Interview with Rune S. Nielsen - Part 1, Writing
Q: What are you currently working on?
Rune S. Nielsen: Writing the Artifact War fantasy series, currently I’m working on the Arch of the Zhi’el (Book II.) I’m doing PR for the Doomsayer Prince, doing the plot outline for All-Master (Book III), and creating the Doomsayer Roleplaying Game, an original RPG set in the same world as the books. At some point, I plan to do an audiobook version of Doomsayer Prince (when time permits.)
Q: How will I know when the sequel, Arch of the Zhi’el, is out?
Rune S. Nielsen: Please sign up to get a reminder or join my newsletter.
Q: Your novel as called Doomsayer Prince. What is a doomsayer?
Rune S. Nielsen: (noun) A person who predicts or warns about impending disaster.
You sometimes see them in movies or games. Stereotypically a religious person holding up a sign with a warning or preaching to a crowd that the end of the world is near. Some doomsayers claim to have received a divine prophecy.
Q: What is interesting about a doomsayer?
Rune S. Nielsen: I often think that fiction tends to portray doomsayers as someone wrong, fanatical, not in their right mind. I see it in a totally different light: I see a person who dedicates all of their energy and time to warn others about impending disaster. They burn to get their message through to you and me. An extremely interesting character to follow. Who are you to say they are not right? Maybe they just know or sense more than you do.
One modern-day real-world example could be Greta Thunberg. I’m sure she could be really interesting and knowledgeable to talk to.
Q: What kind of fantasy novels do you write? Something like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings perhaps?
Rune S. Nielsen: The Artifact War is an epic fantasy, it’s adult fantasy and has a hard magic system. You might call it high fantasy or quest fantasy too. As such, it’s close to some of the most well-known fantasy books/movies/shows like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire,) but not all that close to Harry Potter—except for being fantasy. Harry Potter has a soft magic system, is low fantasy and young adult fantasy. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it’s simply different, is all.
Q: When did you start writing?
Rune S. Nielsen: I began writing the Doomsayer Prince in 2018. It was published in 2020. I’m a full-time author.
Q: What is your motivation for writing?
Rune S. Nielsen: It's hard being dissatisfied when your work makes you smile. My wife jokes that I became like a priest when I became a writer (at the age of 50.) Spending all my days working on either a novel or some related thing (like writing this). She said I was clearly not as happy before. As a fantasy geek, it’s just a huge privilege to be able to explore your own mind and come up with new fantasy plots and mysteries, do world-building, and write stories (whether they be in the form of novels, or roleplaying games, or something else is not what matters to me.)
Q: Your motivation is not fame and fortune?
Rune S. Nielsen: No, but I do need to eat, and would love to sell a ton of books. That said, I consider myself a success if I live up to the following "I keep writing, I work hard, and I publish what I create."
Q: How can you afford writing full time?
Rune S. Nielsen: I saved up and sold the house to afford this creative journey. Please, support me by buying the Doomsayer Prince.
Thank you, to everyone who supports me :-)
Q: How long will the Artifact War series be?
Rune S. Nielsen: It’s a trilogy, and each book will be about the same size as the Doomsayer Prince (which is about 250.000 words long.) In all this will make it around 1,5 times the size of Lord of The Rings or 0,2 times The Wheel of Time. The sequel will be entitled Arch of the Zhi’el and the conclusion All-Master.
Q: How do you get inspired to write?
Rune S. Nielsen: Story ideas have always come to me, and while I used to mostly smile and ignore them, I began to use the ideas actively when I started roleplaying in the 80'thies. I reviewed both "pen-and-paper and live" RPGs for a national magazine each month during my high school years, and put my ideas into "youth journalism" and the plots I took various groups of players through.
I found that generating ideas was fun and for the most part not difficult (not unless it was three minutes before the players arrived, then it was a race to come up with viable ideas.) I also get inspired from traveling, museums, ruins, medieval fairs, a face, a phrase, a war history, injustices, gender, politics. The list goes on and on.
After having been a GM for maybe 3-4 years I started to free-style plots too, just coming up with whatever would happen in the story when it was needed. Compared to being a writer this was like shifting from being very much the plotter to being a discovery writer only.
The players seemed to like the freestyled sessions just as much, but I liked the more plot-based session better. It simply made it easier for me to know where we were going, and while just freestyling parts here and there was easier, I decided to only do it when the players did something unexpected or inspiration struck.
I have carried that same approach into my writing, I guess. I have begun, and still, do a lot of outlining before putting any words on a page, and then when I write I do a mix of writing the plot and discovery writing (freestyling.)
I don't know if I'm better at getting ideas these days, but I trust my ideas even more. Most ideas I get while alone, staring at a screen or with my eyes closed, and as you know there are quite a lot of different ideas in epic fantasy novels, so the process is ongoing. Sometimes I ask myself questions about the story or characters and this leads to ideas, and other times ideas just pop into my mind while I’m doing something else (relaxing, running, reading, going to sleep.)
You can also "jump-start" the imagination by physical things like going to museums, ruins, medieval fairs. Or watching a space soap opera, looking at a face, listening to a phrase. Or anything really: an animal, a sunset, history, injustices, war, gender, science, spirituality, politics. The list goes on and on.
Q: Why fantasy?
Rune S. Nielsen: Honestly it could have been sci-fi instead. I love both genres.
Q: Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?
Rune S. Nielsen: Most ideas I get while alone. As there are quite a lot of different ideas in epic fantasy novels, this is an ongoing process. Sometimes I ask myself questions about the story or characters and sometimes ideas pop into my mind while I’m doing something else (relaxing, running, reading, even right before I go to sleep.)
I wrote this article about the process.
After I make a decent plot outline I tend to "foul it up" to make it more exciting and more difficult to predict. For instance, this could be by challenging myself with some kind of tough question, like "if someone important were to die in the chapter I'm currently thinking about, who would it be, and what would be the overall plot ramifications?" Then I change the plot.
Q: What’s the best thing about being a writer?
Rune S. Nielsen: I love coming up with stories that I would like to read myself. It's the best job in the whole world. I’m lucky to have the privilege of developing characters and discovering new and different worlds for others to explore with me. To blow life into your creations, find out what these wonderful or hideous characters really want, and then discover the stories that unfold. Wow.
Q: What’s your advice for aspiring writers?
Rune S. Nielsen: 1) Write and keep on writing.
2) Fear is the mind-killer. Don't fear missing your shots. Just keep throwing the ball until you score.
3) Publish your works yourself or get someone to publish them. You want people to read your stuff. And yes...
4) Write and keep on writing.
Q: That is rather general. Any specific advice for fantasy authors?
Rune S. Nielsen: If you do initial worldbuilding, you end up saving time because you don’t have to go back and change all those pesky details later.
Think deeply about your world. Write stuff down. Spend a few months worldbuilding before you write a lot of chapters (unless you are a discovery writer, then, by all means, go ahead—write!)
I suggest that you begin your worldbuilding from high up. Pick something overall and decide on that. Like, are the physical laws the same as in our world? What kind of planet type are the characters living on? Think about interacting societies, economy and trade, religion, magic system, and everything else that defines the place where your story unfolds. Especially the things that are different from our world.
Work your way gradually down to the smallest details. Like, what kind of insects (if any) are there? Do they eat breakfast?
Take a deep dive into some of it, and what it means for your characters. Let’s say you want gravity to be half of what we are used to on earth. Then how will this affect combat? Do they jump around like in a martial arts movie? Swordfights in midair and that kind of thing. How will low gravity affect the architecture? Low gravity probably pulls their bodies less close to the ground than ours. Are they tall and lean perhaps? Spindly thin? Can they fly? Do they have wings? Do they breathe air? Is the atmosphere a different mix? How do they communicate if there is a lot of helium in the “air”? Is it flammable? How does this affect their magic and architecture? The more you define the more unique the world will feel, but also remember that you don’t have time to go on and on. Do it enough. Then go write.
Q: Any advice on characters?
Rune S. Nielsen: Your characters should be nuanced and make intelligent choices, in the sense that we all do things for a reason. People act based on what they see as the right choices, and even if you (as a reader or a writer) see a choice as dumb, the person making that choice will likely think it is the best thing to do at the time.
Figure out who your characters are, and why they act the way they do. Understand them. Too often I encounter characters in books that supposedly are clever (the author says so) but who have a habit of doing unintelligent things, and afterward never reflect on their behavior (that was a mistake,) make excuses for themselves (I know eating so much was wrong, but I’m feeling sorry for myself, so it’s all right,) or try to change (never again!)
This is annoying. It is all right that people do stupid things (we all do once in a while,) but we also become sad about the outcome or even try to change. Don’t characterize any character as something they are not. The reader will see right through it.
If you want stupid characters then fine, they can work great in a story, but readers want you to be honest about it. “Show don’t tell.” Don’t write “she was a brilliant doctor,” instead show it through her actions or in dialogue. If you tell me a character is a certain way and then disprove it by the actions, it is annoying.
Answer these questions about each of your characters: what does the character want most in life at the beginning of the story, what kind of education does the character have, what kind of job, important relationships - family/friends/job/school, quirks, drives, looks, age, clothing, sex, likes/dislikes, faith. This makes it so much easier to decide on how the character will react in any given situation throughout your story, and for you to figure out how the story might change the character, in a way that creates an interesting characters arc (hopefully something the reader will want to read and engage emotionally in.)
Figuring out what motivates each of the characters tells you how they might (or might not) work together. Are they opposed in certain ways? Group dynamics and lancer arcs (lancers are sidekicks, like Robin to Batman) are often what drives a lot of the story.
Q: What about magic systems?
Rune S. Nielsen: Rune S. Nielsen: As a reader, I like it when I think I understand how the magic works. When it seems to be “real.” A well-thought-through magic system is to me, convincing and offers me an engaging and entertaining read. That said I like a bit of mystery too. Don’t reveal everything and keep me coming back to discover more.
I’m personally a fan of hard magic systems which are based on a set of natural (or unnatural) laws. You as an author need to figure out this system before you create all the magic (like spells or rituals.) Make it coherent throughout.
If you use a soft magic system, my advice would be not to focus on the way magic works (as it will make little sense.) Create some cool-sounding spells and magic (think Harry Potter.) Don’t try to explain much about it. We will see through it. Spend your time writing great prose, upping the suspense, adding nuance to the characters.
You could have more than one magic system in the same novel or series. That might provide the mystery (that is the way I used Miller, in the Doomsayer Prince. To add mystery.)
Never write page after page about the magic. Info-dumping is not fun for the readers. It is GREAT that you, the author, knows, but make sure not to bore the reader with every tiny detail. Sneak the information into a dialogue or the action instead (where relevant.)
Q: What about the length of a novel. The Doomsayer is rather long
Rune S. Nielsen: There are at least two good approaches for deciding the length of your novel: Write what you love or what you think will earn you the most.
Initially, I tried to combine the two, but my novel soon grew rather large, and I decided to pick that which I love: a lengthy epic fantasy.
According to science, fantasy novels that are around 90.000-110.000 words should earn the most (Doomsayer Prince is 291.140 including a glossary and everything else; as long as two of the three LotR books combined.)
After the first draft was done, I asked my editor and test readers if they thought I should split Doomsayer Prince into two novels, to optimize my earnings, but we all thought it would not work well, not unless I did a total rewrite.
I could have written a different much shorter fantasy novel. I could also have chosen a genre that at the time I wrote the Doomsayer Prince seemed to be doing well, like Scandinavian Crime fiction. If I had to do it again, I would however still pick that which I love.
Q: What about formatting your novel. Do you have any tips?
Rune S. Nielsen: I use Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat DC to create the files needed to make eBooks, paperbacks, and hardcovers. If you are interested, please download this guide that explains how I did it.
Warning: These are my PERSONAL notes, that work well for ME. You are not me. Word can be frustrating and non-intuitive to create these files in. You might misunderstand my notes. I have many years of experience with Word and working professionally with various IT systems. If you don’t think you can do this yourself, don’t use my notes. Pay someone to do the files and upload them for you. If you screw your manuscript up by trying to follow my suggestions, it is on you. That said, you can save a lot of money doing this yourself.
