Recent content by Devouring Wolf

I think the question is less about whether or not prologues should be used but more about when to use them. I honestly don't know the answer because most prologues I've read have been bad. One of the few places I've seen them work has been in books where that are told in a single POV but the...

Personally, I'm fine with flash forwards as long as they're not done in such a way that it seems like the author just so there can be some big twist at the end. You know, like when the first scene of a book is a Flash forward and it hints that one of the character's has died but at the end it...

This assumes the only use for magic is combat, but there are many other ways magic could be applied and still be worth an immensely high price such as healing, mind-reading, seeing the future, controlling the weather and thus preventing (or causing) drought, communing with the spirit world...

I've had my fair share of idea recycling and in my personal experience it stems from one of two things. One possibility is that you haven't found the right story for an idea yet. Over the years I've written several stories featuring the same character (changed his name and made a few slight...

I'm going to go against the grain here and say its probably fine. When I first started reading Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, it did sort of throw me that it takes place in a pretty bizarre fantasy city and yet the main characters are named Isaac and Lin, but by the end of the book I...

I think we need to ask, chosen to do what? There's a lot of dislike here for chosen to save the world/kill the bad guy/make the world a place of everlasting peace and rainbows. And yes, I do roll my eyes at those too, but I would argue that these are bad not because chosen ones are bad but...

I think one of the reasons this trope is so relevant in fantasy has to do with a misunderstanding of what agency is compounded with the modern setting of most fantasy. Feudal settings don't really lend themselves to gender equality (I'm not saying you can't do it, we are writing fantasy after...

But this is precisely why I love a good chosen one story. In my opinion there's no better medium to delve into the question of free will or the feeling of being trapped in your own life, unable to alter the coarse. Minority Report is one of my favorite movies, and although not a chosen one...

Chosen one is kind of an ill defined term so before I answer the question I have to supply my own personal definition. For me a chosen one has to be 1) chosen by someone in the narrative be it prophecy, gods, or just other people 2) the last/ and or only hope. A good example of this distinction...

What I do is I outline by pinning index cards on a board. I just write down everything I know needs to happen from major plot points to images I can't get out of my head that I know need to be in the rough draft then I move them around and try to connect the dots. I definitely recommend having a...

I usually make them up. I'm not really a fan of meaningful names. It sort of stretches the my suspension of disbelief if your protagonist's name means hero in some long dead language. I mean, what are the odds. I'm a little more forgiving of children named for unusual birth circumstances, like...

I'd go with Falaise because Aleana sounds like such a stereotypical elf name. Falaise still sounds elegant and faintly elfin but it doesn't make me think of LOTR style elves the way Aleana does once I know she's half-elf. But then maybe you want to invoke that image of elves. It really depends...

I wouldn't think of it in terms of her being "rebellious" or "meek" instead I would consider what she will and will not stand for. I think most people are have lines that they just won't cross, its just a matter of figuring out what hers are. Maybe she's hard working and would never do anything...

This question seems to pop up every once and awhile and I've always found it odd. Writing is seriously hard. I honestly can't think of any sane person who would commit themselves to writing a whole novel about something they don't even like just to make money. There are easier ways to get rich...

As others have already said, I think your view of prophecies is quite narrow, but even if prophecies had to be absolutely true, I think they can work and there can still be suspense. In my opinion prophecies are meant to facilitate internal conflict. The good prophecy stories I've read have been...