There are many different types of heroes, each with their own set of motivations and methods. Picking the right protagonist for the story is an important task for a fantasy fiction writer. While I don’t subscribe to the theory that characters can take over a story and rewrite it, I have experienced struggles in writing [...]

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I graduated with my Bachelor’s in the summer of 2003 and won the Maiden of Pain open call in the fall. I spent the next year writing that novel. After a short break, I returned to Logan Shadowhand and the story I was now calling Shattered Amulet.
Maiden taught me a lot and I wanted to [...]

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I wrote about 14 pages of the original manuscript featuring Logan Shadowhand in the time between my senior year in high school and when I met my wife. It sat in a folder until after we got married. When I pulled it out again, I knew the story needed some serious work.
My first change was [...]

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I first attempted to transform Logan Shadowhand from a roleplaying game character into a literary hero about 15 years ago. He’s evolved quite a bit since then. I still have copies of those early manuscripts, some in hard copy and some in electronic. At Ravyn’s request, I’m going to share pieces of them with you [...]

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Sympathy for the protagonist is a great tool for drawing readers into a story. If the reader can identify with the character’s struggles and desires, they become invested in what happens. That leads to late nights of anxious page-turning.
A sympathetic character has obstacles they must overcome. These can be internal or external, but the key [...]

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