Name of the Wind

Is Plot or Character More Important?

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Structuring Your NovelThis article is by K.M. Weiland.

“Plot vs. character”—we hear it all the time, as if the two were mutually exclusive. Either your book is plot-driven or character-driven. Can’t possibly be both, right?

And anytime we run afoul of an either/or conundrum, you gotta know people are going to start believing one or the other is not only the best way, but even the only way to write a book.

Let’s consider this a little more microscopically. What would it take to make one or the other of these combatants “more important” than the other?

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Are Magic Systems a Distraction?

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spell compendiumA fellow writer shared his dilemma with me.  He and his partner were starting a new project, and had invested much time in developing a magic system.  He had shared it with me before, and I was intrigued by their original spin on magic and spell-casting.

But then something happened.  While flipping through the channels, they came across a television series in which characters were using magic.  And to my friend’s horror, they were using virtually the same magic system that he had just spent months developing.

Understandably, this felt like a major setback.  But was it?

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