Comments on: Onward and onward http://pcwrede.com/blog/onward-and-onward/ Patricia C. Wrede talks about writing Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:33:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: pcwrede http://pcwrede.com/blog/onward-and-onward/comment-page-1/#comment-1804 pcwrede Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:03:04 +0000 http://pcwrede.com/blog/?p=447#comment-1804 Chicoy – Being able to dig deep into various different parts of an imaginary setting is one of the things that appeals to a lot of writers who do series…but it’s often easier to do with a set of stand-alones that share a background than it is to do with a closed series with a central plot-arc. With a set of related stand-alones, the author can spend an entire book in one spot, and then, if it’s not exhausted, another one; with a closed-end series, the central plot has to start moving along at some point, and that can be before the author is really ready.

accio_aqualung – When the plot takes off, you know you have the characters in the right spot. Quite often, it’s not where you thought they’d be, but writing is like that.

]]> By: Chicoy http://pcwrede.com/blog/onward-and-onward/comment-page-1/#comment-1803 Chicoy Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:12:14 +0000 http://pcwrede.com/blog/?p=447#comment-1803 :) I used to love the Redwall books, too. (I stopped around Marlfox). They’re actually the books that made me decide to try a Heroic Quest.

]]> By: accio_aqualung http://pcwrede.com/blog/onward-and-onward/comment-page-1/#comment-1802 accio_aqualung Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:58:57 +0000 http://pcwrede.com/blog/?p=447#comment-1802 I used to read Pern and Redwall but those series grew unwieldly long and I grew bored.

Similar to Chicoy’s exploration theme – One thing I sometimes do is put everyone in an alternate universe. My Magnum Opus is set in some fictional kingdom with quaint horses and stuff. If their characters got stuck, I’d try dropping them in the 21st century to see what happened and work out some personality kinks. This was fun until the plot took off and I’m not sure if my characters will escape high school unscathed, so it kind of backfired on me. … er .. oops..

]]> By: Chicoy http://pcwrede.com/blog/onward-and-onward/comment-page-1/#comment-1801 Chicoy Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:06:13 +0000 http://pcwrede.com/blog/?p=447#comment-1801 One great thing about a multi-volume series is that you can get the exploration effect. I once tried to write a traditional `hero’s journey’ story and I couldn’t do it. Every time I got attached to a place, it would be time for the heroes to leave. But when I divided the story into three books I was able to fully develop the different settings and no longer felt like my story was zipping all over the place like a pin-ball.

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