The question I’ve never been asked is: What is that weird symbol on your blog? It’s from one of the writing systems I devised for my fantasy story. It’s the Tolar writing system, and the symbol simply says Dave. I liked the look of it, and so that’s why it’s there. If I had my artistic wishes fulfilled, I would have some bit of the Tolar or Lotath (associated con-lang) show-up in a published version of this story. Someday maybe… right?
Tag Archives: fantasy writing
Just another domestic sunday
Today was a woefully unproductive writing day. I think I managed to get down two lines of poem before once again becoming distracted by the celestial scope of housework that needed my attention. If all goes well, the kids will go down in half an hour, and I’ll be able to focus. It’s not that I’m not thinking about my story, I’m just not able to put in the concentration necessary to work through my current issue.
Last night, after I got back from what can only be described as an epic alpine adventure, I opened my laptop and stared blankly at the chapter I have been working on in my story. The three main characters of this plot-line (I do have a single sub-plot for this book that follows different characters) were essentially sitting around a fire, staring at one another and asking what next? Unfortunately, I was right there with them, blank stare and all. Part of the reason for this is that the explanation of events and character motivation leading to the end of the story, as it stands, is flimsy. If my characters launched off in the planned direction, some pretty important pieces of the story wouldn’t make sense (I could make it work, probably, but I’d hate it). My solution? Well, this is one of the reasons concentration is essential to fixing things. I am going to change the timeline a bit by going back in time a couple of chapters, where I will add in one long or two shortish chapters. If done properly, it will give my main character the motivation he needs in order to head off in the direction he was already going, and also beyond. If I remain focused, I’ll also be able to write those new chapters in such a way that following chapters should only require moderate revision. Not only that, the more I consider this solution, I realize it’s not just a good idea for plotting, it’s going to be an essential element to the development of the character. So, here I go…
The strong female character
In the chapter I’m banging through right now, I’m just past the part where I’ve introduced a female character, the first of any consequence for the story. She is by far my favorite character. Not so much because of the role she plays, although it’s important, but because she was the first character I’d ever written who simply jumped off the page and told ME who she was. In fact, the plot of my whole story totally sucked until she walked into my main character’s dreams and tries to kill him. (I generally think this sort of description of how characters are created as total flowery bullshit, I usually think about it as a long intense process. However, this really happened. My wife wrote a couple of pages about this woman before she was introduced into the story, and this is what happened when I let the character loose in the events of my story.)
I am fighting hard against the cliche of the type of woman one might think of with bad fantasy. Her favored garb consists of drab cloaks and armor that conceal her nature. (yes she’s still beautiful, but it’s not the first impression of the main character, it will take time for him to see it) She is the body-guard, and not the other way around. She is not the totally indestructible warrior princess either. Yes, she’s very good, and very mouthy about it, but she’s as susceptible to a misstep as any man. I’d describe her relationship with the main character as similar that of Brienne of Tarth and Jamie Lannister from Game of Thrones, though in my story I would say my female is both Jamie and Brienne in one person (I look forward to the day where a reader might read far enough in to argue the point). Also, my female character is much more like to equal my male lead than the Brienne/Jamie situation. In a male-dominated society of my story (Yes, so typical of high fantasy, why not get rid of that – I did consider it. My wife, however, suggested it would be a difficult thing for an amateur such as myself to pull off without sounding patronizing.), having equal females shouldn’t really happen, but I can’t help myself in this case. The character is so strong, she knocks past all of those barriers and demands they stay down. What I hope is that the strategy of allowing her to take charge as she has done so far makes for a believable, engaging and cohesive world, and not a disjointed, confused mess.
On Writing Dragons 