Patricia C. Wrede's Blog, page 19

Designing Magic

Fantasy writers are often advised to know the rules for your magic. But knowing the rules does not necessarily mean that writers need to make up a list of dos and donts and a lot of magical theory. What they do need to know and keep consistent are the things about how magic works that are most likely to affect the story.

The most critical aspects of magic that affect the story are often obvious from the idea, characters, or plot that the writer is starting with. If the writer knows that the...

Getting Started

Lots of people are spending more time at home right now than theyre used to, and quite a few of them seem to have decided to actually work on writing that novel theyve had a yen to write for years. The kids and true pantsers sat down and started banging away at the keys at least, the ones who are confident enough did. Most of the rest have run into problems, the vast majority of which boil down to I dont know how to get started.

This initial roadblock has its roots in the fact that most of...

Did You Really Want To Go Full-Time?

What with the pandemic and self-isolating and stay-at-home orders, Ive been seeing a lot of advice sites tell people to start writing that novel now!

Ive also seen my in-box fill up with emails from people who suddenly dont have to commute, arent going out with friends every night, and dont understand why theyre having so much trouble writing that novel now! This is for them.

Dear would-be and part-time writer:

You know how you always said you wanted to write full-time? Make a living telling...

Whack-A-Mole Plotting

Lately, Ive run across a number of novels that suffer from the same structural and plotting flaws. I believe this is a result of misunderstanding how the various plot skeletons work, especially the journey-based ones.

To refresh everybodys memory, the basic plot skeleton goes something like this: Main Character has problem. *MC tries to solve problem. MC fails. MC tries again; repeat from asterisk until work is almost as long as needed. On final iteration, MC succeeds in solving problem....

Making it Clear

Glad to see you had fun without me last week! I hope everyone is staying safe and well. I like the idea of a periodic open-thread day any thoughts on how often?

Meanwhile, back to the post that was supposed to be up last week

Making it clear to the reader for a given scene comes in two parts. First, there are the key things that the reader must get from the scene; second, theres everything else.

Key things a reader must get from the scene vary, even if   sometimes, especially if its an...

Minicon

April, 2021  Minneapolis, MN

Apologies

Technical difficulties have occurred and may recur. Tiny elves are working to restore regular service as soon as possible. The blog post wont appear until next week. You know how those tiny elves can be.

Scene Choreography

Writing is not a visual medium. All of the images and mental movies are products of imagination the writers imagination and the readers imaginationand the two may not quite agree.

This usually doesnt matter when it comes to objects. The writer usually mentions any aspects of the shoes, the knife, or the piano that are vital to the plot, and lets the reader fill in relevant details. Movement, on the other hand, is far more troublesome.

The trouble comes in two parts: first, the writer has to...

Making Art

“The basic craft of drawing is about two things: you learn to control your hand and to see.” – Ralph Ammer

Talking about what art is can go on forever – as I said last week, the only definition that I think works universally is “Art is what I am pointing at when I say ‘That’s art!’” But I-know-it-when-I-see-it doesn’t do much to help anyone make art.

In my personal experience, the people I’ve known who were seriously trying to create art above all else (whether they’ve been painters,...

So…Art.

So I promised you all a post about the art side of writing, even though it’s not really in my wheelhouse. Why do I do these things? (Actually, you’re probably going to get a couple of related posts, because I turn out to Have Opinions. I am sure this comes as a great surprise to all of you.)

A week’s worth of rather varied reading and research on the subject has led me to the conclusion that the only halfway-correct definition of “art” is the exact same one that works for “science fiction,”...