Photo Content from Tim Facciola
More than writing, reading, gaming, playing music, hiking, and paddle-boarding, Tim loves story. If he’s not working on his own story, he’s helping others develop theirs as an author coach.
Living in Arizona with his wife, Colleen, Tim continues writing epic fantasy novels while exploring different storytelling mediums so he can inspire others to hope. To live. And to believe.
Greatest thing you learned at school:
My degree is in Exercise Physiology. If you can imagine, many classes and labs were dedicated to the anatomy of the human body—the form and function of muscles, connective tissues, organs and organ systems, etc. One might suspect that this field of study might not translate all that well to the craft of writing, but learning how and why things work the way they work, the means by which they fulfill their individual roles while interconnecting with the system as a whole—this was the perfect prerequisite course to helping me learn story structure. While I didn’t study story structure in school, I felt like my past academic ventures helped prepare me to identify trends in stories and pinpoint the differences that made certain stories resonate with their audiences while others flopped. Better yet, such an analytical vantage point prepared me to construct my own stories filled with the catharsis that readers love.
What chapter was the most memorable to write and why?
Undoubtedly Chapter 52. Entitled: Double-Edged Sword, the chapter is the culmination of a character’s failure that results in tragedy. Tragedies in general are difficult to write because, subliminally, you know what’s coming; you just don’t know the details of how and when. This tragic point in the story is a heavy turning point in the narrative that changes the futures for several characters, not just for this novel, but the rest of the trilogy to come. This was a chapter that after I finished, I needed a break from writing. So much heart and emotion went into writing it. So many memories of my personal experiences and failings came to the surface. Yet through that vulnerability, I believe there was an intimacy placed on the page that few readers can flip past without feelings being evoked. One of my beta-readers described this scene as the threw-my-kindle-and-cried chapter.
Why is storytelling so important for all of us?
The arts have a way of bypassing people’s heads and actually connecting with that thing that beats in their chest. Stories, and fantasy stories in particular, simply have the ability to lower our inhibitions, allowing us to put aside our natural biases and real world prejudices so we can truly open up our minds. Stories allow us to walk in the shoes of and gain insight from people we may not have the privilege to interact with on a day to day basis. In a world where everything seems to be “spun,” stories can offer unobtrusive and unassuming growth opportunities, even for people disinterested in learning about xyz. Not to mention, our brains are wired for story; it allows us to make meaning of topics and commit them to memory. It’s one of the most powerful modalities of communication.
Can you tell us when you started THE SCALES OF BALANCE, how that came about?
I was fresh out of college, working 70-80 hours/week in the fitness industry in Midtown Manhattan. My band had recently broken up so I wasn’t writing music much, if at all. No lyrics, no melodies, no riffs. In that time, I was having crazy dreams. I told a client about them and she had suggested finding a new creative outlet. At that time I was listening to the audiobook of A Song of Ice and Fire and rewatching Spartacus on Starz for the zillionth time. Spartacus’s fight for freedom and equality, and GRRM’s intricate web of world-building and political intrigue were the first seeds of what became A Vengeful Realm. That was around ten years ago. This project became my baby; I kept working on it until finally, it all came together in the trilogy now being released!
What was the most surprising thing you learned in creating your characters?
I set out with the specific intention that I would not base the characters on anyone in my life (I had tried in a different project and hated the process). Yet over the years of their development, throughout redrafts, revisions, and the editing process as a whole, it became abundantly clear to me that each of them in part were in fact a facet of me. Whether they be ingrained parts of me like my sense of principle (Zephyrus), my stubborn pride (Laeden), or my sometimes dangerous single-track mind (Fenyx), or interpersonal relationships that shaped how I see the world, all of the characters in some way shape or form seemed to reflect a mirror back at me despite my intentions toward the contrary.
Your Journey to Publication
The journey through the writing and publication process is seldom the same for any two writers. Both involve distinctly different skill sets and relationships to navigate effectively and efficiently. Tough questions need answering. Some of them frankly don’t matter; there isn’t necessarily a right or wrong way, but everyone needs to find their own process. Plotting or pantsing? Traditional Publishing vs. Self Publishing? If only it were that simple…
Here’s how A Vengeful Realm survived the perils of the writing journey en route to publication.
Once upon a time I attempted to outline my story. I knew I wanted to include mythology, gladiators, a scarcity for fresh water, and an encroaching super-natural dread, but outside of those big-picture ideas, I had nothing. I wrote out seven or eight pages of notes for character concepts, different settings, scenes I wanted to see play out, etc. and eventually, I felt confident enough to start actually writing my novel. I sat down. Put proverbial pen to paper on my laptop. AND… I began my story twenty years before the events of my proposed outline. Undeterred, I forged forward, blindly navigating my lack of knowledge for storytelling and writing craft. I fumbled and faltered for maybe 20,000 words before I had written myself into enough corners that I decided to turn back and actually plot out my novel.
Instead of a page of notes, I made an excel notebook with each sheet dedicated to a different part of the story. A page for history, a page for geography, a page for religions, myths, and legends. A page for the Great Houses and prominent families of my world, a page for all the POV characters I wanted to include with detailed dossiers, a page for all the secondary characters to flesh out the vast world I’d created, a blank back-log for the tertiary characters who would eventually come up. I made a sheet for individual character moments I wanted them to have, laid them out, matched them up chronologically, then put them in the order in which I wanted to tell them as a chapter by chapter outline. And finally. FINALLY! I was ready to write again.
Working 60+ hours a week as a fitness business owner, I dedicated my free time to writing. I don’t remember how long it took to finish the first draft. If I had to guess— between all the planning, the starting, stopping, starting over, and actually writing it—maybe I’d say three-ish years? Well after three-ish years, book one of the first draft of A Vengeful Realm came in at 278,000 words. It was a wild, untameable mustang that I was trying to ride without a saddle or reins, but I didn’t know that at the time…
Then I asked the age-old question of “What now?” This was when everything started coming together. I searched for an editor via Reedsy and on March 31st of 2017 I met and began working with someone who has become a dear friend. Chersti Nieveen of Writer Therapy was instrumental in my development as a writer and storyteller. Somehow, she was able to wade through my craftless drudgery and actually believed in my story despite its oh so many flaws. She became a mentor of sorts, providing me with resources to study story structure and craft techniques. I ate it up. I couldn’t get enough. Finally, between all the “cool ideas” I had, I was able to tame that mustang of a story into a well-trained warhorse. I was able to cut through the noise, find the compelling throughlines, the narrative voice, and thematic resonance I wanted my story to have.
So I asked myself the next logical question, “What now?” I’d finally figured out my writing process, but the publishing process was an entirely new beast. I realized I needed a community to help me navigate. I started a writing group. We shared our stories, helped each other put pitch packages together, entered the query trenches together… Then I received interest. An offer of publication. I can remember sitting on the floor in my bedroom in December of 2020. Life was on lockdown in my one bedroom apartment in Montclair, NJ, but I had realized my dream! I was going to be a published author… right?
After reading the contract and deliberating, I realized I wasn’t ready to give up the rights. I wasn’t ready to sign away the next two books in the trilogy. I wasn’t ready to release book 1 before book 3 was even written. What if I (not to name names…) wrote a book everyone loved but I couldn’t figure out what needed to happen next? What if I couldn’t bring it all together in a way that befit the passion I’d put into the first book?
I turned down the offer. I spent the next year writing a different story as sort of a palate cleanser. Then in February of 2022 I decided that I was going to finish the full trilogy. Then once it was all done, then and only then would I release it to the world. In 2022 I wrote the next two books. I went back and edited them all, giving them fresh coats of paint. Since book one wasn’t published, I could go back and plant little seeds, little easter eggs for my readers. I could give it the attention to detail that I wanted that no publishing house would have afforded me.
Now here in quarter four of 2023, it has been a blur of navigating all the steps included in self-publishing and recording the audiobooks. But A Vengeful Realm: The Scales of Balance is now out. Book two, The Breaker of Chains is planned to be released in January of ‘24, and the final installment, The Age of the End is set to launch in April of ‘24. I couldn’t be happier with how they’ve come out. It has not been an easy journey, but it has been the right journey for me.
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