That’s a great question to kick
off with – a book is rarely just about the main character.
Let’s start with Kai, who is my
main character. Kai is non-binary, about 22 years old, and a drummer in a local
band in a Thames Valley town not far outside London. Kai is extremely private,
and does not have pronouns. Kai is not in a relationship – through choice – and
is still grieving for a lost parent (see how I avoid using a pronoun).
Lars is gay, half-German,
half-Danish, living in Berlin and working as an administrator and guide in the
Stasi Museum. His mother lived in East Germany, and escaped with the help of a
Danish sailor. Lars was born on the day the Berlin Wall fell. Emotionally, he
is the opposite of Kai – very open, vulnerable.
Dom is bi, born in Belgium, but
living in Paris. By day she works in a department store and by night she is
building a career as a singer. When Kai’s band advertises for a new singer, Dom
replies and gets the job. She’s a top-notch blues singer, very attractive,
flirts with her audiences – male and female. She is great at getting people to
open up about themselves, but avoids giving away much about herself.
The ‘A’ story is that Kai’s band
has just lost its singer, and they have to find a replacement singer (and a
driver) so that they can tour Germany in two weeks’ time. Dom answers the ad,
and will meet them on the way to their first gig. We follow the band through
the tour, as the band gels and grows from one gig to the next. As the band
approaches the final gig, they have a studio booked, and hopes of catching the
eye of a record company. Anything to escape from the Thames Valley town.
The ’B’ story is Kai’s journey
from unresolved grief, to the beginning of healing, learning to trust a special
‘someone’. But will that be Lars or Dom?
Taking the story from a concept to
a published book is a long and involved process. How does that usually work for
you?
I wish there was a ‘usually’.
But I do have two published novels – Expiration Day (Tor Teen, 2014) and
Teardown (NineStar Press, 2024).
Expiration Day was the 4th
or 5th novel I’d completed, since starting to write in the late
1990s, and in hindsight it was probably the first one that had a realistic
chance of publication. Someone (Ray Bradbury?) said that your first million
words are rubbish (I paraphrase). For me, it wasn’t a million words, but it was
certainly 300,000 words. But then, I’ve not reached the excellence of Ray
Bradbury either.
Anyway, by the time Expiration
Day came along, my writing process was well established.
For a single novel, I find the
following is approximately my process:
Pass 1 - get a basic story from
act 1 to act 5. There will be huge plot holes and inconsistencies unresolved.
This is, however, the pass where I build character profiles as I go. It's part
of why I use Scrivener. Many writers say this is the pass when you tell
yourself the story, and the remaining passes are where you learn how to tell it
to an audience.
Pass 2 - resolve the plot holes,
the motivations, maybe add, combine or remove characters. Diagramming tools (Scapple)
may help me visualize the structure. Manuscript (MS) stays about the same
length.
Pass 3 - trim the opening, which
always has far too much scaffolding (infodumps, telling). Build in the full
sensorium - 'paint' the white rooms in colour, texture, taste and smell.
Despite the early culling, the MS will grow overall.
Pass 4 - Intensity mapping -
where are the dull scenes, where does the novel drag, where does it get so
intense that the poor reader will need a break? This is where stuff gets
chopped.
Pass 5 - Readbility, using tools
like MS Word’s text-to-speech, hemingwayapp.com. Spotting places where dialogue
attribution is unclear (or just wrong). Few changes to overall length.
Pass 6 - spelling and grammar.
Few changes to overall length.
Then beta readers. Then revise
based on feedback. Then (maybe) submit. But more likely, I’ll involve an
external editor to give professional (developmental) feedback. For Teardown I also engaged a
sensitivity reader to advise (teach) me on matters LGBT+.
As I’ll always leave 2-3 months
between passes, that can easily take 2-4 years (pass 1 can take 1-2 years
alone).
Consequently, at any one time
I’ll have ~3 novels on the go: one in first draft, one that I’m actively
submitting, and one in revision (one of the later passes, or perhaps working on
feedback from beta or submission). There may also be short stories in the mix
as well, but let’s keep it simple. Having lots of works out on submission is my
solution to handling rejection.
And once I get a ‘hit’…
Expiration Day went through Tor
Teen’s slush pile, and I got a Revise and Resubmit in 2010. I did the R&R
and got an offer at the end of 2012. Final publication was in April 2014.
Teardown was also a direct
submission, to NineStar, and I got an acceptance. It was somewhat quicker, but
still most of a year from acceptance in January 2024 to publication in December
2024.
For each book, the
post-acceptance process was roughly the same. First of all, there were a few
changes requested, before the manuscript was formally accepted. In the case of
Expiration Day, the big one was cutting the last 40,000 words, to make it work as
YA. In the case of Teardown, it was to remove tense shifts, foreign language
use, and strengthen the ending. It felt like these were tests, to see how
amenable I was to making changes. I think I passed, because in both cases we
proceeded to a further ~3 rounds of developmental editing, a copyedit pass and
proofedit pass.
In both cases, the book gained a
new title. There would be cover design, writing blurb copy and planning
publicity, all of which I was involved in. And ARC proofreading.
Which of your books would you
recommend for readers to choose first if they’re new to you and your books?
Expiration Day is well-suited
for YA and SF audiences. Teardown is for folks who like their fiction rooted in
contemporary reality, and who enjoy a romantic focus. Both are great if you
like stories about bands and music.
We are very curious about your writing process. What is a typical writing day like for you?
I think a common feature of
writing days is that they start with reading, preferably someone else’s fiction.
I make a point of reading contemporary (living, active) authors. Some of that
is looking for good writing, seeing how other writers build their worlds, use
imagery – things I can learn from. It’s also a way of supporting other writers,
by buying their books, and being able to recommend them to my friends.
Some of that reading comes from
my peer-critique group. I run one of the British Science Fiction Association’s
Orbit groups where I and four other writers submit 5,000-ish words of our
work-in-progress to each other’s critiquing every 2 months or so.
Sometimes I’ll do editing for
other writer-friends. That might be developmental editing, but I’ve also done
full copy-edits on one friend’s works.
The true writing parts fit into
a 1-2 hour slot. That used to be after midnight, once the family were all abed.
These days, having left the world of 9-to-5, I have more flexibility. I
prioritise:
1)
Do I have any yellow
sticky notes from the previous night? I get a lot of ideas after I go to bed,
so there’s always pen and paper at the bedside. Decipher and process those.
2)
Do I have any urgent
editing deadlines?
3)
Do I have any
feedback (e.g. from the critique group) to process
4)
Otherwise, I’m free
to work on the active novel
What trope have you not written
yet but want to?
Time travel. I’ve written short
stories that explore time travel, but I have a yearning to do time travel at
novel length. In this genre I really enjoyed ‘The Other Valley’ by Scott
Alexander Howard, which played with the genre in a rather unusual way.
I have written some opening
chapters for a time war novel set in 1857, the year of the first Indian War of
Independence, which I hope to re-start.
How do you approach character
development in your stories? Do you have any specific techniques or methods
that you find particularly effective?
Noting my earlier remarks about
the ‘A’ story and the ‘B’ story, I have found the approach of Jessica Brody’s “Save
The Cat! Writes a Novel” very helpful. The idea here is that the ‘A’ story is
about the events, the threats, the in-your-face parts of the story. It’s the
problem the main character has to solve. The ‘B’ story is about getting the MC
from their generally-flawed initial state to a new state, where they have the
skills, the mindset, whatever is needed to resolve the ‘A’ story
satisfactorily. It’s a journey, and it's mostly internal. It’s the job of the
‘A’ story to provide incrementally more difficult challenges to get the MC
prepared to face the dragon.
What do you believe sets your
writing apart from others in your genre, and why should readers choose to read
your books?
For Teardown, I bring the
authenticity of having been in a band, of writing songs, of touring Germany and
getting into (and out of) scrapes along the way. And talking of writing songs,
the novel has 5 original songs. And they are songs, not simply poems, because
I’ve recorded demos of each of them, and readers can listen to them over on my
website https://bit.ly/TeardownMusic
Can you discuss any upcoming
projects or books that you're currently working on? What can readers expect
from your future works?
My current WIP is a contemporary
portal fantasy with witches, loosely inspired by the Wizard of Oz (film, rather
than the book). The main character is Jessica, raised in our world, and working
as a Project Manager. Expect:
·
Warring witch clans
·
Discovering special
powers
·
Usurper witch-queen
·
Leonids
(not-cowardly lions)
·
Centaurs
·
F/F
·
Colliding universes
TEARDOWN
William Campbell Powell
GENRE: LGTB+ Romance
Growing up in a dead-end, Thames Valley town like Marden Combe, Kai knows there’s no escape without a lot of talent, hard work—and luck.
Two weeks before the Clayton Paul Blues Band plans to set out on tour to Germany, their singer quits, and drummer Kai takes matters in hand. With bandmates Jake and Jamie, they recruit a talented new singer—the enigmatic Dominique—as the new face of the band and set out on the road to Berlin in a rickety white van.
Dogged by mishaps and under-rehearsed, the band stumbles through their first shows, zig-zagging between chaos and brilliance. But as the first gig in Berlin draws near, the band begins to gel. They’re clicking with their audience, and even the stone-hearted Kai starts to crumble under the spell, first of Dom and then…of Lars.
As the end of the tour approaches, Kai must make hard choices. Dom? But she’s keeping a dark secret. Lars? Not after the acrimony of their last parting. The band? Or will that dream crumble too?
Buy
Links: https://teardownbook.co.uk/#where
The book will be on sale for $0.99
Excerpt Two:
So I pulled the mic stand around to the side of the kit, set it up so it didn’t get in the way of the hi-hat, and we gave it a go. I picked ‘I Come from the Blues’, which was one of Clay’s compositions. It had fallen out of the set sometime in the last six months, but I loved Clay’s soft, jazzy butterscotch vocals on it. If it had been up to me, it would still be in the set, but Clay had said he wanted to move on.
Where did I come from? I come from the blues.
Where am I going? I’m going to lose.
Where is my future? I’m sure I have none.
Where is my hope? My hope is all gone.
I’ve always sung along—off-mic and under my breath—so I didn’t have any trouble fitting the words in the right places. And I’ve got decent pitch and rhythm. So I think I did all right.
Now, Jamie wouldn’t meet my eye.
“What?” I demanded. “What was wrong with that?”
He mumbled something.
Jake looked away. He didn’t want to get involved in any squall between me and my brother. Besides, he’d used up all his words for the day.
“I’m not sure how to put this, Kai. You’ve got a good voice. It’s, well…not very, well, rock’n’roll. No…grit. Too pure. Sorry.”
“I see.”
“Look, we’ll ask around our friends. Social media. There’s got to be something online.”
I didn’t say anything. I was thinking lots though. About how
I’d discovered that this was something I really wanted to do.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
William’s latest novel - TEARDOWN - was published 10th December 2024, by NineStar Press in the US; it is an LGBT+ romance/road-trip.
His
short fiction has appeared in DreamForge, Metastellar, Abyss & Apex and
other outlets.
By
day he writes software for a living and in the twilight he sings tenor, plays
guitar and writes songs.
My
websites: https://williamcampbellpowell.com/
Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WillCamPowell/
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/willcampowell
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/willcampowell.bsky.social
My comps for the book:
The novel combines elements of LGBTQIA+ romance with Road Trip fiction, and - with its focus on music - might sit alongside Taylor Jenkins Reid’s ‘Daisy Jones and the Six’ (2016) or Dawnie Walton’s ‘The Final Revival of Opal & Nev’ (2022), or - with its focus on (Kai's) gender-ambiguity and relationships - near Camille Perry’s ‘When Katie Met Cassidy’ (2018) or Beth O’Leary’s ‘The Road Trip’ (2022).
One
USP: The book is about a band and contains original songs, for which I have
created demos – see/listen: https://williamcampbellpowell.com/music/music.html
