The Fantasy Project - Companion

1. Beginning a Story

So we begin. First, a word on the story.

I have had the idea for this since I was a kid. Not this story, specifically, but the story that this one will lead to. The driving image in my mind was a still frame. Like a Polaroid. Picture it: a 1995 GMC Z-71 hauling ass down a dirt road in Texas. An elf is driving the truck. In the bed, a wizard hurls fireballs at an uparmored humvee firing a roof mounted .50 caliber automatic weapon. In the sky: dragons locked in aerial combat with Apache attack helicopters.

Now, that scene will actually appear in this book, but my problem was this: how can I make THAT believable? The above image is my goal. The road to that goal can be long or short, but it has to be done in a way that is realistic and ultimately believable. The world we live in must become that one. This story will be driven with that goal in mind.

Ive decided to blend Science Fiction and Fantasy to the point that this story should be both and neither. It will have science fiction elements and Fantasy, making it FantaSci. But neither element should be able to exist without the other. Making it neither. This is my design.

What I've learned in previous stories is this:

1. Write the story you want to tell. Not the story you think people want to read. Follow this advice and your audience will find you. But there has to be balance. Write your story, but take input from your readers. Write what you want, but in a way that resonates with readers. Writing is about control. You must control both the story and the audience.

2. KNOW THYSELF. Identify your strengths and weaknesses in writing. Be brutally honest with yourself about this. One of my strengths: I can write emotion. I can make people cry and laugh and throw their books. One of my weaknesses: I tend to cram way too much story into too little space. Slowing down and adding exposition must be done in a way that is natural to the story and to the reader. It has to fit into the narrative. In my experience, an unnatural piece of exposition will kill interest in the characters, the plot, the story. So I balance my weakness with my strength and use emotional situations to execute the exposition. Know THYSELF and use your strengths to balance the weakness.

3. Dont write a romance. Dont write a fantasy. Write a story. Whatever genre the work falls under is irrelevant to you, the writer. If you want a story with those elements, then use them, but dont constrain yourself to genre specific stereotypes ... What you produce must go beyond genre. Find ways to express your own beliefs through your characters. Tout the virtues of humanity that you admire and admonish those you do not. Take your work beyond the stereotype. Make it more.

4. Dont be shy. Authors have a responsibility to paint mental pictures of reality. We can skew our universes any way we want. We dont shy away from horrors like death or rape or dismemberment. We paint honest pictures of imaginary places and that must be done using the full spectrum of color at our disposal. Darkness and light. One cannot exist without the other.

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5. In science fiction, the technologies driving the story must be well defined and believable. Magic systems must always include a cost. These are generalities that hold up under scrutiny. Brooks, Goodkind, Tolkien, and Jordan. Asimov, Dick, Card, and Heinlein. They all understood this concept and their works are cherished by millions.

I'll add to the list as we progress in the story, but these are important for the beginning. I have no plan for the story beyond a starting point, a major climax, and a resolution. If you have those the story will assemble itself. If you're the more organized type, plan it out. I write in fits of passion so I just let the story carry me away. I know this isn't the way most people write, so I leave you with this: There is no set method to writing. Find what works for YOU.

CHAPTER ONE - PREWRITE

The first chapter needs to convey a lot of information to the reader. It should leave them with a solid, general idea of what the story is. Not the plot, but what they can expect in future chapters. It will tell about the world. And it will tell them about you. Chapter One must be the best you have to offer. It must hook the reader. If you deliver your best prose and the reader doesnt like it... Thats okay. The next reader might. Eventually, someone will love it. They'll tell like minded friends and... Suddenly... You'll have a reader base.