If you could write your own fantasy....

[fireheart17]

There are actually a ton of really great "young adult" fantasy books that have some great female protagonists.

Off the top of my head, Kestrel Hath and/or Pinto Hath from The Wind on Fire would be a good example.

(that's probably more teenager reading)

While Bowman is a good male protagonist, his sister ends up stealing a lot of the thunder since she's the one who instigates their adventures in the first place by wanting change.

[SkullKing]

I just would like to point out that there are numerous stories of good guys being 'l33t to the max", it just so happen that they are normally background for the book(i.e.: the great king that founded the empire the hero is trying to save) for example Cherek Bearshoulders and his sons from the Belgariad

If you want extremelly powerfull character in good stories, I suggest Eatman and Miracleman.

[Rapscallion]

You can write your own fantasy.

I started with notepad. Self published the first. Made sod all coin, but it was interesting to say the least.

Rapscallion

[DGoddess]

I want to see a heroine who's either butch or plain, and who turned to fighting for a reason other than to get revenge on the evil guy who killed/kidnapped her boyf.

I've been writing fanfic for a lot of years now and I have to admit, it's a great point.

If I want to see some chick go after revenge 'cause somebody did something to her hubby/bf/so, I'll watch Lifetime Movie Network. Blech.

As far as heroines go, the two I've had running around in my head since high school are more on the geek side . . . . with a touch of redneck.


Toss in a billion plus dollar family fortune that's hid and well, it's more like a cross between Cheech and Chong or Beavis and ButtHead. With spy gadgets.

As far as their motivation goes: it's pretty simple with these two. They want to piss with the big boys, so to speak. And there are occasions where they do, in fact, win a round in that Peeing for Distance contest.

Just seems that a lot of fantasy heroines are moonlighting as beauty queens. If they really were fighting nonstop, they wouldn't look that good.

I don't know sometimes about that. I think it depends on the specific storyline and what's going on.

Now, if you're holding up a church full of spies with machine guns and a remote detonation device, you're gonna want to look like you mean business.

And be nicely dressed for the occasion at the same time. So decideth Lynda and Brenda DeBeauharnais in the opening scene of "The Underwear Unaffaire" (aka the Prologue to "L'Affaire de Shotgun.")

Needless to say, they left a lasting impression, to say the very least while embarrassing the Hell out of a pair of retired spies.

[Andara Bledin]

I have a story with a heroine who becomes a monster hunter because she was attacked by a monster, so she decided that she wasn't going to be the damsel in distress.

^-.-^

[Mr. Anubite]

I often see #1 in Dungeons & Dragons adventures. I've always wondered why we're running around in a cave when the wizard could drop a spell and be done with the whole thing.

[Nyoibo]

Freaking wizards waiting in taverns. Our group has sworn that if we ever meet a wizard in a tavern who has a mission for us, we're killing him.

[Android Kaeli]

Ooh, while we're on that subject, anyone else get bugged about the situation in Goblet of Fire where he's fighting the dragon? If he's gonna summon something, why summon a broomstick that's a mile away? Why not summon the freaking DRAGON EGG in front of his face that he's supposed to be getting? Maybe it was enchanted to resist summoning, like the horcruxes, but we'll never know, because he didn't even try! I love the Harry Potter series, but that's one situation that stands out to me just now. I know there are plenty others like it as well, but the story itself is compelling enough for me to keep reading despite the occasional plot hole.

Pretty much answered your questions right there. I'm going to assume the same thing, considering fully grown dragons in the Harry Potter-verse need a few pretty skilled wizards to keep them under wizard control. Heck the dragon eggs may be impervious to Summoning Charms naturally and those running the show added a few extra spells to make sure it didn't happen.

If I ever get further in my fantasy series, I will have my characters stronger and more durable. Right now they pretty much have their powers at their disposal, HOWEVER because of a situation that happened many years earlier they:

-- Have no memory of their powers, what they can do with them, and have no idea who or what they are.

-- Were put back to infantcy and are currently aged apart one to four years apart.

-- Can't defeat the current bad guys without one of them dieing in the process.

[flybye023]

Couple of things I don't like about fantasy
1) The magic or enchanted jewelry/sword/object that must be found
2) The magic ends or leaves at the end of the series. I don't expect the series to go on forever but why does everything have to become ordinary at the end?

That's why I like Harry Potter so much--the story ends but there are still wizards and witches who will still be using magic for generations to come.

[Kheldarson]

Number 2 doesn't happen in all fantasy, flybye. It depends on the setting. Alternate universes? Sorry, either you stay in the magic-verse or go home to your own 'verse. Magical setting that was never meant to be? Sorry, fixing the world means getting rid of the magic. Usually. There might be exceptions. Already in a magic-verse? Magic doesn't end, but it is rather ordinary since it exists all around.

And what's wrong with the magic item? It's a basic quest point, and can lead to further quest points. Personally I like David Eddings' take with the Magic Thing-a-ma-jig. Pulled it in two series too. And kind of in two others. And each time was rather original.

[Hyena Dandy]

Is there something keeping you from writing your own fantasy?

[Lace Neil Singer]

Freaking wizards waiting in taverns. Our group has sworn that if we ever meet a wizard in a tavern who has a mission for us, we're killing him.

Does that also count if it's a ranger waiting in a tavern?

[DrFaroohk]

the problem with a lot of the "magic items" such as in the case of Eddings is it begs the question...why not just use it?

In one of his series its this big blue jewel that is sort of alive and basically has god like powers...and I always wondered "Why doesn't he just tell the gem to bring his wife back? Why not tell the gem to obliterate the bad guy armies?" There's usually some half-hearted implausible reason why not.

You can write your own fantasy.

I started with notepad. Self published the first. Made sod all coin, but it was interesting to say the least.

lol a while back I wrote this incredibly long and probably shitty (but I enjoyed it!) story about a disgruntled wal-mart employee. It was basically drawing on a lot of my own life experiences but it was fun to write and I think it was coming along pretty good....and then computer crashed. No backup.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Best thing to do as a backup is to publish the story on a site like dA so that if you do lose the story off your computer, you do have it elsewhere and it will be copyrighted.

[AdminAssistant]

A bit OT, but advice from my dissertating friends: Keep at least 3 copies of your work somewhere other than your computer. Most use an online document storage service (Cloud, Google Docs, etc.), then you have your flash drives, and then, once a chapter or a section is complete, print it off and store it in your freezer.