As always, The Word On The Street is coming up this September. But the fall can\u2019t get here soon enough! So we sat down with David A. Robertson, author of<\/i> Monsters, the second in his <\/i>Reckoners series. Robertson will be joining us at the festival this year!<\/i><\/p>\n
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WOTS: The first book in <\/b>The Reckoner<\/i><\/b> series was your first young adult novel. What was the biggest difference in writing for this demographic? Was there one?<\/b><\/p>\n
David A. Robertson:<\/b> Yeah, there was definitely a difference. Strangers<\/i> was the hardest book I\u2019ve ever written, because writing YA was so hard. It wasn\u2019t the complex plot or anything like that. It was figuring out how YA works. When I got it, I got it, but it took a lot of trial and error. I actually wrote Strangers <\/i>three times.<\/p>\n
So, I found the big differences were how action-oriented it had to be. I love these long, poetic passages when I write. I love exposition. And I love similes too. My editor gave me a one simile per chapter quota, that I mostly followed. Dialogue was big as well. A lot of dialogue. I got really good at it writing this book. It helped to read all the dialogue out loud, make sure each character talked differently, and every line of dialogue revealed character or advanced plot. By the time I started working on Monsters <\/i>(book 2), I\u2019d gotten the hang of it.<\/p>\n
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WOTS: <\/b>Monsters<\/i><\/b> is the second book in the <\/b>The Reckoner<\/i><\/b> series. How was writing the second book compared to writing the first? Are you expecting any challenges while writing the final book of the trilogy? <\/b><\/p>\n
DAR:<\/b> So, the second book was easier in one way. In the sense, as I said, that I knew how to write YA by the time I sat down and started working on Monsters<\/i>. The challenges for it were different. I really wanted to defy convention, avoid sequelitis, I guess you could say.<\/p>\n
I mean, the second book does expand the world, but it\u2019s more about Cole and his mental health illness. So, it\u2019s more intimate. I wanted to give readers less, when they might expect more, too. Less Choch, less Jayne, but making sure that when they do appear, they have impact. And I think it\u2019s just really hard to write middle books in trilogies. There\u2019s no beginning, there\u2019s no end. So it\u2019s asking a lot to write something compelling when you know there\u2019s no payoff for the reader. And you have to give the reader something really good.<\/p>\n
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WOTS: <\/b>The Reckoner <\/i><\/b>series features traditional Indigenous spirit guides, like the \u00a0trickster. Can you speak to how you explore writing traditional characters into the speculative fiction genre?<\/b><\/p>\n
DAR:<\/b> I\u2019m not so sure that The Reckoner is speculative fiction. It\u2019s more a supernatural murder mystery. But either way, authenticity, even within a fictional realm, was important. Making sure that I did the stories justice, and that I was reviewing these elements with the right people, to ensure that I\u2019d done an appropriate and accurate job. It\u2019s kind of a balancing act.<\/p>\n
One thing I had to keep in mind, was that for some of these supernatural things, they aren\u2019t legends. They are beliefs within the Cree culture that are held as fact. This comes more into play, certainly, with book 2, where the big bad of that story is grounded in Cree culture and history. The trickster spirit, for me, was important to at once do justice to, and also to offer a unique take on. Holding true but standing apart. But, as it turned out, Choch just went and did his own thing anyway. I wasn\u2019t in control.<\/p>\n
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WOTS: What are your favourite places to write? Any quirky must-haves when it comes to sitting down and building out a story?<\/b><\/p>\n
DAR:<\/b> Oh yes. Big time. If you\u2019re talking about literal places to write, like to engage in the act of writing. I am very picky. I need to write in the dark, typically. If I absolutely have to, I\u2019ll write in light if I\u2019m on a deadline and am pressed. But 90% of the time, I\u2019m writing in the dark. I\u2019m not sure why, it\u2019s just how I write best.<\/p>\n
The other thing is that I have to write with a good font, on a computer I\u2019m comfortable with (the keyboard). Probably most important, I need to have good music. And I need to have lyrics with that music. For The Reckoner<\/i>, I had certain artists I listened to a lot. Radiohead. Bon Iver. The National. Those were the bands I listened to on repeat.<\/p>\n
In terms of place, I can write anywhere, as long as I have those things. Dark. Music. Font. Keyboard. Every writer has their quirks in this way, I think. Some writers might not touch a keyboard when it\u2019s dark. They might need sun and a coffee and baroque music. We\u2019re weird.<\/p>\n
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WOTS: Tell us a bit more about your process. How did you start writing? Do you have any favourite stories about when you were just starting out?<\/b><\/p>\n
DAR:<\/b> I first wanted to be a writer when I was in grade three. I\u2019d written this book of poetry called The Bestest Poems I Ever Sawed. <\/i>I wrote it, you guessed it, in the dark. I hid in the closet in my classroom, and banged out about 10 poems. My teacher made them into a book for me. That day, I ran home to my mom and cried out, \u201cMom I want to be a writer!\u201d and ever since that day, that\u2019s all I\u2019ve ever wanted to be.<\/p>\n
My process changes based on what I\u2019m writing, so that\u2019s hard to pin down. If we\u2019re sticking to The Reckoner<\/i>, what I did was write out a very detailed, long form synopsis. Like, 20 pages long maybe. And I outlined every single thing that happened, in sequence. When I sat down to write, I used that outline as a roadmap. This also helped me to maintain continuity.<\/p>\n
The other thing I do is keeping to a quota. So, I\u2019ll usually write about 1250-1500 words per day, when I\u2019m working on a book. When I hit my quota, I stop until the next day. When I\u2019m not writing, I consistently think about my next 1500 words.<\/p>\n
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WOTS: What would you say to a writer who\u2019s just starting out? What one thing do you think it\u2019s crucial to know?<\/b><\/p>\n
DAR:<\/b> Read a lot, and read with purpose. If you\u2019re writing fantasy, read a lot of fantasy. Learn how the best writers do it, so that you can do your work better. And just write every day. Writing well is just like doing anything else well. You need to work really hard at it. I work my butt off, and I\u2019ve done well because of that hard work. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s really a secret. I mean, yes, it helps to have some innate creative talent. But talent only gets you so far. So read, and write. All the time.<\/p>\n
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Want to keep up with the WOTS blog? Sign up for our newsletter <\/i>here<\/i><\/a>!<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As always, The Word On The Street is coming up this September. But the fall can\u2019t get here soon enough! So we sat down with David A. Robertson, author of Monsters, the second in his Reckoners series. Robertson will be joining us at the festival this year! WOTS: The first book in The Reckoner […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":11859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[323,354,356,355,357],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11858"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}