Sorcery

Happy Friday!

As many of you now know, Cedwig's release has been postponed. Check back in on Monday, and I'll explain everything that's going on, and give you an update on when you can expect to have the next druid novel in your hands.


Today, however, we're finishing up a series on characters, and a week on dynamic duos. The third and final duo, that is also one of my favorites to write, even though I've only successfully done so once, is...

The Wizard and His Apprentice

It's a very common duo, used by a lot of writers and a lot of stories, in a lot of different genres. It doesn't have to be a wizard, you see, but anyone who's very good at what they do. The two end up making a very fun pair, because one is very strong, and one is a novice. So let's take a few minutes to delve a little deeper into this final dynamo.

1. Life

Very frequently, the story is written so that the Apprentice has either come to live with or spends most of his time beside, the Wizard. And generally, we want to focus the majority of our attentions upon the Apprentice, because he's the one who's going to steal the show whether we want him to or not.

So make your Apprentice very alive. Make him the most real character you can imagine. And then make your Wizard just that — make him magical, mystical, mysterious, very far from the standard of humanity, and very far above the Apprentice. Offset their lives by what role they take on in the story. The Apprentice should have very little idea of what he's doing, and the Wizard should know literally everything about what's going on, even when it comes to his...

2. Death

This is one of the most important things you need to do in a story that contains this dynamic duo. The Wizard either has to die, or he has to disappear. You can bring him back in the end if you wish, but only if the Apprentice is successful. Or if you play your cards right, you can make like Star Wars and have your Wizard come back as a ghost to continue teaching your Apprentice. But whatever the case, the Wizard must go.

See, the story is really about the Apprentice. It's about whether or not he can survive doing what the Wizard has always done, what he's become master over. So if the Wizard is always there by his side, the Apprentice will never really fail, and there will never really be a story. But if the Wizard dies, if he disappears, the Apprentice really has to push himself.

It's one of the things that makes this dynamic duo so interesting, because the majority of the time the Wizard won't even be an "on-screen" character, but he'll always exist in the heart of the Apprentice, even beyond the grave.


I hope that you've all enjoyed this series on characters! Next month we'll be talking about story as a whole, and the differences between short stories and novels. I've never talked about anything like it in the blog before, so it should be a lot of fun.

And don't forget, Monday I'll be able to explain everything that's going on with Cedwig, and I'll give you an update as to when you can expect it to hit the proverbial shelves.

See you then!


[love]

{Rani D.}