Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘writing’

Inspiration Can Be Weird

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on January 15, 2024| Leave a Comment »

A couple of days ago, I posted about the short story I’d recently published that had been held up (for more than a decade!) because I meant to turn it into a novel.

Well, the truth is that I had written that novel–years ago. But that first version somehow, without my intending it, turned out to be a middle grade novel. I have absolutely nothing against middle grade novels. I just know that trying to market them is a nightmare. And, since marketing is already the aspect of writing that I do least well (to put it mildly), I decided that was not something I wanted to publish.

Then I decided I could take that story and write it as epic fantasy, but that wasn’t working out. Which is about the time I started having trouble writing at all. Well, after that last post, it suddenly struck me WHY that last attempt to rewrite Mage Storm had failed. I was doing it trying just to expand that story, not really add more story.

Thing is, I have more story. I’d come up with ideas for three sequels. And, you know what, I could just combine the first sequel into that original story to make a bigger story. And, possibly do the same with the other two sequel ideas. Two books instead of four, but, you know, potentially at least actual finished books at some point.

I’m not going to abandon my Arthurian story, but I will start reading through that earlier version of Mage Storm and see what the possibilities are.

Plus, I’ve started doing some world building on that other idea I mentioned in my Goals post. It’s inspired by another bit of British history, but this time I definitely don’t want to go down the research rabbit holes I’ve explored for the Arthur story, so I need to create a sufficiently different world for it.

Multi-tasking.

(Heh! I’ve already posted here more than I did all of last year.)

Read Full Post »

2023 Goals Outcome and 2024 Goals

Posted in Real Life, writing, tagged , on January 1, 2024| 2 Comments »

Wow. I only set myself two goals last year, neither of them had to do with writing. And I managed to fail at both of them, anyway.

I said I would do better about sweets. Well, right now really isn’t the time to talk about that. I was given far too many for the holidays. But I wasn’t doing as well as I should have been earlier in the year, either.

And I said I’d hold myself accountable with monthly posts. Yeah, that didn’t work out either.

Okay, well, it’s a new year. Last one, especially the last couple of months, did not go according to any plan I made. Frankly, I’m a little afraid to try planning anything, so many of the plans I did have blew up in my face recently.

Still . . . . I have made some progress on my Arthurian story. Not as much as I should have, but slow is better than none at all. If I can just stop finding new research rabbit holes to fall down, maybe I can get somewhere. We’ll see.

And, I have another story idea on the back burner. I real one, not the fluffy little thing I was playing with last year. Though, who knows, some other year that fluffy story may meet up with another idea that will give it enough substance to be worthwhile. This other idea already has that, what it really needs is the world building to suit the story, and that hasn’t come to me yet.

At this point, I make no promises on either, other than I will keep trying. Sometime, hopefully, the log jam will break and words will start to flow again.

Here’s hoping.

Read Full Post »

2022 Goals

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on January 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Okay, so it’s time to set some goals for the year ahead.

As far as writing goes, I’m going to try the same one I failed at last year. Dedicate time every day to writing, even if, at first, all I’m doing is staring at a blinking cursor. Since I did fail at it last year (and yesterday, but . . . I claim a holiday exception for that one) I’m dialing it back a bit. Let’s start with fifteen minutes and gradually build up. More is, of course, just fine–but it doesn’t mean I don’t owe the same fifteen minutes the next day.

For diet and health, well, the last couple of weeks excepted (there’s that holiday exception again), what I’ve done so far has worked fairly well. For diet, my plan has been and will continue to be to make small changes that I can turn into habits. Once those habits are established, I can then make a few more small changes. My first targets are:

  • Changing from 2% milk to 1%. This change was suggested by a dietician.
  • Changing my afternoon snack to something healthier. Unfortunately, I still haven’t figured out what this will be. It may take a little trial and error.
  • Cutting back on hard candies with the goal of eliminating them altogether.

I generally get plenty of exercise walking, but down the road I may want to look into adding something else to the mix. I need to give that some thought.

And, one more. Since annual accountability failed last year. I’m going to report on progress monthly this year. We’ll see.

Read Full Post »

Last Year’s Goals

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on December 26, 2021| 1 Comment »

Wow, it’s been pretty quiet around here, lately, hasn’t it? Mostly, I haven’t had a lot to say, unfortunately. Nevertheless, that’s no reason to skip accountability. So . . . how did I do with my goals for last year?

My first and main goal was to re-establish some sort of regular writing habit, even just half an hour to start–everyday. No diversions allowed. Half an hour where I have to either write or stare at a blinking cursor. No skipping over to play a game of solitaire. No checking the internet–unless it’s for legit research. Then, gradually increase that time to a whole hour, and so on.

It was a good plan. And an epic fail. I did try to use NaNoWriMo to re-establish the habit, with mixed success. Still, I think I may make this the goal again for next year. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. That’s for next week’s post.

My second goal was to continue improving my diet and general fitness.

I believe I’ve made some progress there, at least.

My third goal was to read more widely. Try new authors and subjects. And to continue learning new things.

Again, at least some success, though perhaps less than I hoped.

And have faith that the world will settle into a new normal, probably not exactly the same as before. But less fraught. More comfortable. And next year’s holiday season will be different.

Well, apart from having faith, this one was really out of my control. And it’s clearly still a work in progress, both for me and the world in general. May next year see a more significant change. We all need it.

Read Full Post »

How Do Magic Users Acquire Magic in This Story?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on August 15, 2021| Leave a Comment »

This may not be applicable if everyone has magic. Then again . . . .

Is it something they’re born with? If so, is it strictly hereditary or is something else at play? For example, in J. K. Rowlings’s Harry Potter series, magical families seem to pretty reliably produce offspring with magic. But muggle-born witches and wizards, like Hermione or Harry’s mother, Lily, aren’t uncommon either.

Or, is magic something invested by some ritual or acquired or awakened in some other way? If so, is there a cost to gaining magical abilities? In Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series, magic users must “Snap” to awaken their latent magic. This requires an emotional or physical trauma, often a near-death experience. While, some of the nobles in Mistborn are ruthless enough to submit their children to a severe beating to try to make them “Snap”, even then, not everyone will. And, of course, the nobility have no monopoly on trauma; the farmer trampled by his own oxen or the convict beaten by the prison guards may “Snap” when a noble youth does not.

However, if the process needed to awaken the magic can be controlled—well, then you have the possibility of one group, the elites, monopolizing the process and excluding everyone else. And the question of what those others might do to create their own ritual so they could get magic of their own and use it against their overlords.

In my Arthurian story, there won’t be many humans who can do actual magic. Those few will have a natural gift, but . . . I don’t think I’m going to be able to—or want to—ignore those two springs at the base of Glastonbury Tor: the Red Spring (now called the Chalice Well) and the White Spring. And that tantalizing (possibly) maze-like path up to the tor. Yeah, there’s going to have to be some sort of initiation to improve access to natural magic.

Read Full Post »

Who Can Do Magic in This Story?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on August 8, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Some examples might be helpful here.

  • In Piers Anthony’s Xanth series, everyone has one magical talent. In fact, if you don’t demonstrate a magical talent by a certain age, you’re exiled to Mundania.
  • Likewise, in Patricia Wrede’s Frontier Magic series, everyone learns at least basic magic in school.
  • But, in the Harry Potter series, only a fraction of the population is able to become a witch or a wizard.
  • In Lindsay Buroker’s Dragon’s Blood and Heritage of Power series, the only ones who can perform magic are descended from dragons.

If everyone can do magic, then there’s not likely to be much in the way of a torches-and-pitchforks, burn-them-at-the-stake response to magic users. Though, there still may be some distrust of the powerful magicians.

But, if it’s limited to a few . . . well, that raises some other questions. Is it essential for those who use magic to hide it from their non-magical neighbors, as in Harry Potter? What happens if the muggles find out about them?

Or are magicians accepted as useful members of society as in Patricia Wrede’s and Elizabeth Stevermer’s Cecilia and Kate novels? If so, are the magic users automatically part of the elite? Or are ordinary folk magic users, too?

Or do the magic users use their abilities to make themselves the rulers of the non-magical population? And, if so, what’s the reaction to that? And how much (if at all) do the non-magic users resent that?

Do the religious institutions employ/conscript magic users? How do they use them? And how do they feel about magic users who aren’t under their control?

Or, as with the Lakewalkers in Lois McMaster Bujold’s Sharing Knife series, do the magic users feel a responsibility to spend their lives fighting the things that regular people can’t fight?

Or, of course, any combination of the above.

In the Arthurian story I’m working on, there may still be a fair number of people keeping alive the knowledge of herb lore and methods of divination, but those with actual magic will be few. Between the antipathy of the Romans and the Christian church, they will be isolated and at least somewhat secret. I have yet to work out exactly how they’ll defend their space, but I suspect part of it will depend on rumors and tales of the danger of breaching its boundaries. Fortunately, some such stories did actually circulate about the high ground around Glastonbury Tor, which may have been considered a boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead—ant therefore dangerous—at one time.

Read Full Post »

Creating Magic Systems

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on August 2, 2021| Leave a Comment »

I’ve reached a point in my Arthurian story where I’m going to have to start writing something about the (very limited) human magic systems. Merlin’s magic is based on draconic abilities and I can do anything I please with that. But any purely human magic systems in fifth-century Britain would be based—at least somewhat—on the original Druidic practices. Somewhat, because the Romans appear, uncharacteristically, to have done their best to squelch the Druids. (The Romans were usually fairly lenient toward local religious customs.) And, of course, because Christianity would have come to Britain sometime in the fourth century and that would have had some effect on how—and by who—the ancient practices were carried on.

So, I have tried to do some research on the Druids. Unfortunately, the only really reliable answer I’ve been able to arrive at is: Nobody knows. The bare handful of ancient writings by Greeks or Romans contemporary with the Druids barely say anything about their practices. And most of those are phrased by comparison, always unfavorably, to Greek or Roman practices, which actually says more about the attitudes of the writers than about the Druids themselves. Later writers appear to have made up a lot of what they say they know.

About the only thing that seems reasonably certain is that the Druids did have some methods of divination and might have also had some knowledge of healing and herbs.

So, it looks like I’m going to have to make up whatever magic system I use for the few humans who will have the ability. And, in this case, try to make it fit into a fifth-century context. Fortunately, I intend for any real magic (as opposed to herb lore, for example) to be fairly rare and somewhat limited.

Nevertheless, I thought now might be a good time to go into some of the questions I might ask myself in developing a magic system for one of my stories. These questions don’t always need to be answered in the story, but I may need to know the answers, even if my characters don’t. Also, some of the answers can be fodder for more conflict or obstacles for my story.

  1. Who can do magic?
  2. How do they acquire magic?
  3. Where does the magic come from?
  4. What is needed to perform magic?
  5. What can magic do?
  6. Are magic users organized in some way? How?

Read Full Post »

Some More Thoughts on the Heroic Journeys

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on July 25, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Sometimes, it takes a while for ideas to percolate and then for me to voice them—to myself, first.

Another point Gail Carriger made in her book, THE HEROINE’S JOURNEY, is that readers or audiences of the two journeys are after different things. Those who favor the Hero’s/Warrior’s Journey are looking for excitement. Hairs-Breadth Escapes! Battles! Starships exploding! (Even in space, where there’s no oxygen, but . . . never mind.) Those who favor the Heroine’s/Leader’s Journey are not averse to excitement, but they’re looking for something else. She calls it comfort, which is as good a way to describe it as I can come up with. The satisfaction that things come out all right, happily, in the end—which the Hero’s/Warrior’s Journey doesn’t deliver.

However, when I think of LORD OF THE RINGS, I can’t help noticing something. Frodo is definitely on a Hero’s/Warrior’s Journey, but most of his solitary battle is internal, fighting against the growing influence of the Ring. After the breaking of the fellowship, almost all of the “exciting” bits—the battles—take place in Aragorn’s part of the story. Helm’s Deep, the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, and the Assault on the Black Gate. And, as I argued here, Aragorn is on a Heroine’s/Leader’s Journey.

Which leaves me thinking. If a Heroine’s/Leader’s Journey supplies enough excitement along the way . . . well, I suppose some of the adrenalin junkies might think the ending is sappy, but they got the excitement they were after, so they’re not disappointed. And those looking for the satisfying ending of the Heroine’s/Leader’s Journey still got that.

Is it possible to please both with the same story? It seems so, but I need to think some more on just how to make that work.

Read Full Post »

The Question of Length

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on May 23, 2021| 4 Comments »

This issue isn’t really about reader expectations, much. It’s just something of a reality about the two sub-genres. And something I’ve been thinking about.

Sword and Sorcery stories are almost always short—no longer than novel-length at most and often shorter. Where the main character(s) of a Sword and Sorcery spawn a series, it’s almost always episodic—each story is a separate adventure. Like detective fiction, the only common denominator in the series is the protagonist(s). (And I only say ‘almost’ because there may actually be an exception out there, but, if so, I can’t think of it.)

  • Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian stories were mostly novelettes or novellas . A novelette is basically a very long short story, from 30 pages to 60 pages long. A novella is from 60 pages to 200 pages. A more or less average novel (if there is such a thing) would be about 400 pages, though anything over 200 pages counts and, of course, some are much longer.
  • Same with Fritz Lieber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories.
  • Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibone started out the same, but did grow into several novel-length works as well.

Whereas, although I can think of a few single-book examples, for Epic Fantasy more often than not a series is the default. A reader expectation, in fact.

  • Lord of the Rings is one very long story published in 3 volumes, adding up to (in my copy) almost 1100 pages (excluding the appendices).
  • David and Leigh Eddings’s Belgariad and Malorean are each 5 volumes.
  • Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, finished by Brandon Sanderson, is . . . 14 volumes and over 10,000 pages!

My theory about that is that the smaller stakes of Sword and Sorcery cannot support a longer story. The goal simply isn’t worth it when that many obstacles and risks begin to pile up. There are, after all, other possible adventures and, probably, other treasures and a character smart enough to be interesting ought to recognize that at some point. But the obstacles and risks are much more worth it if the character is saving the world.

I also think that failure to realize the difference between Sword and Sorcery and Epic Fantasy—especially when it comes to length—can cause a story to fail. We, as readers or audience, lose interest if the stakes are too low to support the weight of the story.

Read Full Post »

Epic Fantasy that Doesn’t Save the World in One Battle

Posted in writing, tagged , , on April 25, 2021| Leave a Comment »

There are stories that don’t fit the Tolkien mold. Not as many as there should be, but it’s hard to defy reader expectations.

For my money, the best of these is Lois McMaster Bujold’s SHARING KNIFE series, which consists of four full-length books, and one novella: BEGUILEMENT, LEGACY, PASSAGE, HORIZON, and “Knife Children”.

Like LORD OF THE RINGS, the SHARING KNIFE is not really a series in the classic sense, but more of one long story published in four parts, with the follow-on novella published later. It shares a lot of other similarities with LoTR, too. Intentionally, since the author was consciously writing an answer to LoTR.

The world of THE SHARING KNIFE doesn’t have a single Dark Lord. Instead, an ancient magical experiment went very wrong, seeding the world with an unknown number of dormant monsters called malices or blight bogles that emerge randomly. Each malice essentially eats the essence of the world around it, creating a blight reminiscent of the aftermath of a nuclear blast—everything in the area dies and nothing can live in that area for decades, centuries, or, in extreme cases, millennia. It’s dangerous even to step into such blight. And the longer a malice lives, the more powerful it becomes and the more of the world it blights to sustain itself.

And only one group of humans, called Lake Walkers, can kill malices. Only they, with their innate magic, can make the weapon necessary to kill a malice—a knife made from the thigh bone of a Lake Walker and primed by being plunged into the heart of a dying Lake Walker, so that the knife can capture the essence of that death to share with a malice and teach it to die. Two Lake Walker deaths for each malice death.

Lake Walkers patrol obsessively to find and kill malices before they can do too much damage, with no hope that the threat will be eradicated in their lifetimes. Only hoping that the long war will not be lost in their lifetimes. Their lives are defined by this task. Meanwhile the rest of humanity lives largely in blissful ignorance, most not even believing that blight bogles exist. But if ever a malice escapes such a death, it will destroy the world.

For further analysis of the similarities—and differences—between LotR and THE SHARING KNIFE, try these two articles:

Tussling with Tolkien: Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Sharing Knife: Horizon | Tor.com 

Absent Gods, Absent Catastrophes : The Sharing Knife and The Lord of the Rings – DataHead — LiveJournal

I love LotR, but there are more than enough stories now following that pattern. And, frankly, one-dimensional dark lords and simple solutions are beginning to get a little old.

I want more stories like THE SHARING KNIFE, too. And others in which the answer isn’t simple—or immediate. (Simple is not the same as easy. Destroying the ring to destroy Sauron is a simple solution, but anything by easy to accomplish.) But that kind of story—even though it may have many exciting battles—doesn’t seem to satisfy readers of epic fantasy, who have been taught to expect the one battle to end all battles.

I don’t know, maybe we need a new sub-genre of epic fantasy for these kinds of story. But what would we call it?

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »