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get over there, will you?
Time for you to find out someone stole from you, you prince. So go check.
I did give you a good enough reason to check.
I did give you a good enough reason to check.
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backwards runs the revision
On both stories I am working on, I realize I must go back and establish things.
One is a magical bird. The characters have to have reason to think it is where they are going.
The other is trivial magical charms that the hero and his associates have to have because they do routine things to exclude many nuisances that I don't want to deal with.
Such is the life of a writer.
One is a magical bird. The characters have to have reason to think it is where they are going.
The other is trivial magical charms that the hero and his associates have to have because they do routine things to exclude many nuisances that I don't want to deal with.
Such is the life of a writer.
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the amazing disappearing, reappearing plot bunny!
Plot bunnies! They not only appear out of nowhere, they can disappear into nowhere as well!
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you know you're writing a MacGuffin
When you are half way through the outline and you still haven't defined what exactly they are going after.
Not even whether it's a person or an object.
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Not even whether it's a person or an object.
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remember the MacGuffinosity
It's easy to start out with a MacGuffin. If the characters need something to motivate them, put in a quest object where the details don't matter, and have them chase after it. It might acquire enough details during the course of the story to make it no longer a MacGuffin, or at least not so severely.
But -- don't forget it's a MacGuffin and so the details can change. Even substantially.
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But -- don't forget it's a MacGuffin and so the details can change. Even substantially.
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the penultimate Macguffin plot
Was poking around with what one of the villains is doing. . . and realized he was after what was almost the ultimate Macguffin -- a Macguffin being something that motivates the characters in a story without the audience caring about it.
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the MacGuffin motive
A MacGuffin is an object in the story that the characters care about -- but the readers don't. We just empathize with the characters' desires about it and let it motivate the story. The marvelous gemstone the Lake of Wine, that the thief Corry wants to steal to avenge his father's murder by the family that owns it. Or the thinly characterized kidnap victim.
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quests
Harriet the Invincible and Harry Potter have a certain commonality to their quest that contrast with Frodo.
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finding the stone
My heroine is useful. She knows that a bloodstone is just the thing to deal with the fell magic they face.
Now they just have to get their hands on one. Whereupon I reject the obvious, and my heroine also knows that none of the noble families about have one -- the virtues of stones in this land being reason enough for people to keep track of them.
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Now they just have to get their hands on one. Whereupon I reject the obvious, and my heroine also knows that none of the noble families about have one -- the virtues of stones in this land being reason enough for people to keep track of them.
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philosophizing on magical things (Macguffins and otherwise)
In which I generalize from a post I recently made. . . .
Had a fun panel once at Philcon where I answered the questions posed in the description in the first minutes, and we still had a ball. It asked why a magical sword is only logical but a magical toothbrush is fun.
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Had a fun panel once at Philcon where I answered the questions posed in the description in the first minutes, and we still had a ball. It asked why a magical sword is only logical but a magical toothbrush is fun.
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noodling with notions
A story never gets written if you never sit down and write it. On the other hand, sometimes you can't force it. It has to slowly simmer not just while waiting for revision, but before even starting.
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considering a MacGuffin
Ah, the delights of pondering what may, or may not, be a complete story idea in itself. You never know until you try to develop it, and this one is kinda persistant.
But it needs a MacGuffin.
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But it needs a MacGuffin.
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openings and objective correlatives
Stemming from a discussion of portal fantasies, the sort of story in which a character goes through a portal to Another World for adventures. And then comes back. Or doesn't.
And now I am going off on a tangent about Dorothy's motives in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which were, you remember, to go home.
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And now I am going off on a tangent about Dorothy's motives in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which were, you remember, to go home.
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philosophical pondering of magic
Which is pretty much what you have to do when one of your characters starts doing it, unexpectedly. . . and there's a limit to how far you can cut her talking down because it will determine her next actions.
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pirate gold
It's amazing how firmly the notion of buried pirate treasure lasted. There's one case of a pirate burying treasure from the Golden Age of Piracy. . . .
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The MacGuffin Design Department
I need a MacGuffin.
It's in an installation of some kind, and it's, I've decided, dangerous not precious. (Steampunk space opera, BTW.) But that's the extent of it.
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It's in an installation of some kind, and it's, I've decided, dangerous not precious. (Steampunk space opera, BTW.) But that's the extent of it.
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round and round in circles
Sending characters on a journey has its problems -- the cast is major characters (the travelers) and bit parts (everyone else) -- though it does keep the setting fresh and provide a good excuse for running into new things. Sometimes you can counteract the first effect by having them go about in circles. (Not just one circle -- there and back again -- though in multiple circles they do not all have to return to the same point.)
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I'm hiding something over here. . . .
In Doctor Who, characters frequently duck behind the nearest piece of furniture to hide, and it usually works. Even if the furniture has some hole in its structure. . . .
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