Patricia C. Wrede's Blog, page 2

July Open Mike

Open mike again already! Talk about whatever you like. I finally got the climax finished, in spite of all the life chaos! Now I need the wrap-up, and then I can send it off to my editor, and start The Next Thing while I wait for revisions

“Good ideas”

“The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas and only keep the good ones.” – Linus Pauling I love that quote—it applies to so many things besides ideas—but it begs the question: how can you tell which ones are the good

Heroes, protagonists, and viewpoint characters, but mostly heroes

Just as “villain” and “antagonist” are frequently used as synonyms, “hero” and “protagonist” are also confused a lot. But there is an added factor for some people, namely, where “main character” and “viewpoint character” fit. So first, some definitions and examples. “Main character” is a somewhat broader

Villains and Antagonists, but Mostly Villains

“Villain” and “Antagonist” are frequently used as synonyms, because they fill roughly the same niche in a story. They aren’t quite the same thing, though. Villains are fundamentally evil; antagonists aren’t necessarily evil, or even bad. Stories always have some sort of antagonist, but that antagonist is

Finding Writing Exercises I Like

Writing books and classes are really fond of writing exercises, especially the ones that are intended for classroom use. I hated them for years—to me, they always seemed like a waste of time. I wanted to be attempting to write pay copy, even if my “pay copy”

My Fourth Street, 2025

Fourth Street Fantasy Convention has been one of my favorite cons—in both its incarnations—for years. Some years, I have a love/hate relationship with it, but I keep coming back. This year was no exception—I spent last weekend there, which is why you are getting a summary rather

June Open Mike!

It’s open mike day again! Chat amongst yourselves, brag, complain, nag, ask questions, whatever.

Running first

Whoever said “walk before you run” never spent much time with toddlers. Sure, toddlers start off trying to figure out balance and hanging on to coffee tables and couches in order to stay upright. But every last one of the ones I’ve met, once they let go

Endings are Beginnings (and Vice Versa)

Every beginning is the end of something, and every ending is the start of something new. It follows that every beginning holds the seeds of its own eventual end. Those new shoots in the vegetable garden are the end of the seeds I planted two weeks ago,

Modern vs. Period Fairy Tale Retelling

Folk tales and fairy stories have been around for as long as people have. Specific details don’t always stay the same—there are over 300 versions of the story we mostly know as “Cinderella.” Some use a ring as identification, rather than a shoe; in others she attends