TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #78

It's been mid-August since my last blog entry, and late June since my last real update, leading the more avid of my followers to perhaps wonder what has become of me and my writing. More likely my fiction endeavors have simply been forgotten, but I'm going to update you anyway.

Ever since I 'stopped' writing, back in July 2020, I've been waiting to say the words 'I'm back' in one of these FFCs.

Technically I did that already at least once, but as it turned out to be largely a false alarm, I'm not counting it.

Throughout the last year+, I've been trying to restart my fiction writing. I got a few stories out, namely Utgar and Valkyrie, and while the former wasn't bad, and the later definitely had some good parts to it, neither really felt like a return to my old writing ways. For the most part, I still couldn't get stories off the ground - they always had some problem, or if they didn't,...

TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #77

I’ve said elsewhere that I want to use this time to further study writing, specifically what I have left to work on.

One of those areas is stakes. Stakes have always been a bit of an issue for me, as I’ve mentioned before on numerous occasions. Despite various proclamations that I had ‘fixed’ stakes or ‘found the answers’, they always were difficult to work with when developing a story.

Over the years, I’ve gotten an increasing understanding of the nature of stakes. Not only in simply what works and what doesn’t, but why those things work or don’t. I’ve analyzed books and films, read research, and formulated my own findings. Usually when you come up with a theory that fits everything like a glove, it’s a sign you’re on the right track. Well, I’ve found such a theory, and I wanted to share it with the other writers here.

I’ve gotten bits and pieces of what exactly personal stakes (the...

TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #76

A while ago, I finished the Mistborn trilogy, by Brandon Sanderson. In a word, I’d describe it as a solid read. Some things I took issue with, others I thought were masterful. The end result was that it got me excited to start the Stormlight Archive. I finally got my hands on the first book about half a month ago, but in all that time, I’ve only read through the second chapter.

While there are a few reasons for my apparent lack of enthusiasm for the book (some of which have nothing to do with the book at all), there were a few which I feel have contributed heavily to the book’s current un-read state, and which I think can be instructive in how not to start a story.

I’m coming to realize that Brandon Sanderson is known for his unique style of switching PoV constantly throughout his books. While he certainly managed to use it to his advantage in Mistborn, here it’s causing me to lose interest after I...

I recently finished the final book in the Mistborn trilogy, so it's time to get down to the review.

Out of the trilogy, I feel like this book was definitely the best one. Sanderson kept up some unique style choices throughout the series, and in this book they started to pay off big time, increasing tension nearly every chapter. By about the last third of the book, the twists started coming thick and fast, as nearly every single loose thread and every seemingly-unimportant detail fell into place.

Ratings:
5: Amazing, above flawless.
4: Flawless, but doesn't really stand out.
3: Might have some issues, but works fine.
2: Has some issues which might detract from the story.
1: Flawed, bring the story down noticeably.

Title: The Hero of Ages
Author: Brandon Sanderson
My Rating: 4.25/5 - A great read

(Spoiler-free) Summary: Following the events of the second book, the heroes get down...

TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #75

While the fires of my creative writing have been reduced to smoldering embers, I've been devoting my writing time instead to research. I feel like I'm ready to start work on my novels, and I want to clean up any remaining issues my writing has in preparation of that.

I've mentioned what those issues are previously, but there is one I have not mentioned, largely because I was unaware of it until now. It isn't so much an issue as a simple lack of experience, but it's still worth nailing down: how to write a series.

When it comes to writing a connected series of stories, there are two basic ways of outlining it (that I have found - if you know of others, please do let me know).

The first method is what I did with Dilmir. Each story is its own complete thing: character arc and 3-act structure separate from any other story. Each story introduces a new conflict, and each conflict is wrapped...