by Eragon (lit)
I met thousands of wonderful people, many of whom became loyal fans and friends. One of those fans is Michelle Frey, now my editor at Knopf Books for Young Readers, who approached me with an offer to acquire Eragon. Needless to say, I was delighted that Knopf was interested in my book.
Thus, there are two groups of people who deserve thanks. The first assisted with the production of the Paolini International LLC edition of Eragon, while the second is responsible for the Knopf edition.
Here are the brave souls who helped bring Eragon into existence:
The original gang: my mother for her thoughtful red pen and wonderful help with commas, colons, semicolons, and other assorted beasties; my father for his smashing editing job, all the time he spent hammering my vague, wayward thoughts into line, formatting the book and designing the cover, and listening to so many presentations; Grandma Shirley for helping me create a satisfactory beginning and ending; my sister for her plot advice, her good humor at being portrayed as an herbalist in Eragon, and her long hours Photoshop’ing Saphira’s eye on the cover; Kathy Tyers for giving me the means to do a brutal—and much-needed—rewrite of the first three chapters; John Taliaferro for his advice and wonderful review; a fan named Tornado—Eugene Walker—who caught a number of copyediting errors; and Donna Overall for her love of the story, editing and formatting advice, and keen eye for all things concerning ellipses, em dashes, widows, orphans, kerning, and run-on sentences. If there’s a real-life Dragon Rider, she’s one—selflessly coming to the rescue of writers lost in the Swamp of Commas. And I thank my family for supporting me wholeheartedlyand for reading this saga more times than any sane person should have to.
The new gang: Michelle Frey, who not only loved the story enough to take a chance on an epic fantasy written by a teenager but also managed to streamline Eragon ’s pacing through her insightful editing; my agent, Simon Lipskar, who helped find the best home for Eragon; Chip Gibson and Beverly Horowitz for the wonderful offer; Lawrence Levy for his good humor and legal advice; Judith Haut, publicity whiz of the first degree; Daisy Kline for the awe-inspiring marketing campaign; Isabel Warren-Lynch, who designed the lovely book jacket, interior, and map; John Jude Palencar, who painted the jacket art (I actually named Palancar Valley for him long before he ever worked on Eragon); Artie Bennett, the doyen of copyediting and the only man alive who understood the difference between to scry it and to scry on it; and the entire team at Knopf who have made this adventure possible.
Lastly, a special thanks to my characters, who bravely face the dangers I force them to confront, and without whom I wouldn’t have a story.
May your swords stay sharp!
Christopher Paolini
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christopher Paolini’s abiding love of fantasy and science fiction inspired him to begin writing his debut novel, Eragon, when he graduated from high school at fifteen. Now nineteen, he lives with his family in Paradise Valley, Montana, where he is at work on Eldest, the next volume in the Inheritance trilogy. You can find out more about Christopher, Eragon, and Inheritance at www.alagaesia.com.
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EXCERPT FROM BACK MATTER
Gifted only with an ancient red sword, the brilliant-blue dragon Saphira, and advice from the old storyteller Brom, the young man Eragon is entangled in an intricate tapestry of destiny, magic, ancient glory, and love. His saga carries readers through fantastical land filled with beauty and brooding danger as he flees the tyrannical king, Galbatorix. A mysterious elven woman haunts Eragon's dreams while an ancient legacy and an unexpected inheritance shape his destiny. shapeType75fFlipH0fFlipV0pib98849776b332901629197da0f98f2190pibFlags2pictureTransparent16579836fRecolorFillAsPicture0fUseShapeAnchor0fFilled0fLine0pWrapPolygonVertices8;5;(-176,0);(-176,21565);(21600,21565);(21600,0);(-176,0)posh3fBehindDocument1fLayoutInCell1
98849776b332901629197da0f98f2190
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PARTING WORDS: AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR
(From the Factsource.com website)
1. Hi Christopher, thanks for your time! Please take a moment to introduce yourself.
Hello! I’m Christopher James Paolini, eighteen-year-old author and illustrator of Eragon, an epic 472-page fantasy. And welcome to my interview. I enjoyed writing it, and I certainly hope you enjoy reading it.
2. Tell us about your publishing history.
In November 1998 I graduated from high school at fifteen. I was homeschooled—and having nothing absolutely required of me, I sat down and began writing. For three-and-a-half years I worked on Eragon. It took a year for the first draft, a year for the second draft, and another year for editing. Finally, at the beginning of 2002, I held the finished book in my hands, which was simply incredible. Eragon is my first published work.
3. How did you prepare yourself to become a novelist?
I read everything about writing I could get my hands on—specifically The Writer’s Handbook, which is published each year and has wonderful essays on the craft by various authors, and Story, by Robert McKee. Story is actually what taught me how to plot a novel. It’s written for screenwriters, but the principles are universal. Another valuable book was Orson Scott Card’s Character and Viewpoint. It answers all those tricky questions like, I really in a limited third-person point of view here, or is it an omniscient point of view? My technical knowledge—that is, the ability to express myself clearly in words—was mainly a result of the year of editing on my book. Great editing, even good editing, can teach you more about writing than anything else. That is, if you have the stomach to see your precious work, which you’ve been up till 3:00 a.m. polishing, covered in a sea of red ink. The trick, though, is finding an editor who knows the craft intimately, is acquainted with your genre, and has fallen in love with your work. Sometimes a family member can do it, other times you may have to hire a professional. In my case, I was lucky enough to have parents who were both interested—and qualified—in editing Eragon. They put a huge amount of work into the manuscript. It’s all we worked on for most of 2001.
A personal comment here: If a reader has fallen in love with a work, often they won’t edit well. One of my best editors actually disliked the manuscript! Also most family members of writers will do poor editing. Again, my experience was an exception.
The true mark of an accomplished writer is that he or she isn’t afraid to rewrite something if it’s bad, no matter how many times it takes to reach (adequate) perfection.
4. How did you find your publisher?
Ah yes, the eternal question for aspiring writers: How did you get published? Well, in this case I had a slight advantage. Both my parents are published authors—I’m actually a third-generation author—and they own a publishing company based out of Paradise Valley, Montana. I still have the option of signing with a large publisher, but for now my family and I retain complete control, and plan maintaining complete control over Eragon.
5. Tell us about Eragon.
Eragon is the saga of a young man, Eragon, who becomes intricately linked with the brilliant-blue dragon Saphira. Together they set off on the series of adventures through the fantastical land of AlagaOn the way they encounter battles, villains, duels, romanceand all the good things a story needs. Eragon is the first in a trilogy titled Inheritance, and I’m currently in the middle of book II, Eldest. Having recently finished the script adaptation for Eragon, I’m now looking for someone willing to produce it as a movie.
I wrote Eragon in an attempt to combine and distill all the elements of heroic fantasy that I loved as a child, not so long ago. It frustrated me because I read so many books where everything was perfect, except for that one plot twist at the end or that one piece of misspoken dialogue. It drove me up the wall.
So I resolved to try and write a perfect story the essence of a maturation plot. There would be a young man who was unaware of his potential, a beautiful dragon, a mysterious mentor, and a truly vicious, sneering, Basil Rathbone villain. Though I started with clichd charac
ters and situations, I made them my own by believing in them completely. So what if it’s all been done before? Eragon is deeper than most fantasies because I truly delve into the characters’ psyches and grapple with the big questions in life: why are we here, what is our purpose, and by what rules shall we live?
That was my goal. And if perhaps my dart did not always fly as true as wished, I at least grazed the center of the target.
Eragon has received nothing but five-star reviews on Amazon.com. Publisher’s Weekly calls it, impressive epic fantasy,and readers have just fallen in love with the story.
6. Tell us about the book cover.
The Eragon book cover took several weeks of hard work to complete. Before I could even set pencil to paper, I had to figure out how I wanted to depict the dragon Saphira’s eye. I already had a pretty good idea of how it should appear. The problem was making it look realistic. For that I found several pictures of crocodile eyes, which I used to establish the basic shape and textures of the pupil and scales. By modifying the scales, I was able to create a spiny crest over the eyeball as well as the ridges that rim it. When that was done, a very simple line drawing of the eye was traced onto a piece of paper proportional to the finished cover.
Finally, I started on the eye. For three days I struggled to give it life, but to no avail. I had messed up on the lighting when I began, making the drawing appear flat and uninteresting. Realizing what was wrong, I was forced to abandon my work and try again.
This time I got it right. The eye slowly took shape on my desk, staring at whomever passed by. The most tedious and mind-numbing part of the drawing was executing the hundreds of scales. Each one had to be shaped, shaded, and matched to the smooth gradation of light that covers the entire picture.
Upon completion, the drawing was scanned and then put into Photoshop, where my sister added the color to the eye. This took a long time to get just right, not only with the complex shading, but also with the color. The original drawing covered almost an entire 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. However, that was chopped down so the book’s title and my name could be on a block of white covering the bottom third of the cover.
I also drew the two maps for Eragon, using dry-ink rollerball pens. Each map covers an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper.
To see the cover and maps, visit my family’s website.
7. How do you know where to begin your story?
I begin at the moment my protagonist’s life changes. Shakespeare, for example, began Hamlet not with the death of Hamlet’s father, but the appearance of his father’s ghost, which sparks the events that lead to the bloody conclusion. Imagine if Hamlet started with Hamlet already bent on the path of revenge or vice-versa, when he was still overseas as a student. A story begins when something happens. That’s the whole point of novels, things happen in them. Now it’s entirely possible to write a story where nothing seems to be happening until a shocking subtext is revealed, but you’d better make that revelation a darn good one, to compensate for all the reader’s preceding boredom. A good example of this is the movie Kiss of the Spider Woman.
The instant something new enters my hero’s life, I start writing. I do take a certain amount of time to set the stage—which will vary from story to story—but I try to keep it to a minimum.
8. Can you explain how your characters are
When I first conceive of a book, there are a certain number of characters inherent in the story; I couldn’t have Eragon without Eragon. Beyond those absolutely necessary to the plot, I add characters to flesh out the world—such as family and friends of the main actors. These are usually created as I’m writing the first draft. Oftentimes I put in characters because Eragon needs certain information. If he’s just entered a village and wants to find out where someone lives, then he has to ask directions. Voila, a character is born! If he is interesting enough, then he may have an encore performance later on.
My main characters, however, don’t pop into existence on mere whims. It takes enormous amounts of effort to figure out what they want, what prevents them from achieving their wants, and what actions they will take to rectify the situation. And of course their individual stories have to relate to the whole in a meaningful way. Otherwise, they have no place in the book.
9. What is the process you use to name your characters?
I took generous helpings of Norse, Danish, Celtic, Russian, and even Hispanic names, dump them into a blender and hit frapp. Then I use whatever interesting words get spit out. Or I just invent them outright. In general I tried to stay with old, mythic names, such as Hrothgar (from Beowulf), Utgard (a Norse giant), and inventive variants, like Tronjheim
Most of my names are made up, though. Eragon is dragon with one letter changed, or era gone. Saphira (Sa-FEAR-ah) is a delightful play on sapphire that Mom invented. And the little town Yazuac is really an anagram for the Yacuza, the Japanese Mafia.
Also, I invented three languages for Eragon, one of which is based on Old Norse. Therefore, each place name must conform to the grammar of the race that named it. This adds another layer of difficulty because now I have to think, Okay, who named this: elves, dwarves, humans, or Urgals? Could it be an elf name translated by the humans? Or perhaps You get the idea.
10. How do you build empathy for your characters?
Making readers care for what happens to a fictitious person in a fictitious world with a fictitious name is hard. Very hard. Empathy is the combination of many different traits. First, you have to have your characters, even your villain, care deeply about something or someone, else they’ll be totally unlikable. Or, you can have them care about nothing, but be completely charming, like Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs. Either way, there has to be a point of connection, even enjoyment, for readers.
Next, you have to threaten what your character holds dear. Do that an you’ll engender sympathy in most anyone.
Then, follow your character as he/she struggles to protect what is important to him/her. Pull it off well, and readers will follow you into even the darkest nightmare.
11. How do you handle the storyline? (Do you use outlines, plot guides, etc?)
Eragon wasn’t my first attempt to write a book. I started several stories before it. Unfortunately, they always ended up melting into a pile of mush after five or ten pages. It was due to a lack of knowledge of what to do next. So instead of just jumping into the middle of Eragon, I spent a month plotting out the entire novel and its two sequels. That way I never had a doubt or worry about where I was heading, or what my characters should be doing or saying.
Right now I’m working on Eldest, the sequel to Eragon. For Eldest I have a rough twelve-page treatment that covers all the scenes I could think of without actually writing the beast. This saves me hours that might be spent meandering off on a tangent storyline, or trying to solve plot discrepancies after I’ve already written the first draft. An outline like this is extremely helpful when dealing with a multi-volume series, as it helps you keep track of all the different characters, pacing, locations, and the amount of time it takes to get from point A to point B.
Without a clear vision of the plot, it’s all too easy to get lost in a sea of possibilities. It is good to be inquisitive and inventive with the situations in your book, but at least by having the original outline, you can start with confidence.
12. Eragon is classified as a novel. Do you have any advice to the Writing Etc. subscribers who write in that genre?
Avoid anachronisms that is, persons, events, or items that are chronologically misplaced. Never, ever have your hero climb up a castle wall and encounter razor-wire; They didn’t have razor-wire in the Middle Ages. Don’t have your hero climb a fruit tree while wearing plate armor. Don’t have your peasants happy, cheerful, and eating rice in a northern European environment. Under no circumstances refer to a crossguard as a handle, or have your characters speak with modern slang. I didn’t make these up. They are in published fantasy titles. Argh! There’s a perception that fantasy is easy to wri
te. It isn’t. It draws upon some of the deepest mythic roots of cultures around the world. It’s also highly imitative and derivative. And to make it even harder, you have to know enough about history to be able to write a semi-accurate historical novel.
My best advice is to make it as realistic as possible. Where does the food come from? What’s the history of the culture you’re inventing? Do dwarves have lavatories? How has your imaginary religion seeped into everyday life? Make people believe that your purple pixy dwarves are as deep and complex as anyone you know.
That’s the whole trick to great fantasy, getting at something deeper than just, lets go fetch the magic watermelon slipper from the Citadel of Doom, hack all the snarling, warty goblins along the way, then be back in our Idyllic Village for our Rustic Supper.
13. How did you research this book?
My research included skimming through the Encyclopaedia Britannica many times: reading books on word-origins, gods from around the world, armor, weapons, and ships, and asking people as many questions as possible. I also found that making my own knives, arrows, and other assorted pointy items, helped when writing Eragon. Research often leads you into areas of knowledge that you wouldn’t otherwise explore. At one time, I had some questions about bows, so I read several books on the subject and learned that Native Americans constructed bows out of elk and ram horns. That inspired me, because in Eragon there arelarge-horned monsters called Urgals. As a result, I added a dwarf with an Urgal-horn bow into Eldest.