Before I start, I just want to make it clear that, in this case, I’m not lumping all characters who have strong beliefs into the idealistic set. This rant deals, instead, with protagonists or secondaries who have both strong ideals and a lack of information about how they apply to the pragmatic world, or about their consequences.

( So this rant is about moving them towards seeing those applications, or those consequences )

This rant is very similar to one I did a little while ago, things Limyaael thinks would be really cool. Transformative fantasy isn’t a defined genre of fantasy as such. It’s one I’m defining. The books I like best tend to have at least one of these qualities, and the more they have, the better I like them. Summed up, they tend to add up to:

( Change is Lord, and God )

A while ago, I did a rant on putting characters through hell. While I’m a big fan of that, I’m also a big fan of not getting melodramatic, and making it seem as though the hellish events actually fit into the story. So…

( Fitting them into the story )

And off we go on this one. Once again, I think I should define the term in the title of the rant as I’m using it: reader empathy, here, is the ability to tie the readers to your characters and make them feel for those characters. That isn’t the same as sympathy, which involves an element of wanting the characters to succeed. That’s because reader ( Read more... )

Well, this one was the winner by the most votes I’ve ever seen in a poll, so up it goes.

( Real, deep-down, grinding HELL )

This time, a rant for no one in particular: just something I wanted to do.

( How I can adore long fantasy series and dread reading them at the same time )

Mainly this applies to long series, or multiple series with the same themes. I've written both, and noticed some of the same problems in each. Some advice to keep the characters changing, in the service of change rather than static formulas ( Read more... )