The Phantom Menace (38 page)

DR: I can’t help feeling it’s more than coincidence that
SW
and
Sword
appeared in 1977 to such phenomenal success. It’s as if both the movie and the novel tapped into something similar in their audiences, a powerful (though perhaps unconscious) need for mythic heroes that other artists of the time simply weren’t recognizing or responding to
.

TB: It was Lester del Rey’s firm belief that publishing was ignoring fantasy as a viable form of commercial fiction. It was believed at that time that only Tolkien would sell to a large market and that fantasy in general couldn’t find a sizable audience. Lester believed the prevailing opinion was wrong. It was with this in mind that he published
Sword
and proved his point. You might argue that
Star Wars
made the same point regarding space opera in movies. Both opened the door to a whole raft of other books and movies grounded in adventure storytelling that turned out to be very successful and changed the face of book writing and movie making. For example, look at how much mainstream fiction relies on fantasy techniques to sustain plot.

DR: By “fantasy techniques,” do you mean the use of magic and similar fantastic elements, or are you referring to literary techniques employed by fantasy writers?

TB: I’m referring to the use of magic or similar fantasy elements. Fantasy writers have no literary techniques. [laughs]

DR: What’s it like to adapt a movie into a book? Do you go through the screenplay line by line, turning it into narrative prose, or is the process less straightforward? How much freedom did you have with
TPM
?

TB: George told me right from the first that he wanted to see me take a different approach to adapting his movie. He had originally thought to tell the story from Anakin’s point of view. Could I do that in the book? I could write new material and have a free hand in adapting the movie. This is a hard challenge for a writer to ignore. I was very pleased to discover how much freedom I was going to have. So the book is actually an expansion of the movie. It begins in a new place and gives us more information on characters and background. Adapting movies into books isn’t as hard as it might seem. Mostly, you have to take a script containing dialogue and some brief scene-setting and expand it. I block out the script into chapters or scenes, then look for a way to do the story. You have to remember while you’re doing this that everything a moviegoer sees on the big screen, you have to describe with words in your book.

DR: You’re no stranger to the bestseller lists; unless I’m mistaken, in fact, all of your books have made the
New York Times
list. But
TPM
was the first to reach #1. Does it bother you at all that a novelization of someone else’s movie did better than your own fiction?

TB: Bite your tongue, Del Rey. As a matter of fact,
Wishsong of Shannara
was a #1 bestseller on the
New York Times
trade paperback bestseller list in 1985. Six of the other books reached #2 in hardback. So I haven’t suffered too badly. Nor would I agree that the
Star Wars
book has done better than my own fiction. I wouldn’t have taken the job of adapting it if I thought that would be the case. There are various measuring sticks of success, and the one I rely on most completely is how close I feel to the material. While I enjoyed doing
TPM
, no way could I ever feel closer to someone else’s material than I do to my own. George would understand this, I think.

DR: Some writers work from an outline that they develop rigorously beforehand and then follow religiously from the first page to the last, while others wander wherever inspiration leads them. What about you?

TB: I’m fairly famous (or infamous) for my stand on this issue. I believe strongly in approaching your work from an outline. I believe, especially with long fiction, that an outline keeps you organized and focused over the course of the writing. I am not wedded to an outline once it is in place and will change it to suit the progress of the story and to accommodate new and better ideas, but I like having that blueprint to go back to. Also, having an outline forces you to think your story through and work out the kinks and bad spots. I do a lot less editing and rewriting when I take time to do the outline first.

DR: A lot of people have the idea that writers work by pure inspiration, waiting for the muse to strike and then churning out a novel in a feverish burst of creativity
.

TB: A lot of people would be wrong. Still, many writers do write on inspiration because outlining just doesn’t work for them. Writers approach their material and their jobs in different ways. But I believe most beginning writers would be better served in their efforts to write something publishable by doing as much preparation as they can.

DR: How should a beginning writer approach the task of outlining a novel, and how specific should that outline be? This is a subject that many creative writing courses don’t address, unfortunately
.

TB: I usually cover this in an hourlong speech. However, in twenty-five words or thereabouts, the best approach is to do a chapter-by-chapter outline that at least hits the high points of the writer’s story arc, considering which characters will appear, what subject matter will be addressed, what point of view will be used, and how each chapter will end. I also favor at least a paragraph workup on each major character. Even before that, I suggest living with your story and characters in your head for a while before you start to write even a single word.

DR:
Angel Fire East
,
the final volume of the contemporary fantasy trilogy that began with
Running with the Demon
and continued in
A Knight of the Word
,
is your latest book. It’s a wonderful title, full of poetry and mystery. How does it relate to the novel? And can you say something about the importance of titles in your work?

TB: Titles are important to me, although I would hasten to say that a lot of mine have been changed by the publisher because they didn’t work in marketing the book.
Angel Fire East
was not changed, and it speaks to the book as completely as the other two titles in the Word & Void series. It comes from a story in the book that a young mother tells her little girl about angels gathering up each night all the love mothers have for their children to give light to the sun at the beginning of a new day.

DR: Were you told that story as a boy?

TB: No, I made it up myself.

DR: John Ross, the Knight of the Word, is a truly memorable creation. Both empowered and crippled by a gift of magic, he is doomed to visit in his dreams a horrific future that will come to pass for all humankind unless he acts now, in the present, to prevent it. His life is one of sacrifice and loneliness, of endless battles fought against the evil servants of the Void. You seem drawn to complicated characters such as this, men and women who are full of contradictions, blessed and cursed with knowledge and power. The Druid Allanon from the Shannara books comes to mind as well. What is it about characters like John Ross and Allanon that interests you as a writer?

TB: Good question. I’m sure extensive therapy will eventually yield an answer. I’m drawn to characters like these, people who are conflicted and full of contradictions. Clearly, they most closely mirror the people we know in real life who intrigue us. I am also drawn to people who are given vast power and responsibility and must wield it wisely. They don’t, always. Sometimes it proves too much for them. Sometimes they fail. It always takes a toll on them, because an exercise of power is emotionally and physically draining by nature. How these people cope, like John Ross and Allanon, offers great opportunities for storytelling and an examination of ourselves and our own lives.

DR: So you are telling more than “just” adventure stories
.

TB: You would be surprised at what I am telling you. But on the most basic level, I am always telling an adventure story first.

DR: What makes a good adventure story?

TB: A good writer. No, I’m serious!

DR: The Shannara series is one of the most popular fantasies since
The Lord of the Rings
,
to which it’s often compared. Do you feel a debt to Tolkien? A sense of competition?

TB: I am always flattered when Shannara is compared to
LOTR
. I don’t think they are all that much alike, save on a very superficial basis. Tolkien was working from an entirely different point of view and place than I am. That being said, he is the master, and virtually every writer working in fantasy today has read him and is indebted to him.

DR: Why then, beyond the superficial resemblance to
LOTR
,
did the Shannara books strike such a nerve with readers?

TB : The Shannara books are big, historical family sagas set in an imaginary world in which magic has replaced science. Their primary strength is in the storytelling. As I’ve mentioned earlier, that was what drew the del Reys to
Sword
in the first place. I think readers like to be taken on journeys to strange, exotic places and made to feel as if they are part of what is happening. They want to experience the excitement and fear and doubt and exhilaration of the book’s characters. I think that’s something I’ve learned how to do.

DR: You’re now embarking on a continuation of the saga, with five new novels forthcoming from Del Rey over the next few years. Can you give us some idea of where you will be taking the series?

TB: The first three books in the new grouping will take us on a journey outside the Four Lands and home again. That’s about all I can tell you. I don’t like talking about books I haven’t written. I think it drains the energy out of them if I do.

DR: Any chance of Shannara being made into a movie?

TB: There is always a chance. Of course, there is a chance I might be elected president, too. Seriously, there has always been interest in the Shannara books, and one day someone might do something with one or more. But they are big, sprawling tales and they don’t lend themselves well to a two-hour format. So movies are a tough medium in which to adapt them. We’ll see.

DR: The Word & Void books might be better movie material. I can picture actors fighting over the juicy role of John Ross!

TB: That was my thinking. I still think that one of these books will get made into a movie before any of the
Shannaras
.

DR: Like John Grisham and others, you were a practicing lawyer before becoming a successful writer. Are all lawyers frustrated writers?

TB: All lawyers are frustrated period. There’s a lot of writing involved in being a lawyer, but I don’t know that it’s necessarily good writing. Nor does being a lawyer always foster good storytelling. No more so than any other profession.

DR: Any advice for aspiring writers—or lawyers—in the audience?

TB: Ten words: “Read, read, read. Outline, outline, outline. Write, write, write. Repeat.”