Christopher Paolini, the author of the Inheritance Cycle and the short story collection The Fork, the Witch and the Worm, will release his first adult novel this fall. entitled to sleep in a sea of stars, he leaves tor books on september 15th. To celebrate, the writer took to r/books, where he described the new book as his “love letter to science fiction, just like eragon was.” my love letter to fantasy…full of spaceships, lasers, explosions…and of course, tentacles!!!” In the ensuing amazon, he discussed the new novel, compared fantasy writing to science fiction, poked fun at future books, offered plenty of writing and editing advice, and much more. here are the highlights!
on why it seemed to take “so much longer” to write to sleep in a sea of stars than the cycle of inheritance:
You are reading: Is christopher paolini writing any new books
because it took much longer. partly because it’s a long, long book. (Longer than Inheritance. Longer than all but three of Stephen King’s books, following this link) Partly because I had to learn a lot about science to do justice to the story I wanted to tell. partly because I worked on other projects during that time. but mostly because I had to relearn how to tell a story. after so much time working on the inheritance loop, my tracing skills got a bit rusty.
hopefully, future projects shouldn’t take that long. I developed the fork, the witch, and the worm in no time, and my next projects are already scheduled.
on whether sleeping in a sea of stars takes place in the same universe as eragon:
no comments. :d
on whether the book is “hard science fiction”:
hard (more or less). there is a solid scientific basis for the story (which I expand on in some earlier material), but the story itself is not dependent on science. he’s more concerned with the characters and what they’re dealing with.
on his process of writing novels:
Honestly, I just take a bunch of notes. it’s hard enough to keep all the details of a great novel in my head, so I write everything down. due to the size of these novels, I tend to work in layers. the first layer could be looking at the general setup (aka world building). the next layer could be the story of the main character. the next layer could be the secondary characters. and so. similarly with writing. it’s almost impossible to pay attention to all the layers/details on the first pass. that’s why we reread and edit.
on useful books for young writers:
style by f. yo lucas the best book on prose style i have ever read. also shakespeare’s metrical art. best verse book for something different try the old l engineers. sprague de camp (I think that’s the book I’m remembering).
about his favorite books:
Too many to list, but I’m a big fan of classic sci-fi and fantasy. Some lesser known ones that I often recommend are the Gormenghast Trilogy, Walton’s Mabinogion Tetrology, and Eddison’s Ouroboros Worm.
about what you are reading right now:
I have a mountain of reading, not a lot. right now i’m reading the way of cormac mccarthy. last year i really enjoyed kings of the wyld. could read house of leaves below.
about his future writing career and if he feels “shod” as an author:
writing still inspires me. but I must say that I really, really, really want to work on something new. sleeping in a sea of stars took up much more of my life than I expected. and no, I do not feel shoes. the new book is for adults, and I don’t think readers will have any problem accepting me as an adult author.
The good thing about early success is that it gives you the freedom to try whatever you want without fear of failure. It’s like… whatever I do in the future, I can always point to the inheritance loop and say, “I did that.” on the other hand, I may never match what I accomplished in that series. but you know… okay. I am happy to have had this experience.
See Also: Alex Erickson – Book Series In Order
on whether you prefer to write fantasy and science fiction over other genres:
not me! I really enjoy stories in all different genres, and I want to write quite a few of them myself. It took me so long to write my big fantasy story and then my big science fiction story. LOL. One of the good things about my collection of stories, the fork, the witch, and the worm, is that it allowed me to write different kinds of stories while remaining in the fantasy genre.
That said, I will always have a particular fondness for fantasy. it’s our modern mythology, and I think the liberties that fantasy allows give the genre a power (or the potential for power) that few other genres possess.
on making the rules of magic realistic:
The only real break from physics that I had with my magical system was the assumption that living things could directly manipulate different forms of energy with their minds. that is all. that’s magic everything else follows directly from that assumption. and as best I could, I tried to be consistent with that assumption.
About the ancient language in the cycle of inheritance:
the old language is partially based on Old Norse, which gave me a good starting point. i did this (a) because it was easier, and (b) because when i read dragonbone chair by tad williams, he used a bunch of old english/anglo saxon words that were close enough to modern english words that i could understand what they meant tell. That tickled my brain so much that I wanted to recreate that experience for my readers.
Unfortunately, no, there is no general guide to writing Liduen Kvaedhi. maybe I’ll write it one of these days.
I have a lot more information about the language posted on my website, paolini.net, if you’re interested, including an academic paper some linguistics students wrote about the ancient language. fun stuff.
on future work in the world of the cycle of inheritance:
volume 2 of tales of alagaësia will probably appear sooner rather than later. I have a couple more stories I want to write this year. we will see. It depends on how many promotional things you have to do to sleep.
See Also: Gena Showalter – Book Series In Order
(…)
A prequel has been on my to-do list for a long time. It could be something I’ll tackle as a stand-alone book or it could be something I’d do as a short story in one of the alagaësia short story compilations.
(…) in fact, I want to write an entire book centered on angela. it’s on the list!
if you haven’t seen it, there’s a bit more about angela in the companion book, the fork, the witch and the worm.
about future work in general:
I hope to have something else written this year (depending on promotional commitments). It won’t be out in 2020 though. I can’t tell you what it will be yet, but I’m excited to finally be working on something other than sleep!
in that eragon movie:
The movie was… an experience. the studio and director had a vision for the story. I had another so here goes. That said, the movie introduced a lot of new readers to the series (which I’m glad), and the books themselves haven’t changed.
now that disney owns fox, maybe we’ll see a reboot of the series. especially now that I have a new book.
See Also: Gena Showalter – Book Series In Order
(…)
I’ve been trying to do a reboot for years. hopefully some of the attention the dream is getting will help things get out of hand.
on whether he’s ever “truncated” a novel:
yes. a screenplay, six short stories, a novella and the first two versions of Sleeping in a Sea of Stars. each one hurts, but there is no point in posting something below average.
on advice for new writers trying to get into fantasy:
When anything is possible, constraints become incredibly valuable (and necessary). whatever you choose to do with your story/world…be consistent. the lack of consistency breaks so many stories. Also, learn as much as you can about the technical aspects of writing. will help you convey the story in the best way possible.
on advice for new writers beyond “read a lot and hire an editor”:
plot your stories in advance. make sure you understand the story well enough to be able to tell it to someone else if you need to. if you can’t, then you probably don’t have a real story. that and write about the things you like the most. will help you get through a big project.
on drafts that don’t seem “correct”:
here are many reasons why things might not feel right. it could be because you don’t feel comfortable with your own prose. or, more likely, there are some parts of the plot and/or the characters that you haven’t fully resolved. if you know what each part of a story/chapter/scene/paragraph is supposed to do, you’re much less likely to feel like things are wrong because, again, you know what each part should contribute to the book.
When things are fully figured out, you’ll be able to justify why each part of the book should be there. editing is like defending a thesis. you stand up in front of people and say: “yes, that sentence is necessary because it does x, y, z, and without it, the following problems would arise…”
spend more time plotting. I guarantee you it will be worth it. and good luck!
on editing tips:
editing is difficult. really difficult. The best advice I can give you is:
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- Read your work out loud. if it doesn’t flow or if things aren’t clear, fix it.
- really pay attention to what makes or doesn’t make sense. consistency and internal logic are very important.
- find other people to read your work. Trust your own judgement, but I guarantee other eyes will help you catch things you wouldn’t otherwise see.
- if you start changing things to what you had in previous versions… you’re done.
- don’t give up.
on how centaurs work:
centaurs? Yo. to have. No. idea. That’s why I don’t write about them. If you really want to see a serious examination of semi-plausible centaurs, check out John Varley’s Gaea Trilogy.
on the type of propulsion system he thinks will take the first human to Mars:
a chemical rocket. probably the bfr/starship from spacex. in the long run, a kind of nuclear rocket.
For more, including deep dives into the Inheritance Cycle lore and anecdotes from Eragon’s path to publication, see the full ama on r/books.
See Also: 15 Christian Apologetic Books You Should Read