When it comes to fantasy , there have only been a few I ever liked , both past and present . Why ? Ahem , how about when half the heroes ( not just side characters ) die as in a certain popular series right now that is on HBO ? Not for me . How about extremely wordy tomes where nothing happens for a hundred pages , literally ( I ’ m not kidding ). How about an extremely popular movie series based on a book that was fantastic but the actual books , which I forced myself to read back in 1969 , were awful to get through ? I couldn ’ t figure out why until now . They were omniscient ! Then there were the character driven stories or intrigue stories that didn ’ t have enough action .
There were a few exceptions like Andre Norton and a few other authors I can ’ t remember , their names have faded with decades . I can ’ t say I struck fantasy off my reading lists , but I was turned off enough by the genre that even though I loved the covers , I was quite often disappointed with the contents .
Then a weird game called D & D ( Dungeons & Dragons ) came along and things changed .
I rolled the dice and loved it ! From there , a few authors came along with good plot-driven novels like R . A . Salvatore . However , I go back to the beginning of this section where I delved into the same old crap — the reason I still don ’ t like most fantasy .
There was one other exception that I like to call a mashup , though it was actually termed urban fantasy . It was a series I read in the 90 ’ s about a guy who uses computers and computer logic to cross back and forth into a fantasy world . It wasn ’ t half bad .
As a result , after a few decades of rolling dice , switching to single player computer games , then adding in my “ always an adventure ” style , plus prodding from my wife to write fantasy , I started the Meleena ’ s Adventures series . I emphasize adventures , of course .
SHORT CHAPTERS
Like a lot of new writers , I wrote long chapters with multiple scenes . Sometimes way too many scenes . About ten years ago , I learned some “ rule ” at one of the Las Vegas Writer ’ s Conferences that you should only have three to five scene changes per chapter . Why ? It made the story too disjointed . However , over time , that reasoning has faded like a lot of other things . The same for head-hopping , which was given the goahead a few years ago at one of the Romance Writer ’ s of America conferences . Once word got out about that , authors went nuts and every time I picked a book up , I saw head-hopping . It still drives me nuts . I hate it ! Aaagh !
On to my point . I ’ m a stickler for rhythm and flow . I don ’ t like long paragraphs , long sentences or long chapters . I don ’ t like to be tortured when I ’ m reading and I also like to read during commercials .
Along came James Patterson . Unfortunately , despite being one publishing son-ofa-gun , he tends to write a lot in firstperson , which I hate . However , the one thing he does right is he doesn ’ t write scenes . Instead , he makes every scene a chapter . As a result , his books might have
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WRITERS ’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE