Working on my novel, I was wondering what,exactly, my main character did. I knew that he had a love of three things: photography, movies and music. I knew outright that photography was only a hobby and he/I didn't know where to start with the movies. So, going with the Music bit, I made him a freelance DJ...I wanted to hit myself for thinking it. It was a good idea, and I might look into it when/if I do some tooling to the story. But it didn't go anywhere. So, I did the most sensible thing, or at the very least put in a plausible contingency plan: His mentor left him a mansion/inheritance that made him independantly wealthy

Which is actually ironic considering we find out that


ok, back to the trivia...

Actually Molly was introduced far earlier into the series, maybe not the third book, but she was definitely in Death Masks

It's very different and doesn't end the same way. I've kinda done the whirlwind reading course this summer as research (can you really call it that if you've enjoyed every minute of it?) for my novel. I've read all of the Dresden Files (SF-WN in two months...life?), NightWatch by Sergei Lukanyenko (mispelled), which is very good once you get past the russian cultural/writing differences. American Gods, also by Neil Gaiman, very graphic but very good. Also, I read the first four books in Stephen King's Dark Tower series.

Also, one of my personal favorites, is Hell on Earth by Michael Reaves, which is similar to Dresden

It is essentially the protagonist's story you're writing about and thus, he/she must have certain issues that the reader could relate to. Such as taking the bus or driving the car to work or take on the bad guys in a battlefield or sneak into the fortress. It's the choices the protagonist makes, rather than the best of his abilities (indeed maybe the lack of his abilities) which makes a charcter who/what we can love and cheer to.

Oh gods and freaks, I think I subconciously quoted JKRowling's Dumbledore of COS .

But still, the system works. The character grows, he loses his abilities and makes different choices. You question what if he still had the power and then which way would it force him/her to do the best thing or the right thing.

Indeed, I plan to make my character with super-potential and super-strong but her choices restricts her from acheiving top level. Not to mention getting crippled socially, physically, magically and emotionally (in that order). But remember, what makes a book is the characters. Plural. There are others that would support my protagonist along the way, those she had helped before. They wouldn't want her to give up no matter how much she just wants to lay down and disappear.

So it doesn't matter how tough/weak your protagonist is. Preferably, the tougher he is, the more people needed to bing him down. He could be a god with phenomenal cosmic power but it still comes down to either sacrifice his family/friends so their pure blood can heal the planet or rescue them to a temporary heaven and risk bleeding reality to the demons. It's the walk that goes with the talk .

I came across this while writing. In the world I'm writing, there are six types of abilities: Corporeal (strength, flight, intangibility etc.) Elemental (able to control earth, wind or fire.) Mage (able to use magic) psychic (telepathy, oracular powers) Spirit, which is the extremely rare ability to use one's own (or another's) life force and Wild, which is anything that doesn't match the other five abilities.

Now, when/if two of these types mate, the child normally takes on either of the traits of their parents, never both. Hybrids are a rare thing. That being said, my main character is a hybrid and posesses three of the types: Psychic, Mage and Spirit. But because he is a hybrid, he is considered to be a bastard by the Mage side of his family, is recognized but not officially protected by his psychic family, and the others think he's too dangerous.

So the main character is ostricized, not taken seriously, and ultimately shunned, which has both stunted his growth and limited his knowledge and control on his powers (especially magic)

So here's a lesson to all, if your character has too much power, beat him down a notch or two to teach him humility

I've asked a couple of questions on this board already, but I haven't fully introduced myself. My name's Craig. I'm currently a senior up at a college in Albany NY. I wrote my first novella when I was in HS, it was drek, but it was mine. I started taking my writing seriously in college because it was the only real way I could express myself. Now I'm the new Editor and Chief of my college's literary magazine (though I still go unpublished).

I'm currently working on the first of a contemporary fantasy trilogy (I plan on writing an essay on the subject of Trilogies) set in New York City (where I live and love). The Backstory is about how a sub-set of humanity, more cousins than mutants as they've been around as long as we have. They are the basis for all the legends we've heard about Oracle's, Shamans, Witches, Giants, Werewolves, Vampires and nearly everything else. They all live their lives like we do, but they also have this other social world that they all live in. They've lived with us, protected us, tormented us, since time imemorial, until 1945, when humans decided to forge a power they were not ready for. After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagsaki, the ones who were legends (known by each other as Alts), were weakend, any of their children born after that were born as any normal human would be.

This lead to what was known as the Blackout, the Alts had never before experience. The world had turned itself on it's head. the gods were no longer in power, and the humans were give more power thean they knew what to deal with. To compound problems, the generation after the blank alts were not born blank. So now these new alts, children just coming into their own powers are haunted by the might of beens of their parents and the long since dormant expectations of their grandparents. They're powerful and confused...but then again, aren't all of the young?

I've been reading the Dresden Files (and watching the show), The Dune Series, American Gods, The Dark Tower series. I've also been watching Heroes, which is perfect in blending powers with real life.

I look forward to talking to some of you and getting/giving feedback.

Take Care,

C

I just want to make sure it's as original as possible, and not just pieced together from other great sci fi.

Ah, Eragon...