10-28-2018, 09:51 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-28-2018, 09:51 AM by Mattias Westlund.)
Thanks Nayrb. In what sense do you feel Jenandra is predictable? Do you mean like her actions and decisions, or that she is a stereotypical elf or something?
As for higher stakes, there is of course something going on that's far bigger than what any of the characters (even Jen) realizes. At first I wanted to write something very down-to-earth but I quickly found it's really damn hard telling an engaging story about treasure hunting and dungeon crawling. So the attack on the Sacred Glade is really the first in a chain of events leading up to something that is potentially world-altering. Maybe I need to foreshadow this earlier in the book, or as mentioned insert some chapters from the antagonist's POV.
But yes, Rynn and Jedd in particular are very much driven by personal gain. They're not supposed to be "heroes". Olvan has slightly other motivations but they're also mostly personal (we'll get some more of his backstory in chapter 6). Baylon is less selfish but considers himself pretty much insignificant in the grand scheme of things. This poses a problem, namely that when the characters are drawn into this chain of events they're not going to want to have anything to do with it. Something needs to happen that changes their priorities quite radically, something that makes it personal. And I know just what.
On a completely unrelated note, I just realized that I need to make a change in chapter 5. When Jen says "don't call me that", she should actually say it in the Janessi tongue. Then Baylon repeats the words later and asks her what they mean. Baylon having a good ear for languages is going to play a small part later on and I feel silly for not spotting such an obvious place to establish it.
As for higher stakes, there is of course something going on that's far bigger than what any of the characters (even Jen) realizes. At first I wanted to write something very down-to-earth but I quickly found it's really damn hard telling an engaging story about treasure hunting and dungeon crawling. So the attack on the Sacred Glade is really the first in a chain of events leading up to something that is potentially world-altering. Maybe I need to foreshadow this earlier in the book, or as mentioned insert some chapters from the antagonist's POV.
But yes, Rynn and Jedd in particular are very much driven by personal gain. They're not supposed to be "heroes". Olvan has slightly other motivations but they're also mostly personal (we'll get some more of his backstory in chapter 6). Baylon is less selfish but considers himself pretty much insignificant in the grand scheme of things. This poses a problem, namely that when the characters are drawn into this chain of events they're not going to want to have anything to do with it. Something needs to happen that changes their priorities quite radically, something that makes it personal. And I know just what.
On a completely unrelated note, I just realized that I need to make a change in chapter 5. When Jen says "don't call me that", she should actually say it in the Janessi tongue. Then Baylon repeats the words later and asks her what they mean. Baylon having a good ear for languages is going to play a small part later on and I feel silly for not spotting such an obvious place to establish it.