’, usually have a person attached to them and that person has a brain and a nervous system. A person’s beliefs and expectations are probably more important in pain management than any physical treatment.

(2) I am by no means an expert in this field but I have had experience of dealing with it from both sides of the fence. Anyone who claims to be an expert deserves a respectful grilling. After all, if they’re an expert they should be able to answer the questions (yet should we trust someone who claims to have all the answers?).

(3) There is also a small section on sitting and posture in the book, which has survived the editing so far. In future I may address this in more detail in a blog. For now I’ll simply say that I think a lack of movement is more relevant than sitting itself. When assessed in isolation, ‘poor’ posture is not the same thing as, nor predictive of, pain. See this by Ped Carnicero (have I got your name right?) and this by Todd Hargrove.

(4) Pain nerves don’t exist. Nociceptive nerves exist but these are more like ‘possible problem’ nerves (‘Apollo 13 nerves’) rather than pain nerves. They do not transmit pain, just a warning that something may not be ok. Pain can exist without nociceptive activity.

(5) These are not my descriptions. If anyone can point me in the direction of who said this initially, I will happily reference them.

Mop-bots

March 24, 2015 by andygraham Leave a Comment

A few people have asked what the book is about, so…

It’s a dystopian/ sci-fi story with the tag line:

A brother in search of himself.

I’ve tried to keep it as balanced as a dystopian idea can be. There are no ray guns, precocious teenagers, space ships or aliens (that’s been done much better than I ever could) and it isn’t a whinge-fest ‘them and us’ tale of woe and grievances.

The elements that have wound up in the mix include; ancient Rome, technology, politics, deadlifts, some BJJ, Bucket Towns, The Gates and cleaning robots (mop-bots). Science vs. belief is a major theme and the main character is a soldier – Lieutenant Franklin.

To be honest it’s not the type of stuff I usually read (maybe that’s not the best thing to admit) but I had an idea, started writing and it grew. I’ve tried to keep the sci-fi aspect in the background, it’s part of but not the whole point of the story.

At the moment it weighs in at about 115K words, around 500 pages. I’m reluctant to split it but it needs shearing in a few places, something I’m finding very hard to do.

I’ve completed the first read-through and need a week or two to tidy up some loose ends (Dagmara’s out, Lenka’s in; there are a few too many ‘slightlys’ and ‘slowlys’) and then will be sending it to the beta readers who have kindly volunteered to indulge me in this.

From that point there will be more revisions and (assuming it comes back with vaguely positive feedback) I’ll hand the keys over to a pro to edit it properly.

I am starting to get a little nervous about exposing myself this way but that, in a nutshell, is Franklin (though the title may well change…).

NaNoWriMoNoMo

February 23, 2015 by andygraham Leave a Comment

If NaNoWriMo and the month after were a ball, then the editing feels like a chain. I was very proud of writing over 90K words in 8 weeks but am now dragging my feet as I try and make sense of it.

Current working title ‘Albatross’

I’ve been left with something different and a lot larger than I expected. Some elements are better than I remember, others not so. I was never expecting to have the finished article after the first attempt, especially as a newbie, but sometimes I wonder which careful plan I was following.

The main plot has been clear in my head for a long time but I’m not sure it comes through well enough. The pacing, prose, dialogue and language in general also need work (important details I am told).

A biggest decision so far is going to be deciding how long to make it. Am I going for a German autobahn or a British motorway? Should I try and sacrifice as much of my ‘irreplaceable’ creation as possible to keep it moving or take my time and risk the words spilling across more than one book? I think I have just made the obvious choice but need to live with it for a few days, a trial co-habitation to see how we get on.

The view from your soap box isn’t always as clear as from the ground.

Some sections tend to be a bit ‘ranty’. I think I was using them to get things out of my head that were rattling around and annoying me. The other issue, as with most people, is time. Trying to get stuff done while balancing the conflicting demands of work, children, life and occasionally wife is not always easy. I could stop doing this blog but it is proving a useful exercise; think, write, edit, publish. A more immediate mini-version of what I’m trying to achieve.

In the mean time, my good friend Michael Bolan has just published his first book – The Sons Of Brabant. I had the pleasure of reading the first draft a few months back and look forward to reading the final version. And then picking his brains on how he did it. Repeatedly.

Now back to the ball and chain.

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