Evil Overlord:<\/strong>\u00a0 Plans to interfere with his targets’ lives.<\/p>\n Me:<\/strong>\u00a0 Plan to interfere with my characters’ lives.<\/p>\n Evil Overlord:<\/strong>\u00a0 Is constantly thinking, “What can I do to cause trouble for these people?”<\/p>\n Me:<\/strong>\u00a0 “What can I do next to cause trouble for these characters?<\/p>\n Evil Overlord:<\/strong>\u00a0 “In fact, what can I do to tear them to shreds?”<\/p>\n Me:\u00a0<\/strong> In fact, what can I do to make things as difficult as possible?<\/p>\n Evil Overlord:<\/strong>\u00a0 “HOW SHALL I KILL THEM?”<\/p>\n Me:<\/strong>\u00a0 HOW SHALL I–<\/p>\n No, no no.\u00a0<\/strong> Wait a minute.\u00a0 Here’s where we part ways.<\/p>\n For me, it’s How will they get out of it?<\/em><\/p>\n What new depths of themselves will they plumb to climb out of this personal disaster I’ve created,<\/strong> possibly while also saving the world?<\/p>\n (Possibly.)<\/em><\/p>\n Because the thing is, as the author,<\/strong> I don’t usually have any idea how they’re going to get out of what I put them into.\u00a0 I’m so focused on getting them to the point of ultimate internal and external disaster (because, you know, that’s just the way I am) that when I reach it, I often go\u2026<\/p>\n Me:\u00a0<\/strong> Uh, durrrr\u2026 NOW what are they gonna do?<\/p>\n And yet oddly, looking back on it\u2026<\/strong>I don’t know how that scene could have turned out any other way.\u00a0 Or that I would have wanted it to.<\/p>\n (The very end?\u00a0 Well, I knew THAT was coming.)<\/em><\/p>\n It’s not all just a random power trip, by the way.<\/strong>\u00a0 It’s not doing unto for the sake of doing unto–<\/p>\n Evil Overlord:\u00a0<\/strong> What are you talking about?\u00a0 Of course it is!\u00a0 And what a power trip it is!\u00a0 Mwah ha ha!<\/p>\n *stuffs Evil Overlord into a gunnysack*<\/em><\/p>\n It’s NOT.<\/strong>\u00a0 By pushing my characters to the limit, I’m exploring who they really are\u2026and in a way, I’m showing myself what can be done.\u00a0 Paving the way for that mindset, so when I reach my own roadblocks in life (an overly-profound phrase if I ever heard one), I don’t buckle or fold.\u00a0 I don’t exactly think, “What would Garrie\/Trevarr do?”–that would maybe be kinda creepy.\u00a0 But I do fall back into the awareness that how I deal with difficulties–what I envision for myself–has a huge impact on the resolution of those difficulties.<\/p>\n Muffled Evil Overlord:<\/strong>\u00a0 You are full of crap!\u00a0 It’s all about the POWER!<\/p>\n Yeah, yeah.\u00a0 Move over.\u00a0<\/strong> My people have a world to save.\u00a0 Just don’t ask me how.<\/p>\n *wrote this one for my agent’s blog this spring; saved it up for a day that needed a good snicker That’s me.\u00a0 Evil Overlord of my characters. Evil Overlord:\u00a0 Plans to interfere with his targets’ lives. Me:\u00a0 Plan to interfere with my characters’ lives. Evil Overlord:\u00a0 Is constantly thinking, “What can I do to cause trouble for these people?” … Continue reading ![\"Storm](\"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/c.storm_.reckoning.SM_.jpg\" "\\"Storm")
The fun thing is how well it often works out.\u00a0<\/strong> If you read Storm of Reckoning<\/em><\/strong>, you’ll reach a point shortly before the end where\u2026well, where things happen.\u00a0 Go on, read it.\u00a0 You’ll know where I mean.\u00a0 Well, confession:\u00a0 I didn’t know that was coming until about two pages before I reached it.\u00a0 It was all, “Ahhhh!\u00a0 What’s Garrie gonna do?!\u00a0 How’s Trevarr going to get out of this one?!”\u00a0 Complete with melodramatic punctuation.<\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"