Are You Writing Serious Fantasy? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Saxony Tarn · 08-26-2002, 02:11 PM

also sprach Nar:

"How do you get a character in trouble..."

oh, ho -- Nar, whose thoughts on the latest postings of my tale i eagerly await, you have opened a can of worms here. Allow me to bait my hook and do a little fly-fishing.

Basically, given how autonomous my characters are, i wind them up and let them go. i need not lead them into trial and tribulation, they're perfectly capable of finding it -- Hell, in Boromir's case with "Trust Me", getting into the occasional tiff with Iarangol over who exactly is in charge here, or interpreting Rhigellan's teasing at full face value plus interest, MAKING it -- themselves.

Keeping such a dynamic going is also difficult, as if it trades on the same old foil for twenty chapters, it gets abrasive in five. As you, meaning Nar, Lila, LMP & anyone else who's been drafted to read this, will eventually deduce, Denial is a river to dwarf the Anduin, and Bor' spends a good part of the story hip-deep in it, but with regards to more than just one issue, and each one he discovers and deals with is a step out for him. (although you'd think that by about Chapter Twenty, he'd start to notice something cold, wet, and possessed of a none-too-shabby undercurrent soaking through his clothes...) How to keep the dynamic going on that one? Save some of those issues for later by not hitting the reader with all of them. (Okay, he's almost reached the rocks -- oh no, here comes the flood tide! Sort of an, okay, sport, now if you can just get over this you'll be clear...)

Some of my other characters would freely blame their maladies on their luck, but if they ever learned from those experiences & avoided all potentially trying situations, i wouldn't have stories!

s.t.

08-26-2002, 02:11 PM	#11
Saxony Tarn Wight Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: a western shore Posts: 132	also sprach Nar: "How do you get a character in trouble..." oh, ho -- Nar, whose thoughts on the latest postings of my tale i eagerly await, you have opened a can of worms here. Allow me to bait my hook and do a little fly-fishing. Basically, given how autonomous my characters are, i wind them up and let them go. i need not lead them into trial and tribulation, they're perfectly capable of finding it -- Hell, in Boromir's case with "Trust Me", getting into the occasional tiff with Iarangol over who exactly is in charge here, or interpreting Rhigellan's teasing at full face value plus interest, MAKING it -- themselves. Keeping such a dynamic going is also difficult, as if it trades on the same old foil for twenty chapters, it gets abrasive in five. As you, meaning Nar, Lila, LMP & anyone else who's been drafted to read this, will eventually deduce, Denial is a river to dwarf the Anduin, and Bor' spends a good part of the story hip-deep in it, but with regards to more than just one issue, and each one he discovers and deals with is a step out for him. (although you'd think that by about Chapter Twenty, he'd start to notice something cold, wet, and possessed of a none-too-shabby undercurrent soaking through his clothes...) How to keep the dynamic going on that one? Save some of those issues for later by not hitting the reader with all of them. (Okay, he's almost reached the rocks -- oh no, here comes the flood tide! Sort of an, okay, sport, now if you can just get over this you'll be clear...) Some of my other characters would freely blame their maladies on their luck, but if they ever learned from those experiences & avoided all potentially trying situations, i wouldn't have stories! s.t. __________________ <-- who, me? Take the Ring? Betray the Fellowship?? Nah -- couldn't be ME, i'm too cute...