My writing odyssey with my first novel is finally nearing its end! Last July, I explained why I decided to independently publish the novel, and how I intended to do it the right way. After numerous rounds of self-editing to tighten the story and polish my writing, I hired a professional editor who was wonderful…
Like the news-bearing heralds of old, Fresh-scraped Vellum is becoming a bit more newsy, albeit in a potentially wayward fashion. So every Monday for the foreseeable future, the Wayward Herald will report on news and items of interest to readers and writers of historical and fantasy fiction. For his inaugural post, here are some interesting…
I have written several posts on the fine line between history and fantasy, noting how subtle that line can be. For works set back in the Middle Ages or earlier, for example, what is “true” history gets a bit murky, so the line between history and fantasy can become quite blurred. The same is true…
This is my thirtieth post on beginnings, and I think it’s time for a change. Does this mean I’ll never again talk about what makes a great beginning to a novel? Probably not. But it is the end of this series, and likely the beginning of something new every Monday. So, for my final “beginning,”…
In the final installment in my series on the Top 5 Elements of a Great Epic, I’m focusing on Grand Events – those major conflicts that makes a great epic so breathtaking. Grand events are critical because they are a primary vehicle through which the author shows how huge the stakes are in the story. They…
For this week’s “beginning,” I chose the first three paragraphs of one of my favorite openings, the beginning of Bernard Cornwell’s Agincourt (here’s my review). Here it is after this image of the book’s cover. On a winter’s day in 1413, just before Christmas, Nicholas Hook decided to commit murder. It was a cold…
Every story needs a protagonist, and often he or she possesses qualities that could be described as “heroic.” A great epic, however, needs a hero in the truest sense of the word. Just look at three of the first four definitions in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary to see what I mean: Definition of HERO a mythological…
Fresh-scraped Vellum is taking a break for Labor Day! But remember to check back on Thursday for my next post on The Top 5 Elements of a Great Epic! The Official Dog of Fresh-scraped Vellum enjoys a day off!
Great epics are never about a single character’s journey. Even if the stakes are enormous for that one character, rarely would such a story be described as epic. In great epics, many characters must be in peril, and sometimes the fate of whole nations, or even whole worlds, are at issue in the story. The…
For my twenty-eighth “Beginning” of the Week, I’m going back to one of my all-time favorite authors, Bernard Cornwell. Here is the opening passage of The Winter King, the first book in The Warlord Chronicles, his fascinating take on the Arthurian legend. Once upon a time, in a land that was called Britain, these things happened….
I’m slammed with work this week, so my next installment of the Top 5 Elements of a Great Epic needs a little more time and attention. For now, here’s my first post about epics from August 2011. This summer has been huge for George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. First, HBO made…