www.andrewmackay.net:

I greatly enjoyed this blogpost by Brandon Sanderson about the function of a journey in fantasy writing.

My favorite part:

Oddly, when I first tried to write fantasy books, during my unpublished days, I found myself bored by the concept of yet another book that took place mostly in the wilderness or on a roadway visiting little towns along the way toward a destination.  I wanted to write stories that took place AT the destination.  That was what excited me.

I know exactly how he feels. I have felt that way about various “classic” fantasy plot traditions. For example, in my current story, it would’ve been easy to make the main character’s parents antagonize him. Simple. Too simple. It would’ve given him an easy motivator to push for change. It would’ve given him something to push against.

The thing is, the vast majority of times in the real world, parents are not their children’s primary antagonists. What’s more, I don’t want to communicate to my young adult readers that they can expect their parents to antagonize them.

So, some of those “classic” plot points are good to throw to the wayside. Also, by reading this post, you waive your rights to quote it when I do write a story with evil, aggravating parents.

I very recently started on a crusade to complete my first book. It had been essentially left to rot at the 16,000 word mark for about a year. Yep, no progress, a year. It seems like a long time, mostly because it was.

So, all of the sudden, I started writing again. There were several different factors, but a big reason was a podcast my little brother had referred me to last summer. It’s called Writing Excuses.

Writing Excuses is a podcast put together by three writers, Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy author of Elantris, the Mistborn Series, also “the guy who gets to finish the Wheel of Time series”), Howard Tayler (writer and artist responsible for Schlock Mercenary), and Dan Wells (Horror author of I Am Not a Serial Killer). In it, they cover all kinds of topics that pertain to writing. It’s smart, funny, and it’s consistently 15 minutes long.

I’ll point you to Season One, episode 17 : it’s the one that helped me to jump start myself back down the path to finishing my story. Of course, if you dig into their archives, you’ll find episode three, Killing Your Darlings. It has me absolutely convinced that I’ll finish this first story and then have to throw it away.

But, I look at it this way: if it’s accurate, I’ll be prepared for it.

A very worthwhile resource if you’re interested in writing or in thinking more about what exactly you’re reading.