Writing That Fantasy Novel, Part 3

A lot went on since last week. Well, writing-wise, not much happened, unfortunately. Life will do that, won't it? Between being sick and my mother in the hospital again, all I felt like doing was to read. It gave me a chance to cast a more critical eye on what I already had written and I had to be honest, I did not like where it was going. Also, I think my readership would have been very narrow as far as who would enjoy reading about the main character as he was.

So, yes, I changed it all around. Hey, like my blog says, I'm the Troubled Writer.

I like my new line of thinking for the story and a lot of the basic plot is the same. The main character, Marek, is still part of a team to escort a mage to a dangerous location. He falls for the mage, thinking she is someone else, they reach the destination and sort of succeed.

There have been a few very significant changes, however. I had touched on the Mastery system of the society before, where everyone's goal in life is to choose a profession and become considered a Master at it. This becomes more important now. Families almost always followed in the same jobs and when they did not it often resulted in a scandal and relocation. But what to do with orphans who have no family at all? That is where Marek fell into. I dealt with that by turning his best friend into his mentor. I was finding his friend character did not play much of a part in the story except as a sounding board and it was getting old. This way works much better and I can still have Marek develop a friendship with another character as they travel.

I also feel like I have a better reason for why all of this is going on and I was able to raise the stakes without making it cliché. A lot of the epic fantasies I've read have one thing in common: an invading force is on the way. I'm trying to avoid that and I think I've done it by making the crisis involve more of an impending doom that involves everyone and everything. Basically, if the main character and his party fail, every living thing in the realm will be affected. Kind of like a man-made disaster that can be stopped by repairing something natural, if that makes sense.

So, my goal this week is to plot out my scene cards and start writing all over again. At least I can take comfort in how I was only a few scenes into the story before I realized it's flaws. Thanks for reading, and keep on writing.