MY STORY

Writing the Black Magician Trilogy

Way back in 1994, I made a rather scary decision. Sometime in the past I'd decided, naively, that I would write a book by the time I was twenty-five. But when I arrived at that age I found all I had was a large pile of notes and several floppy discs full of outlines, scenes, and first drafts of chapters. What had gone wrong? There just hadn't been enough time, I decided. Clearly I was never going to get anything finished unless I dedicated more time to writing. Something had to be done.

So I quit my full time job and started a freelance illustration and design business. The plan was: I'd work half of the time and spend the rest writing. It seemed like a reasonable plan. I was fairly sure I could get enough work to earn an income that would pay the bills, and it did work fairly well... most of the time.

I also decided that, if I was going to do this properly, I ought to take some refresher courses on writing. So I attended Dirk Strasser's "Writing Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror" course and a few workshops at the CAE (Council of Adult Education) on punctuation and grammar. All of these were immensely useful. I ironed out a few bad habits at the CAE classes, and received some good advice and feedback specific to the genre of fantasy in Dirk's class.

But the best way to improve your writing is to write. A lot. A year of writing brought me to the halfway point in my outline for the book - about 180,000 words. I realised that the final manuscript would be too big for a single volume, and would probably have to be divided into two books. Six months later I finished the manuscript and the 'book' had doubled in size. I gave it a critical look over and discovered that there were three distinct 'minor' conflicts that, if dealt with separately, would divide the whole story into three neat volumes.

Hmm. A trilogy. Publishers like their fantasy in threes.

Next came a round of reworking. Now that the first third was to be a separate book, I needed to focus and refine certain aspects of the story. Fergun had been a foolish, almost comical character in the first draft, but now came into his own as a sinister Warrior with his own plans for Sonea. The Thieves were much too nice, and I hadn't fully explored the potential of Cery's romantic interest in Sonea.

Once the reworked manuscript was finished, I sent it off to a publisher... and never heard anything of it again. Not even a rejection slip. When people asked where I sent it, I just answered 'the black hole'.

Plenty of writing advisers say that your first book is a learning experience, so you shouldn't be too distressed if it isn't published. Don't wait for an answer; just keep writing. So while I was dutifully obeying the 'No Simultaneous Submissions' rule - waiting for a response from the publisher before sending it on to the next - I started and finished another novel.

By then I figured the first publisher had been given enough time to consider my manuscript, so I looked it over again. I did a light 'polish' in preparation to send it out again. An editor friend heard what I was doing, and offered to act as my agent.

What followed then was two frustrating years in which the manuscript languished in what I call 'the gray zone', which is where publishers put books they like that need work, but never get time to tackle the job of writing down their suggested changes. It was frustrating both to me and my editor friend, as we waited for promised marked-up chapters that never arrived.

Around the same time I was reading stories for Aurealis magazine, and was inspired to write one myself. I sent "Whispers of the Mist Children" to the editors of Aurealis under a psyudonym, feeling a bit too fragile to cope with them knowing that this dreadful writer was someone they were aquainted with. To my surprise they didn't reject it, but requested I shorten the story. This turned out to be one of my most valuable learning experiences. It changed my writing style to a snappier, less self-indulgent one. To my delight, the editors accepted it... and I had to confess who Silvia Ducat really was.

I knew this had made a huge difference to my writing when I attended a 'Masterclass' at the Victorian Writers' Center. The teacher, Jack Dann, amazed me by saying my work had 'good narrative drive'. I wasn't entirely sure what this was, but by the end of the class I had it figured out... I think.

Suddenly those comments by the publisher that my manuscript was a little wordy made sense. I decided to do yet another rewrite. This time I carved over 20,000 words from the manuscript, purging anything I thought might be 'wordy'. Then came one of those co-incidences that change everything. While working as a freelance designer for a travel guidebook publishing company, I befriended a new editor. Hearing that I'd written a book, she amazed me by asking for and reading the manuscript. She loved it and, overriding my doubts about approaching one of the 'big' established agents, sent it away to Fran Bryson for me.

Fran liked it, and asked to see the other two books. I spent several weeks frantically tidying up chapters I hadn't looked at for over three years and sending them off to her. She still liked it, and suddenly I faced a dilemma. What of my editor friend? I considered carefully, and decided that I'd be crazy to turn down an offer from an established agent. So I thanked my friend for all his work, and became one of Fran's authors.

But now I had some big changes to make to the trilogy. Size was the biggest problem. My hard rewrite had reduced the first book to 95,000 words - too small for a fantasy. I needed to add "plot, not padding". I was also to rewrite and polish all three books before any publisher was approached, which I estimated would take me a year - if I reduced my freelance work.

What followed was the worst and best year of my life. It began with the news that the short story I'd had published in Aurealis had won the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Short Story. Later, I was accepted for a three week residency at Varuna Writers' Center in Katoomba, NSW. The year ended with the best news of all: HarperCollins made an offer on The Black Magician Trilogy.

Why also the worst? Buy me a drink and I might tell you about it. But because of these personal upheavals, I only managed to rewrite and polish The Magicians' Guild in the year I was supposed to have rewritten the entire trilogy. It took another year before I finished the second book, The Novice, then seven more months to charge through the third, The High Lord.

What then? I started on another, bigger, fantasy trilogy set in a different world — Age of the Five: Priestess of the White, Last of the Wilds, Voice of the Gods. After that, I have several stories to write: a sequel to the Black Magician Trilogy, a prequel set during the Sachakan War, and some other ideas.

It took seven and a half years and a lot of hard work before I got that publishing contract. It took more determination than I ever believed I had in me. But it's all been worth it just to know that people are enjoying my stories. I hope to bring them many, many more.