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Messages - legacyblade

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Writing Group / Re: Plotting Chapter by Chapter
« on: July 08, 2011, 05:21:02 PM »
Wow, there's a lot of good advice in this thread.

@Jason R. Peters, I think I'm gonna use that from now on whenever I get stuck. That's really useful, thanks for posting it.

@Ruthie, Aye, that was a really good lecture. I was going to post a link to that if no one else had, lol.

@Stormblessed, I can't really add much to what has been said. But I'll just tell you what I do. I plan out the ending for the main story, and I plan how I want the main character to have changed by the end of the book (this is after I have the character and the world decided on). Then I look and see what happens for them to get there.

For example, say you have a logical well balanced character who doesn't let emotions get the better of them. By the end of the book, you want them to be an over-emotional almost insane guy who your afraid could snap at any moment and kill someone.  So you have to make him go through some pretty horrible things to get there. Seeing his wife tortured and murdered in front of his eyes, being betrayed by his closest friends, seeing hundreds of people slaughtered by a demon, or other such things would be enough to get him moving down that path. Once he starts on it, he'll have to make certain decisions on how to act and think that'll ultimately lead him to the unstable man we want him to end up as. You do the same with the plot.

Once you have these steps planned on what needs to happen to get on the end, you just need to remember that everything that happens needs to be driving your main character's arc or the main plot. Now that's not to say you can't have other subplots or character arcs. But if they don't highlight or drive either the protagonist's arc or the main plot, they'll feel out of place. Plus, always knowing the next step you need to drive everything towards will really help you keep the middle of the book focused and not wandering.

Hope that helped a little bit.

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Writing Group / Re: Antagonist's Internal Monolouge
« on: November 11, 2008, 11:34:38 PM »
@Avalon, Thanks, I'm glad you like it. And that's a good suggestion, I'll probably use it!

@ThankfulNess, Hrm, that's an interesting idea. I'd never thought of a particular event triggering his self doubt. That's a really good suggestion, thanks!

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Site News / Re: Introduce yourself - right on!
« on: November 11, 2008, 06:32:36 AM »
Hello everyone, my name is Legacyblade. I'm not quite sure how you introduce yourself on a writing forum (on game making forums, you just say what you're good at), so I'll take a stab at it.

My name is Spencer Conrad, and I live in Cedar City Utah. I've been writing since I was 11, but still haven't gotten anything published. Until the past couple of years, I could never continue a project for very long. True, one story was about 200,000 words, and nowhere near getting to the main plot, but that one didn't count, as a great deal of that was me describing what things looked like (what can I say, I used to read a lot of charles dicken's writings, XD). I'm getting better at sticking with a project, and I hope to publish my current book when it's finished.

True, It has many of the same elements from my first few stories, but they've been killed, dissected, shredded apart, and changed so much that they in no way resemble my old little darlings. I hope that this forum will help give me some direction in areas that I'm not sure about.

Anyways, I found this site on writingexcuses.com and brandon sanderson's site. I decided I needed a community of writers for help, since I'm finally getting around to actually writing ONE story. I really have enjoyed what I've learned lurking the forums, and can't wait to participate in discussions!

Like I said, not sure how to introduce myself here, so let's hope this was good enough.

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Writing Group / Antagonist's Internal Monolouge
« on: November 11, 2008, 06:08:59 AM »
Hello everyone. I'm Legacyblade. New to the forums, but I've been lurking for awhile. Anyways, I found these forums by link from both Writing Excuses and Brandon Sanderson's site, and decided it would be a good idea for me to join a writing community.

Anyways, I've been reworking the characters in my book, and decided to give my antagonist a bit of self doubt, to make him seem more human. A slight bit of backstory (tentative, as of now): He's the classic predestined hero, who saves the world from the dark lord. But he sees that the world is filled with corruption and evil, so he decides he's going to destroy it and make a perfect world. (*Mistborn:The Final Empire Spoiler*I know this sounds a lot like who we think The Lord Ruler is until we realize that The Lord Ruler killed the forordained hero, and took his power for himself. I hadn't read mistborn, so I didn't steal the idea, I promise  :-\ ).

Anyways, without further rambling, here it is.

Countless dead. Countless innocents sacrificed for my vision of a paradise. I still see them, and hear their screams. I can’t let their deaths be for nothing. But I get the sinking feeling that I’ve become even more twisted than the evil I once delivered Celenath from. I can’t help but wonder, is this really worth it? Can my acts be redeemed because of the motive behind them?

I'm just wondering if you all think this sounds belivable, and if it'd make a good original (or at least non-cliche) villain. Comments/criticism are greatly appreciated!

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