Category: For Writers: Builder’s Theory
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Discussing Fantasy Word Counts
When someone first begins writing books, one of the first things they learn is that page count is far, far less important on the writing end of novels than it is for the reading end. Books are rarely the same dimensions, whether that be in length, height, or both. Line spacing, margins, font and font…
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Tiers of Fantasy Setting Development
Today I wanted to talk about a topic that I brushed upon briefly in my last post about fantastical entities in Wheel of Time, and that has to do with how much the author allows their world to diverge from the real world, most particular in high fantasy. As is the case with most of…
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The Making of Mythical Creatures (WoT Setting Study #3)
In continuation of our extensive Wheel of Time setting studies, I would like to turn a piece of world-building we have not touched upon at all, and that is the inclusion of mythical creatures. As with practically every other facet of world-building, Jordan was not content to pull from existing fantastical creatures, and chose instead…
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Let’s Talk Tropes: The Lost Heir
In a genre that likes to play with monarchy, it’s no surprise that several fantasy stories have a big toolbox when it comes to throne-related tropes. For a genre, too, that frequently attempts to set its protagonist apart from everyone else, transforming them from something “common” to something “special,” it is perhaps also unsurprising that…
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Building a Magic System (WoT Setting Study #2)
Wheel of Time is known for many things, and for its readers, channeling is often touted as an impressive magic system. It is expansive, detailed, and well-thought-out. For those who are interested in a more present, harder magic system, the series offers as a template three major facets that differentiate channeling from other magic systems.…
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Let’s Talk Tropes: Love Triangles
To the dismay of many young adult readers, the number of love triangle plot-lines exploded, in thanks, no doubt, to the success of the Twilight series. Fortunately, it did not become a staple of the fantasy genre, but a reader browsing the shelves still wouldn’t be surprised to find that a book’s synopsis hinted at…
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Let’s Talk Tropes: Instalove
Look, in a single book, there’s only so much time that two character has to fall in love with each other. Books take place in a single time-frame, and often, it’s one that spans days, weeks, or maybe months. Rarely years. Even Wheel of Time, a massive fourteen-book series, only takes place over the course…
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The Various Roles of Minor Characters
Welcome back to our discussions of minor characters. You can find the first of these posts here, where we discuss the various levels and dimensionality of characters who play a smaller role than the protagonist. Today, I want to expand on that post by delving into the different functions that a minor character might have…
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Let’s Talk Tropes: The Quest
Our last tropes discussion talked about Chosen Ones–ironically, one of the biggest character tropes in the fantasy genre. Today, I decided to focus on one of the best-known plot tropes of the genre: the quest. A quest is a trip that one or more characters–quite often, a group–embarks on in order to accomplish some important…
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The Craft of Building Minor Characters
Most people on the internet will tell you how to create your protagonist and antagonist. You know, the ones who admittedly get the most page time. But most people are also hesitant to attempt explaining how one might go about creating the less important characters that will appear throughout your story. It’s a fair problem,…
Katie Bachelder 