kerravonsen | Lost in a fantasy world

Dear Generic Fantasy Author,

Please do not move your characters around like chess pieces, and call it Destiny. It isn't Destiny, it's bad characterisation and/or plotting. If your characters won't naturally do what you need in order for your longed-for plot to work, then there's something wrong with your plot.

That applies to villains too; if your answer to "why did he do it?" is "because he is Teh Eval" then that is not an answer at all. And even a slightly less bad answer like "because he is greedy and avaricious" bears more examination; a villain generally doesn't think of himself as evil, so he's got to have some rationalization for what he's doing. Ponder that a while.

If you mention ballads and bards, then give us some actual ballads and bards, huh? Please? If Anne McCaffrey could do it, so can you. And, like, if you have some ballads, that might save you having to give us info-dumps about the history of the world...

If you must write multiple first-person sections, then try to give your characters distinctive voices, hmmm? If I have to go back to the start of the section to figure out who is speaking, then you've certainly lost me.

Do some research. Me, I can't say I know much about sailing ships, but I'm fairly certain that there's more to it than just sleeping in hammocks, swabbing decks and eating bad rations. Not that I'm saying you have to go and sail on a Tall Ship yourself, but... don't assume that your readers won't notice when you don't know what you're talking about. They are at least as intelligent as you are.

Thank you.