McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Permission to use the Dresdenverse in a short story I'm writing...
Shecky:
Use it as a seed - the idea of a wizard in a modern city. Play with the idea: what about a divine-magic-wielding priest? A scientist who discovers magic in subatomic physics? An alternate history where Benjamin Franklin discovered not electricity but a magical "element" à la the Greek elements (air, earth, fire, water)?
You'll run across something that just grabs you and screams, "WRITE ME!" :)
logarithm.and.blues:
you know, that's a really good idea, Shecky.
again, thanks a gajillion (or 157) for the advice.
Shecky:
That's the thing - originality doesn't have to be (or, in my opinion, CAN'T be) totally original, but it's perfectly legitimate to take something that already exists and fiddle with the idea until it's something that suits you.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Shecky on September 13, 2009, 12:51:12 AM ---Use it as a seed - the idea of a wizard in a modern city. Play with the idea: what about a divine-magic-wielding priest? A scientist who discovers magic in subatomic physics? An alternate history where Benjamin Franklin discovered not electricity but a magical "element" à la the Greek elements (air, earth, fire, water)?
--- End quote ---
Thing about Franklin is, he's one of these real people who does too much and achieves too much not to come across as a Mary Sue in fiction.
The thing about most urban fantasy, including the Dresden Files, is that to take place in a recognisable modern world there has to be some reason or another for the supernatural stuff to be largely hidden or unknown. Which I can accept as a genre convention for the sake of enjoying the Dresden Files and books in that genre, but is not a thing that interests me much as a writer. One of the things I have on the backburner (about 60,000 words done, but other projects foregrounded for the next couple of months) is a world where magic was formalised around the time of Newton, went through a paradigm shift around the turn of the twentieth century which made it more accessible, and has drastically changed things since; there have been four World Wars, and there's a White Russian remnant state on the Moon, where my protagonist will be emigrating in the next section.
Find something you're not sure about, change it, and see what follows.
Shecky:
--- Quote from: neurovore on September 16, 2009, 05:14:55 PM ---Thing about Franklin is, he's one of these real people who does too much and achieves too much not to come across as a Mary Sue in fiction.
--- End quote ---
But if the character IS Ben Franklin, everyone knows that he's what all Gary Stus ASPIRE to be. :D
I wonder what a mind like Ben Franklin would do today...
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