  Fantasy
This week: A Work in Progress Edited by: Storm Machine  
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When I look for Fantasy Editor's Picks, so often I see parts of stories. (We're going to forget for a moment all the ones that have erotica as another choice and just focus on the true Fantasy genre.) One of the reason I don't pick those is I'm not sure if they're finished. Sometimes I look through an item and see it listed as chapters - one today had Chapters 1 and 2 and only about three paragraphs of Chapter 3.
How many times have you read a work-in-progress and been disappointed to never see it completed?
Finishing a novel takes a lot of determination and planning. I'm not saying that it has to be plotted in advance. I know authors who start writing 'by the seat of their pants' and complete those novels in due time.
A novel, at least for Fantasy or Science Fiction, is generally between 70,000 and 120,000 words. Some of them can be longer, though an unestablished author may have trouble finding a home for a first novel much longer than 120,000 words.
To finish that first novel, or the pesky project that refuses to be ended, what do you need to figure out? If someone else can help you see through the blind spots, recruit your favorite critique partner to give you a hand. Take a hard look at the characters, the plot, and the point where you left off. Is the problem that you don't know where to go? Did you run out of conflict? Are you telling the story from the wrong character's point of view? Do you have too many threads to keep going? Did you just run out of time to work on the project? Did you forget what was supposed to happen next?
You have to be willing to go back and fix what might have gone wrong. You must devote the time to write until it's finished. It's very difficult to admit you're getting in the way of the story the characters are trying to tell. Brainstorm ideas about the worst things that could happen to the characters and then make it even worse. Make it unexpected and believable at the same time. (Believable for the world and genre of Fantasy gets a lot more leeway than something like Romance, so make that count. You can have that husband that was doting yesterday turn into a random evil demon tomorrow as long as you set the stage.)
How do you know you're done? Your characters each have a tale to tell. When they've come to the greatest conflict and you've raised the stakes as high as you can, you have to resolve it and make a choice of what happens. They'll grow and change somewhere during the story. After that, you're done. Don't drag out the end with the happy ending. But that's a topic for another newsletter and a much easier problem to fix. |
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You wake up in a room that looks like an operating room, with a blood-spattered man nearby
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Rain_Maker  This is an interesting concept. Money is the cause of many problems, but would a world without it really be better? Once it is has existed, surely getting rid of it would only make matters worse 
Who knows?
BIG BAD WOLF is Howling  I always enjoy a good fantasy story. In fact, I tend to use elements of it in my own stories.
Sounds like a good thing.
LJPC - the tortoise Hi Storm! I enjoyed reading your newsletter. I hadn't realized that the Trekkers had gotten rid of money. Most Sci-Fi references "credits", which I just assumed meant money in the bank was called "credits" in the future.
You're right, it's very important to build a fantasy world that is logical and ordered - even if it's based on faulty logic and chaos as in dystopian novels. Things must make sense.
Good newsletter!  -- Laura
It's probably obscure, but it comes up every now and again. The Ferengi still have their Gold-Pressed Latinum, of course. Good luck making sense (or even cents) in your next story.
atwhatcost Thank you! I've been a Trekie since the first Star Trek series and have never bought the no-money principle either. Sure, you can replicate dinner, but they're building spacecrafts. How do they decide to build a house? It can't be simply because I want one. Everybody wants one, but who decides they'll put in that much effort for no particular reason?
And the peaceful society never worked for me considering they have weapons and use them often. Yes, I'm a Trekie fan, even now. (Thank God for reruns.) But sometimes I have to ignore their preaching to enjoy the fantasy.
 As long as you do get to enjoy the fantasy, it works. Right?
Light I feel "different ways to run societies" to be a very interesting subject. I have written some about such societies. But, little of that is here.
What I find works, is a credit system for luxuries -- with a cap -- for the positive work you do, the essentials of life are free, and having all but privet affairs a part of public record. Such a system would be both motovating and liberating. But then, I'm New Age.
Glad you found something that works for you.
emeraldswordmaster I do similar to what you say, except I base my Characters on my friends and family sometimes, what they look like, how they wear their hair, their voice etc.
Fictionalized is still fiction. Unless you get sued.
Alan Philps Great Newsletter Storm. I love the concept of a no money society, in fact this was one of the problems they had in ancient Egyptian society. Everythign was traded with a bushel of grain being the common currency. They were official rates of exchange for various commodities. One camel = 200 bushels of corn etc.
And I guess we all know what happened to the Egyptians.
ambrosiaa hmmm I loved all the stories, they are filled with ideas and imagination beyond what we know or admit. I took so many great ideas and thoughts for my own work. Thank you for the amazing newsletter.
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Fantasy: September 22, 2010 Issue [#3979]
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