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FAQs - About Ian
- Tell us about yourself, and how you got into writing fantasy.
- How do you write? And why?
- Do you have a set writing routine and if so, what is it?
- Where do you get the inspiration to conjure up such wicked villains?
- Do your stories or characters ever take on a life of their own?
- What messages are you trying to give your readers?
- Do you just write one book at a time?
- What are your writing goals for the future?
- What is uniquely Australian about your writing?
- What’s your favourite of all your books?
- How did you feel when you got your first book contract?
- Have you always wanted to be a writer?
- When you were starting out, which writers did you imitate?
- Do you mentor other writers?
- Do you write full-time?
- What did you do before you were a published author?
- What do you do when you’re not writing?
- Why fantasy? Why don’t you write proper books?
- How is your work different to other writers’?
- What kind of books do you read?
- Who are your favourite writers?
- Who are your favourite characters from your books?
Tell us about yourself, and how you got into writing fantasy.
I grew up in a forest where my dad was the head ranger, and I spent most of my childhood reading books (interspersed with wandering through the bush or climbing trees). We didn’t even have a TV; oh what cruel parents I had!
I was never the least bit interested in writing, then (this was the late Sixties). It didn’t even occur to me that people made a living out of writing books, and I wanted to be a scientist anyway. So I went to uni and studied science (geology and chemistry mainly), though I was more fascinated in the spectacular bits, like explosions and volcanoes and stuff, than I was in knuckling down to the real science.
But I was always interested in the environment (a new thing back then) and I got the chance to do research into pollution in Sydney Harbour, which really suited me, diving down to the bottom of mucky holes that were like diving in a cup of coffee – couldn’t see a thing! – and hammering tubes into the mud with a sledgehammer to get cores I could measure how much of the various heavy metals was in the harbour sediments. You can imagine what it was like, totally black and smelly, with foul bubbles wobbling up past me, and falling prey to all kinds of fears about creatures from the deep taking a bite out of me in the gloom.
But it’s been a great career. I’ve travelled all over the world doing my scientific work, including such great places as Bali, Fiji, Western Samoa and Mauritius (and other places that weren’t so nice), meeting interesting people and doing different jobs all the time.
But somehow, it wasn’t enough. I guess I had this frustrated creative urge about writing, and it kept growing and growing until one day (23 years ago now) I just had to start writing a novel to see if I could do it. And so I began on a book called A Shadow on the Glass, which became the first book of The View from the Mirror quartet, and finally, after years of struggle and rejection, and more than 20 revisions, The View from the Mirror quartet was finally published. That was just about the best time of my life.
How do you write? And why?
It’s different for each book. With The Torments of the Traitor, book 1 of The Song of the Tears, I began with an idea, wrote a brief synopsis, rewrote it many times, expanding and developing it, wrote chapters 1 and 2, which introduce the two protagonists, rewrote the synopsis a few more times, did a variety of analyses of the story and wrote a couple more chapters, then wrote a synopsis of the remaining two volumes. All this took months, but then, when I finally had the whole story clearly in my mind, I wrote the rest of the first draft (150,000 words) in a little over a month.
I like to write first drafts quickly as it turns off the critic (left brain) during the initial creative process. I then analysed the mss and did three more hard drafts, then sent it off for the structural edit. I did a few more weeks on it before I got the editor’s comments, then another six weeks doing a couple more drafts after that, then another week or two after I got the line edit. Total time, full time, about 7 months or ~ 1500 hours.
I’ve experimented with various ways of writing, but the one that works best for me is to do a couple of weeks of planning, then write the entire first draft in a furious burst of creativity over 4-6 weeks, then spend about 5-6 months revising it many times. It’s also the process I enjoy most.
My smaller books I tend to write a bit differently, perhaps because they have few characters and simpler storylines and it’s easier to keep the whole book in mind at once. With The Calamitous Queen, book 4 of Grim and Grimmer, I spent 6 days doing a detailed plan, then wrote the first draft (45,000 words) in another 6 days of 12-hour days. I then spent three days doing the second draft, another three doing the third draft, then sent it off to editing. So, 19 days all up, and yet it’s the best and funniest book of the four, probably because I was working on it so intensively that I was always ‘in the zone’.
Do you have a set writing routine and if so, what is it?
I start writing at around 7 am, most days, and write till lunch time. Then I’ll often have a brief nap and continue writing until 6-6.30 pm. However if I’m really pushing up against a deadline I’ll start at about 5.30 am, and do some writing in the evening as well.
But of course, in my career I’ve had all the other commitments that everyone with a family has, so I haven’t written this intensively all the time.
As well as being pretty much a full-time writer, you have also had a dual career as a marine scientist for the last twenty-five years or so. How on earth have you managed it and are you still taking on consultancy jobs?
I used to write in airports, in hotel rooms in foreign countries (especially in Korea, where I spent a total of 6 months in the Nineties), while waiting for the kids at sporting events etc. And because I’ve had my own business all the time I’ve been writing, if I had no consulting work on I’d simply go to the ‘literary’ side of my office and write.
Since I became a full-time writer eleven years ago I haven’t pursued consulting work and I now only do it for long-term clients. However because the Australian economy is booming, my clients are all busy and I’ve done a lot of consulting in the past couple of years. I’ve had to work long hours to get everything done.
But my children are grown up now and moved away to live their own lives, and my wife is busy etching in her studio, so I have more time to write than I used to.
Where do you get the inspiration to conjure up such wicked villains?
From a wicked mind, ha ha. But also, the heroes of the story have to face villains who are equally strong, or preferably stronger. Readers need to worry about what will happen to their heroes, and weak villains just don’t do the job. Besides, it’s great fun to write about cunning, black-hearted scoundrels, because they’re so different and they’re not bound by the rules. They say and do what they please, and they’re never boring.
Do your stories or characters ever take on a life of their own?
It happens in every book, no matter how tightly I plot it, and the unplanned twists and turns are generally better than the plotted ones. For example, in The Well of Echoes, I knew nothing about Xervish Flydd before he appeared on the page, but the moment he did, he was so alive, commanding, irascible and lusty that he took over and transformed the series.
What messages are you trying to give your readers?
I don’t write books to give people messages or to push my own beliefs or convictions. Personally, I believe this is the death of good storytelling. However of course my stories are informed by my own views about how to live one’s life, and my characters struggle with moral ambiguities all the time. I like to write about characters who are underdogs or unlikely heroes who have to use their own wit, intelligence, courage and determination, plus whatever gifts they have, to overcome the obstacles in front of them and reach their goal.
Do you just write one book at a time?
I wish! Due to the nature of publishing and book deadlines, I’m usually planning one book while drafting another and editing or proofreading another – and writing one or more consulting reports on pollution or ecological risk assessment at the same time.
What are your writing goals for the future?
To write the best, most entertaining books I possibly can. To continue to make a living at it.
What is uniquely Australian about your writing?
Not very much, I suspect, apart from a preference for protagonists who are unusual and underdogs, and a predilection for noble failures and doomed heroes.
I dare say there are elements of the Australian character that make my works different from other writers, though I haven’t deliberately put them in. My eco-thrillers are all set (or partly in the case of books 2 and 3) in Australia and use realm settings. But basically I consider myself a world writer.
What’s your favourite of all your books?
A Shadow on the Glass is my sentimental favourite, because it was the first thing I ever wrote and because I spent so long writing it (more than 20 drafts). I think Scrutator (Vol. 3 of The Well of Echoes) is probably the best book I’ve written. However the series I’ve most enjoyed is Grim and Grimmer, which was just such fun to write. I’m sorry it’s finished.
How did you feel when you got your first book contract?
My feet didn’t touch the ground for six months. It took me seven years to get a publication offer. I had various encouraging letters from publishers over the years between 1989 and 1996, so I felt that I was getting close. In late 1996 Penguin Australia made an offer for the four books of The View from the Mirror.
Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Not at all. I had no interest in writing as a kid; I wanted to be a scientist. I did some writing during my undergraduate years in the early 70’s, a bit more during my Ph. D. in the late 70’s, including a lot of mapmaking and world-building, though I didn’t seriously begin to write until 1987. I’ve been writing hard since that time, and full-time since 1999.
When you were starting out, which writers did you imitate?
None. I’ve loved lots of authors and books over the years, from the Famous Five and Biggles when I was a child, on, but I’ve not tried to imitate any of my favourite authors, and I’ve actively tried not to be influenced by them or their writing styles. The only influences I’m conscious of are storytelling ones, and I consider myself to be a storyteller more than a writer. Great storytelling is my passion.
I haven’t had a writing mentor. I would have liked to, but on the other hand, I think the most important skill a writer can have is to be able to critique their own writing, and that requires a lot of solitary work.
Do you mentor other writers?
I’ve mentored about 10 other writers, either through the NSW Writer’s Centre, or students doing their major work writing project in Extension 2 English in the NSW school leaving exams, or writers I know. It’s a matter of critically reading their work and providing detailed (but sensitive) comments, plus marked up examples of problems in it, and handing it back to them to revise, revise, revise. I’ve also given talks on writing to Year 12 Advanced English students in a number of NSW schools, and was a tutor at one of the Clarion South writing workshops.
Do you write full-time?
Yes, I normally write every day unless I’m doing a consulting job or away on holidays with my family. I do writing-related work for at least fifty hours a week and when I’m working to a tight deadline it can be seventy hours.
What did you do before you were a published author?
I was a scientist working on the effects of pollution on the environment (mainly on the sea) and how it can be prevented. I still do this work, when I have free time from writing books.
What do you do when you’re not writing?
I read books, wander around the garden looking at the weeds and think I should pull some of them out, listen to music, mainly classical.
Why fantasy? Why don’t you write proper books?
I write because I must (ie because of a creative urge that is so overpowering that I go a bit spare when other responsibilities prevent me from doing it). I write fantasy because some of the most enjoyable moments of my life have been reading great works of fantasy, so that’s what I naturally incline to write. And also, let it be said, because my fantasy books sell well and I can make a decent living doing it.
My motivation is to write the best, most entertaining stories I possibly can, for general readers. I consider myself an entertainer and a storyteller and don’t have any particular aim to write literary works, though I do want to write fantasy that is different from the great bulk of epic fantasy being published today, which tends to be very derivative. I want to create my own worlds and take my readers to places they’ve never been to in fantasy.
How is your work different to other writers’?
The settings, which come out of my imagination and my work as a scientist, rather than being influenced by the traditional medieval and European settings of many other popular fantasy writers. The preoccupations, which have nothing to do with good vs evil or other common themes, but more with the struggle between species and peoples for day to day survival in hostile worlds. The people, who are a bit different to the stock characters of traditional fantasy and are portrayed warts and all.
Having spent my life as a scientist working on problems like marine pollution, where it’s necessary to understand how the physical and biological worlds work, I’m sure I see the world quite differently to people who have less analytical backgrounds. I believe this comes across in my writing, particularly in the realism and credibility with which I create fantasy worlds, but also in the way I’ve written about our real world (well, slightly in the future) in my Human Rites eco-thrillers about global warming and catastrophic climate change. In these books I didn’t want to create new worlds, but rather to credibly extend trends in the world of the present into a darker future.
What kind of books do you read?
These days I’m not sure I have a favourite book. I read widely, and a lot of non-fiction as well as fiction. Lately I’ve enjoyed the fantasy novels of Lois McMaster Bujold, such as The Curse of Chalion, Jasper Fforde’s zany novels of a fantasy bookworld (The Eyre Affair, etc) and Max Barry’s satirical future world in Jennifer Government. Also Brian Greene’s The Elegant Universe and Matt Ridley’s Genome.
Who are your favourite writers?
I’ve been reading a lot of kids’ books lately and here are some of my favourites.
- Sabriel and The Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix
- Monster Blood Tattoo series by DM Cornish
- Worldshaker by Richard Harland
- Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn
- The Laws of Magic series by Michael Pryor
- The Spook series by Joseph Delaney
- The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling.
- Northern Lights and The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman.
- Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve.
- The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud.
- The Earthsea series by Ursula le Guin.
- The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien.
I also enjoy the books of Tad Williams, Jack Vance, George RR Martin, Lois McMaster Bujold (the fantasy novels) and Robin Hobb, among many others.
Who are your favourite characters from your books?
It changes all the time, according to what I’ve written most recently. At the moment, Maelys from The Song of the Tears is probably my favourite because she has so few natural advantages to be a hero (she’s small, demure, well-brought-up, and prefers reading to action) and yet she’s such a fighter. She never gives up and she nearly always finds a way out.
I’m also very fond of Ike from Grim and Grimmer, because he’s not really good at anything except drawing, he’s clumsy and awkward and makes lots of disastrous mistakes, but at the same time he’s good hearted and determined.
And not forgetting Karan and Llian from The View from the Mirror quartet, sentimental favourites because they were the first characters I created and the ones I worked longest on.