Magic

I've been working on my magic system and, though I've been doing well, I am beginning to wonder if I can really do this at all. I mean, magic is such a vast realm I don't think I would ever be able to explore every corner of it, even for just my world. I am thinking that I will plan the general rules of the magics that will appear in my books, and probably a bit further, but there will be much that I won't be able to touch on. Some will just have to be left to the imagination.

I mean, take Harry Potter for example. The magic in there is very ambiguous in my opinion. But it still works. The reader is given just enough rules and structure for this magic while leaving a vast majority of it to the imagination. Some fans who write fanfiction for Harry Potter have come up with detailed amounts of rules and structure to explain how and why the magic in their fanfic works the way it does or even how magic exist and all that. They give more depth, more possibilities, whole new realms to build on what are already in the books. And, well, lots of it are viable ways for magic to work, even in the Harry Potter books themselves.

And this is because J. K. Rowling left a lot to the readers imagination.

Maybe she does have detailed descriptions for exactly why and how her magic works in a journal of hers somewhere, but if she does I haven't heard anything about it and so it gives fans something to fill in with varying theories. And that's fun. That is something I would love to give to my readers, heck, even to myself.

I mean, if I were to give rules and structure to every little single thing there would be no flexibility, no ambiguity, and without those I believe the whole appeal of magic kinda goes away. Cause where's the magic in that? At that point, it would kinda be reduced to science, I think.

So I'm going to plan what needs to be planned, keep blank what can be left to the imagination and give space for there to be many theories and ideas abound to any reader who comes across my book.

What do you guys think about this? Do you think that some stuff about magic should be left to the imagination? How far is too far when it comes to planning magic, in your opinion?

Foreshadowing in Real Life

Something very disheartening happened today. The water heater broke. But by the end of the whole situation I realized something. Something that, amazingly, has to do with writing. But in order to explain, let me tell you what happened.

First off, it has been unexpectedly cold, extremely cold, which is the reason why all of this happened in the first place. Now then, last night, when I turned on the faucet on the separate side of the house a little trickle of water came out, then stopped. I knew the water had probably frozen and told my dad but he didn't seem to be concerned so I didn't worry. This morning the news said that the electrical companies wanted everyone to turn off things they may not be using to minimize the number of black outs that might happen, so the heater in the other part of the house, where the water had froze, was turned off. Later this afternoon I went to the pantry to make a sandwich for lunch and I heard some strange water-like noise from where the water heater is and immediately thought of flameable gas and the house exploding and stuff. Thankfully I was wrong, but the water heater had instead busted and was spewing water like a river. I hadn't even seen or felt the water I had walked over when I heard this (I was wearing slippers).

So, what does any of this have to do with writing? Well, this whole entire problem was perfectly foreshadowed! First, this cold front came in, foreshadow #1. Then the water had frozen, foreshadow #2. We turned off the heater in the back (which therefore made the water heater work harder at keeping the water hot, causing it to build up too much pressure), foreshadow #3. And then, boom! It busted!

It was so cool to realize that that it was almost worth it! I mean, come on. That, I think, is just like the foreshadowing leading up to Plot Point One. The water heater didn't just bust, there were all the signs leading up to it, and I can't call an event to mind where something like this was foreshadowed so perfectly.

I'm glad because this has shown me, to my face, how to foreshadow an event.

But on the other hand the other part of the house now has no water, so maybe I shouldn't be so glad.

Good day (or night), everyone!

Character Arc

Yesterday, Claudie A. posted about something she read in a book about writing. The book is Plot and Structure, and what Claudie posted about it is something that I've needed to know for awhile. It's a little tidbit about character arc. Now, you may not know this but The Chronicles, the whole trilogy, follows one big character arc, and a plot of course, but the character arc is just as important, if not more so, than the plot itself. I've been struggling with this because I'm not entirely sure how to drastically change a person throughout the course of the trilogy, or any length of time really. But this thing that was posted about character arc has helped clear some of the fog for me.

It's the four layers of protection that surround the core self-image everyone has of themselves. The four layers starting from the outermost to the innermost is: opinions, attitudes, values and beliefs. Change a couple opinions and an attitude changes, change a few attitudes and a value may change, change a couple values and a belief changes, change a few beliefs and, ultimately, the core self-image changes too.

That little bit of information has helped me immeasurably. I think I'll be getting that book too and see what else it has to say, and maybe look for a book or two specifically about the character arc. The funny thing is that I didn't entirely realize how badly I needed to know about the character arc until I read that post.

The way for planning this book is now a little bit clearer and I am so happy for this! Thank you Claudie.

Very Short Summaries

Hi everyone!

I have revamped my blog again. That last background with the black splatters and stuff just wasn't working for me, it was too dark and stuff. I like the way it is now, nice and clean and bright. I think I could live with it looking like this for awhile.

I've also updated my About Me page and added a Project page which lists the stories I'm working on and gives a short summary of each, if you've been curious about what any of my stories are about. And do you know what I realized when I was done with my project page? I wrote nearly perfect 1-2 sentence summaries for each. Which I have before agonized over because there was just NO way I could summarize my story in a single sentence or two for a query. Yet I did it without realizing. Nearly effortlessly. Huh. At least now I know that I can do it.

How many of you guys have had trouble summarizing your story in a single sentence? Or two? Or is it easy for you? If you have a single sentence summary and are willing to share, please do. I'd like to see other peoples summaries.

Happy writing!

A Somewhat Major Breakthrough

I have belatedly realized that my series needs a lot more work than previously anticipated.

A lot more.

Though, really, this shouldn't be so surprising to me. After all it was a NaNo and everything. But really, I don't think I could ever have expected the sheer amount of work that will need to go into this story. The research and the reworking and everything. Last night, I discovered that every single one of my characters are as flat as the paper they're written on, and will continue to be so unless I work on them. I learned that the world needs a lot more work, and not just the history and legends and that kind of thing,  but the lay of the land. Mountains, forests, things like that. Even the cities themselves are flat. The cities I wrote about have no character, aren't unique in any particular way. I didn't differentiate very much of anything between countries and the like, I actually hardly even mention them.

And then there is the magical system which needs to be much more defined and developed than it is at the moment. It's really quite pathetic right now I think. I've still gotta figure out the rules for the magic and so many things.

So, in short, my book is a pile of slush at the moment and is in desperate need of revisions and research.

But, even though I am a bit put out by this revelation, I am actually excited. Like, really excited. The only problem is that I'm not entirely sure where to start. I mean, I know what I need to research, but I just don't know where to start with it all.

But I did actually do something substantial regarding my story today. I greatly expanded the small map I had previously. I really like it, I want to take a picture of it but am wary of doing so. I had to break out the giant floor pad paper that we got years ago for my baby cousin. This thing is like two and a half foot wide and two foot tall. I traced my previous map onto here and then added to it, bringing more of the world onto the page. It's fabulous but still only a small fraction of the world. I have a very strong urge to tear out a bunch of these large pieces of paper and tape them together and draw until I have all the world finished. I might actually do that tonight, it sounds fun! But I have a feeling it will be ridiculously large. . .

I have decided that it is a near waste of time to read through my book any longer at this point because so much of it needs to be trashed and I already have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done. I'm going to get all this research and stuff out of the way so I can have a more developed world and more developed characters and then I will start over, write everything from scratch again. I have a feeling that by that point the whole story will be different, but I know that it will be a better different, and that it will be so much better than what I have right now.

And also, has anyone read or heard of The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss?

I remember finding it awhile ago and thinking it might be good but I never bought it or anything, just put it on the wish list. But the other day Ted Cross mentioned Patrick Rothfuss's blog and I checked it out and remembered The Name of the Wind, read the excerpt and have decided that it will probably be one of the best books I will have read.

I had totally forgotten about this book until the day before yesterday, but since then, I have been obsessed with it and made the mistake of tacking it on to what I want for Christmas. So now, I can't really buy it until after Christmas because someone may have bought it as a gift. I so wish I had said nothing.

And another awesome thing is that this is a BIG book. Like nearly 700 pages big. And his second book (which will be out in march)? Well, it's just over 900 pages long.

So, if anyone has read this book, please let me know what you thought! (Spoiler free, of course.)

Oh, Thanks, But I Would Have Liked To Know LAST MONTH!

I have just had a very important epiphany today regarding my story. Very important.

Almost everything I've been writing about should be in book two.

I feel sucker punched.

How the heck was I supposed to know!? Remnants - title and all - is book two! Only a small part of it is still book one, this is a absolute disaster! I'm supposed to be starting book two in a few days! Oh my gosh, this is just. . . I don't even know what to say.

Okay, let's see. The whole careful placing of plot points that I've written and carefully situated was all for naught because that should be in book two and I should have been concentrating on a whole other aspect in this book, and I can't believe I didn't see this earlier because now I've written 55,000 words of things that must go through superhorrificmajor changes! And then I have to recycle a lot of it into book two and make the mc all surprised/scared/etc. about the same thing all over again!

Well, I guess this is how it goes when writing a series. While I'm finishing up book one I guess I'll have to do my best to concentrate on what the book should have been leading up to and everything. And then book two shall be the way it's supposed to.

*sighing*

Well, I guess it's better to find out now than when I thought I was done with book two :] ;_;