{"id":910,"date":"2015-10-22T10:59:58","date_gmt":"2015-10-22T16:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mrmaresca.com\/wp\/?p=910"},"modified":"2015-10-22T11:12:42","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T17:12:42","slug":"perils-of-the-writer-knocking-the-characters-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mrmaresca.com\/wp\/perils-of-the-writer-knocking-the-characters-around\/","title":{"rendered":"Perils of the Writer: Knocking the Characters Around"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week<\/a> I talked about how, as an action writer, the weapon choices a character makes helps define them.<\/p>\n

Of course, the other side of the action story is being on the receiving end. \u00a0As fond as I am of Veranix, Minox and Satrine, they are not infallible, and fight sequences don’t always end well for them.<\/p>\n

Sometimes quite badly.<\/p>\n

The big thing I always have to watch out for is getting too “cinematic” with their recovery from injuries. \u00a0Plenty of movies have people get shot, fall off buildings, suffer major head trauma, and then walk it off five minutes later. \u00a0It might make for good movies, but it isn’t particularly realistic.<\/p>\n

Now, how much realism does a fantasy novel need, you ask? \u00a0That depends on your rules.<\/p>\n

For example, in Maradaine, one thing magic\u00a0cannot<\/em> be used for is healing. \u00a0So that keeps me from having an easy out when things go badly.<\/p>\n

What this means is I have to keep an eye out for the long term consequences. \u00a0Scars last. \u00a0Some things never quite heal right again. The body will give you a constant reminder that something isn’t right any more.<\/p>\n

Thinking about that also forced me to tone down certain things. \u00a0I tend to avoid characters getting knocked out over the head if I want them to get up again. \u00a0A bit in T<\/strong>horn<\/strong> <\/em>where Veranix gets grazed by a crossbow bolt was a change from the rough draft, where the bolt goes through his leg. \u00a0I decided I needed to avoid any sort “never walk right again”, at least at this point.<\/p>\n

Of course, those long term consequences can also be character points. \u00a0Without delving into spoilers, an injury suffered in one of the books already out provides the seed for a significant subplot in the sequel.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Speaking of sequels, The Alchemy of Chaos<\/a><\/strong><\/em> is just about three months away. \u00a0Both it and An Import of Intrigue<\/a><\/strong><\/em> have Goodreads pages, Alchemy can be preordered everywhere you preorder books, and we should be sharing a cover for Alchemy very soon. \u00a0In the meantime, I’ve got to get back to work on all the things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I talked about how, as an action writer, the weapon choices a character makes helps define them. Of course, the other side of the action story is being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrmaresca.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrmaresca.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrmaresca.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrmaresca.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrmaresca.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mrmaresca.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":913,"href":"https:\/\/mrmaresca.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions\/913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrmaresca.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrmaresca.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrmaresca.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}