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mbarker.livejournal.comWriting Excuses 7.46: Project in Depth The Emperor's Soul
From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2012/11/11/writing-excuses-7-46-project-in-depth-the-emperors-soul/
Key Points: The idea for this story started with seeing the "stamps" (or chops) on art in Taiwan, which sparked the idea of doing a stamp-based magic system. Next came a character -- a con artist! So forgery was a natural, and provided motivation. The plot was a thought, which could be summed up in a one-sentence challenge, what if the con artist had to do a forgery of someone's soul? Mix in the concept that "everything has a soul." Don't forget the limitations on your magic system! Consider alternate endings, in particular, in terms of the main characters. Kill your darlings! Be careful of novelist indulgences, such as switching viewpoints and promoting sequels.
( Delving into The Emperor's Soul... )
[Brandon] All right. Let's go ahead and stop. Does anyone have a writing prompt for us?
[Dan] I want you to come up with a magic system based on stamps that has nothing to do with forgery.
[Brandon] All right. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.
[Brandon] Hi, all. This is Brandon. Hope you enjoyed today's episode. I just wanted to give you a special reminder. Audible has my novella, Legion, up for free in audiobooks. So since they're a sponsor of the podcast, I thought I'd give an extra shout out to it. They actually have, if you go to www.audible.com/sanderson, they have Legion up there. You... There's no trial, there's no strings attached. You just get it for free. So I hope you guys go give it a listen, if you haven't already. You can go to audible.com/sanderson to download it and give it a try.
From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2012/11/11/writing-excuses-7-46-project-in-depth-the-emperors-soul/
Key Points: The idea for this story started with seeing the "stamps" (or chops) on art in Taiwan, which sparked the idea of doing a stamp-based magic system. Next came a character -- a con artist! So forgery was a natural, and provided motivation. The plot was a thought, which could be summed up in a one-sentence challenge, what if the con artist had to do a forgery of someone's soul? Mix in the concept that "everything has a soul." Don't forget the limitations on your magic system! Consider alternate endings, in particular, in terms of the main characters. Kill your darlings! Be careful of novelist indulgences, such as switching viewpoints and promoting sequels.
( Delving into The Emperor's Soul... )
[Brandon] All right. Let's go ahead and stop. Does anyone have a writing prompt for us?
[Dan] I want you to come up with a magic system based on stamps that has nothing to do with forgery.
[Brandon] All right. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.
[Brandon] Hi, all. This is Brandon. Hope you enjoyed today's episode. I just wanted to give you a special reminder. Audible has my novella, Legion, up for free in audiobooks. So since they're a sponsor of the podcast, I thought I'd give an extra shout out to it. They actually have, if you go to www.audible.com/sanderson, they have Legion up there. You... There's no trial, there's no strings attached. You just get it for free. So I hope you guys go give it a listen, if you haven't already. You can go to audible.com/sanderson to download it and give it a try.
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