Welcome back to my series on the writers who most influenced my style. Today I’m going to discuss the third face on my personal Mount Rushmore, R.A. (Robert) Salvatore. Robert writes the Drizzt Do’Urden saga, a series of 53 novels written between 1988 and today. Two of them are spin-offs focusing on minor characters met in the main story line, but really, 53 novels, and still going? And let’s not overlook the fact that he’s written four other, albeit smaller, series, a couple of stand-alones, and a list of short stories. The title of this post comes from the fact that Mr. Salvatore was, in his youth, a club bouncer and credits his vivid and realistic battle scenes to this experience.

So, let’s examine his world, first of all. The whole Drizzt saga takes place in the Forgotten Realms world of Dungeons & Dragons, and the stories obey the rules of that world. Perhaps D&D is a stigma that prevents the oh-so-erudite book critics from giving the novels their stamp of approval, but fantasy lovers who pass these up for whatever reason are really missing out.

I’m not going to go into the backstory of how Drizzt Do’Urden, originally a sidekick, became the focus character. Just the facts, like they say. Drizzt is a Drow or Dark Elf. This is a race of elves who live deep in the Underdark, a realm far deeper than any caverns you might find in the mundane world. Many races and creatures call the Underdark their home, but the Dark Elves are the ones the monsters have nightmares about. Their rare visits to the surface world are for raids against settlements, or simply to murder what they call the “Moon elves,” a race that Lord of the Rings fans would instantly recognize. Myth tells us that the Drow were once surface dwellers who fled underground eons ago for reasons long forgotten, where they’ve nursed their grievances against the surface dwellers into pure, unreasoning hate.

Young Drizzt is taken on a couple of these raids, is disgusted by the wanton slaughter of innocents, and makes his way to the surface to try to build a life. What he finds is a world where every sentient race has a Kill on Sight order out for Dark Elves and there is no place above ground for him. He eventually wanders into the remote community of Ten Towns where anyone can drop his duffle bag and make a new start if he behaves himself and contributes to the common welfare. Drizzt soon makes a few close friends and sets out on the adventures that have powered 53 novels, many of them to be found on a number of best-seller lists.

Drizzt has found his greatest supporters among teenagers, hardly surprising, as almost any teenager will tell you that he or she is misunderstood and persecuted by his peers. Drizzt is a character that has gone from a literal shoot-on-sight outcast to a heroic figure, and there are very few readers who can’t sympathize with that story arc. The series, following, as it must, the rules of D&D, has a few built-in problems, most to do with the relative ages of the characters. Drizzt, an elf, has a lifespan of around 700 years. One of his companions is a dwarf who as a race live about half that long, and another is a halfling (don’t you dare say Hobbit!) with a similar lifespan. The other two are humans who are good for about 70, though by the time they hit about 50, they aren’t good for much beyond shopkeeping. The problem, as you might imagine, comes in managing and ultimately replacing the more short-lived characters, and I’m not entirely comfortable with the way he did it. But I am here to neither review, critique, nor spoil any portion of the series. If you are a fan of fantasy and you haven’t encountered Drizzt, you can pick up the first three books, The Icewind Dale Trilogy, in a single binding in any number of places and begin your own journey.

But as I say, I’m not here to review. My purpose here is rather to explain what I learned from this author that I have taken aboard as a major influence on my own writing. What I learned from Robert and his creation is that a story needn’t be vast in scope to make a reader care. J.R.R. Tolkien wove a tale of armies, nations, wars and the fate of races. R.A. Salvatore, by contrast, tells a tale of a small group of loyal companions who sometimes seek out a quest and sometimes have it thrust upon them, but in the grand scheme of things, they aren’t important. For example, an assassin captures one of their number, the halfling, and spirits him off to be tortured at length for perceived crimes by his former employer. The rest of the company pursue him the length of Faerun by land and sea to rescue the weakest member of their group.

If they fail, no one will care but them. Their failure won’t decide the fate of nations, change the world order, or allow The Great Evil to overwhelm the world, but Salvatore sees to it that you, the reader, care a great deal. The technique is to let the reader in to share in their pain, their grief, and their triumphs as a virtual member of the group. And above all, don’t write down to your reader. Treat him as an equal and trust him to “get it” without holding his hand and explaining every little detail along the way. You’ll both have a great time and he’ll love you for it.

Any thoughts on this technique or the way you apply it to your own Craft? Let’s talk…