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Ah, June 5, 2006. I remember it like it was exactly eight years ago.
This was the day I wrote the very first line of Goblin War [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy]. A historic day, one which should be remembered and celebrated for centuries to come!
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At this point, I’m waiting on a few story critiques, as well as comments on Goblin Hero from my editor. So I figured, what better way to hurry things along than to start something else? That way I’m sure to get an interruption soon 
So today, I wrote the first line of Goblin War. Then I wrote some other lines, but that didn’t feel as significant. Something about putting down those first few words … I’m really doing it. I’m really starting another novel. There it is, with Jig’s name and everything.
I also did a bit more brainstorming about a problem. See, in Goblin Quest, the goal is a big powerful toy with enough magic to make a man (or a goblin) pretty dang powerful. But once such a toy exists, it’s a part of your world, and you have to consider it when you’re writing further stories. Big, scary bad guy? Use the toy and blip them out of existence. Suddenly your big, challenging novel becomes a one-page short-short.
In book two, there’s a logical reason why this toy can’t be used. It’s a slight stretch, but it works. I may have to make it more clear, I don’t know … we’ll see what the editor says.
Not so for book three. My whole plot outline was set up by ignoring that magical toy, and that’s cheating. Star Trek used to do that … Kirk and Spock steal a cloaking device, but never bother to use it. They build a nifty new engineering toy, then forget about it in the next episode. That’s just dumb.
But then today I figured out how to take it out of the equation. It’s not cheating, and in fact it’s perfectly consistent with the various characters and their motivations. Plus it’ll be funny. So that’s a bit of a relief.
And to celebrate, I give you the first line of Goblin War. (Which may change when I come back and rewrite, but that’s okay.)
Goblin war drums wouldn’t be so bad, Jig decided, if the drummers could only stick to a consistent beat.
Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.
What is Goblin War about?
