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various
levels, and to make matters worse, I've also received letters from
teachers who inform me that they're actually encouraging this sort
of thing. Aren't they aware that they're supposed to wait until I'm
safely in the ground before they do this?
The students, naturally, ask questions. The teachers hint around
the edges of an invitation to stop by and address the class. I'm very
flattered, as I mentioned, but I don't write - or grade - term papers
any more, and I don't travel. To put it idiomatically, 'I ain't going no
place; I been where I'm going.'
Then there are those other letters, the ones which rather bashfully
confide an intention to 'try writing fantasy myself' I don't worry too
much about those correspondents. They'll get over that notion rather
quickly once they discover what's involved. I'm sure that most of
them will eventually decide to take up something simpler - brain
surgery or rocket science, perhaps.
I'd more or less decided to just file those letters and keep my
mouth shut. A prolonged silence might be the best way to encourage
a passing fancy to do just that - pass.
Then I recalled a conversation I had with Lester del Rey on one
occasion. When I'd first submitted my proposal for the Belgariad, I'd
expected the usual leisurely reaction-time, but Lester responded
with what I felt to be unseemly haste. He wanted to see this thing
now, but I wasn't ready to let him see it - now. I was in revision of
what I thought would be Book I, and since I was still doing honest
work in those days, my time was somewhat curtailed. I wanted
to keep him interested, however, so I sent him my 'Preliminary
Studies' instead - 'So that you'll have the necessary background
material.' Lester later told me that while he was reading those
studies, he kept telling himself, 'There's no way we can publish this
stuff,' but then he admitted, 'but I kept reading.' We were fairly far
along in the Belgariad when he made this confession, and he went
on to say, 'Maybe when we've got the whole story finished, we
might want to think about releasing those studies.'
Eventually, the two ideas clicked together. I had people out there
asking questions, and I had the answers readily at hand since nobody
in his right mind takes on a multi-book project without some fairly
extensive preparation. My Preliminary Studies were right there
taking up space, I'd just finished a five-book contract, and I had
nothing else currently on the fire. All this thing needed was a brief
introduction and some footnotes, and we were off to press. Just in
passing I should advise you that my definition of 'brief' and yours
might differ just a bit. It takes me a hundred pages just to clear my
throat. Had you noticed that? I thought you might have.)
Please bear in mind the fact that these studies are almost twenty
years old, and there are going to be gaps. There are places where
some great leaps occurred, frequently flowing out of the point of my
pen during that actual writing, and I wasn't keeping a diary to
report these bursts of inspired creativity. I'll candidly admit that
probably no more than half of these 'strokes of genius' actually
worked. Some of them would have been disastrous. Fortunately, my
collaborator was there to catch those blunders. Trial and error enters
into any form of invention, I suppose. This book may help others to
avoid some of the missteps we made along the way, and it may give
the student of our genre some insights into the creative process
something on the order of 'connect wire A to wire B. Warning! Do
not connect wire A to wire C, because that will cause the whole thing