On Writing & Publishing by Robin D. Owens

Personal notes on writing techniques, writing a novel, my writing career and threading your way through publishing a book.

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RITA Award Winning Author -- that's like the Oscar, folks! Futuristic/Fantasy Romance and Fantasy with Romantic Subplots.

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Friday, August 29, 2008

Backstory

Backstory is what has happened to your character (All your characters) before the story starts, usually what experiences they've had to lead them to personal flaws they need to overcome, motivate all their actions, etc.

Or just the history of the character, a shorthand for you to flesh out someone and know him/her a little more. Is blue his favorite color? What shade?

So....I spent some time looking at all the scenes I had Cratag in -- just Heart Duel and Heart Fate -- to see what he said and what the reader knows about him. I'd thought he had a sister who died young. So I was thinking about that and how it motivated him, having him leave the southern continent of Brittany to come to the northern (I've named it recently, but don't recall)...then I started REALLY thinking about this. Sounded like Straif Blackthorn's backstory to me (though he had TERRIBLE losses in his life).

So, the sister will stay the same. But what of an older sister? Why would he leave? What if she got married to a country gentleman and changed muchly, not wanting him around, or the country gentleman thought he could use Cratag's sword as a mercenary guard for trading? Or what?

Cratag Timeline that the READER knows:

Leave Brittany and travel to Druida
Arrive Druida and find FirstGrove
Offer Sword to T'Hawthorn
Befriends Laev Hawthorn
Becomes Security Chief for T'Hawthorn's guards during the Hawthorn-Holly feud
Participates in feud
Helps Laev
Meets D'Marigold during Healing Ritual
Follows orders to give T'Hawthorn's sword to T'Blackthorn to give to Holly, feud end
Becomes Laev's bodyguard/friend
...Heart Fate stuff...

So I need to keep the above the same, but can fill in.

May you enjoy your worlds today.
Robin

2 Comments:

Blogger Tannun said...

Heart Fate -

So I stayed up and read the entire thing of course. Couldn't go to sleep until it was finished, oh well.

The good things.... Hmmm how to be cryptic for those that haven't read yet....

TQ OMG LOVE IT

Stother you know a real animal would act like this. LOVE IT.

Best Line in the book. Call him Muin, Names are important. (paraphrasing) Also the best scene!

Was it perfect, nope. Maybe I'm too blood thirsty but I thought T'Yew was anti cimantic, I wanted vengeance! Taxa and Burdettes unpunished, were's the justice?

7:01 AM  
Blogger FantasyAuthor RobinDOwens said...

Ok, this was supposed to be Saturday, so I'll put a little bit up now.

Glad you enjoyed Heart Fate. I do have trouble with evil villains. I know that, I make them over the top.

If I do my work right, in Heart Change the villain will be different. And I think I can make the villain pathetic (like in Heart Choice) in Heart Journey.

Not sure of the plot for book 3 yet.

Glad you liked TQ and Strother. I haven't personally had a dog for a while, and never an abused one, but that sounded right to me (and I did some research).

Now you gave me an idea for the main blog, since I posted this one on the wrong day...

As for D'Yew and the Yew Residence, this is a stratified society, and one that believes in Karma (and like most officials, they don't like to judge themselves and have to be prodded) so they'd leave things alone unless Lahsin pressed, which she is not really in a position to. However, D'Yew is going mad in Heart Change (dropped that in), and I'll think about Lahsin's Family -- they, of course, have lost great face, so there will be some shunning in their circles.

Robin

10:22 AM  

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