As a writer and lover of books, I would not have thought the library would be considered a distraction free zone. It’s a bit like putting a games developer in an arcade…

Point 1. Yep. Power levels. One way is if the antag beats the protag at a later date. This in itself could be interesting in that the problem is that the protag won and so becomes complacent. Never tried to better themselves and ultimately stagnates where as the antag is moving. Creates an interesting dynamic.

Aap Jo mujhe bol rahe the vah sab English mein bol rahe the mujhe kuchh samajh nahin aaya isliye Hindi mein bataiye Jara agali bar

It's funny about romance. I set out to write an adult dragon rider fantasy and I was 25% through it when I realized it was romantasy. Romance is a huge aspect of a young adult's life. So, I reworked it some to build tension a little. I'm working with beta readers and hoping to start querying it soon.

This is very helpful advice. I also didn't know Word had those tools.

O.K isnt exactly modern. It was first used in 1839. Should writers fall into and perpetuate stereotypical speech structures for different time periods just because they are what people expect because they heard them in popular works written by people who didnt reaearch the apeach of the time but instead write what they thought sounded old. For example ye is pronounced "the" no one said, "yee oldeh shoppee" it was just "the old shop" in a different spelling.

Here is my idea for a bad fantasy book: Instead of ripping off harry potter directly, its an alternate timeline in which its modern times and fairy tale creatures never disappeared from human society into legend, nor did alien conspiracy theories ever start as a replacement, Instead fairies are aliens and it incorporates starseeds and ufo and new thought concepts and we have an interstellar demystified fantasy society where the greys are the goblins, and the reptilians and nords are there The elves turn out to be the dmt machine elves, There are offworld colonies of earth humans, We still don't have lasers or magic, instead there is magitech Its magical realism taken for granted

I once heard someone describe great actors as people who can make it seem like they are trying to hide what they are thinking and feeling while actually exposing all that to the audience.

imo, magic systems don't need to be overly detailed, at least in terms of telling the reader about it, but they do need to have rules and consistency. I think a lot of writers fall into the opposite hole, of trying to be too detailed, and then they run into problems later because they start breaking rules they've previously established. Someone in your readership will remember, and it will ruin the experience for them.

Challenge accepted!

This is gold Jed, really good stuff. Loving the extra long video 😁

“Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III but you can just call me Percy”

I think I know how I would use your framework for my character but I want to write it out here. My character loses a few people including her last living family. Her little sister. These characters are all killed by demonic vampires and undead horrors early in the story. And the book depicts her negative arc into violence as she destroys the vampires but goes too deep in over her head and fails. Her ghost is the dead loved ones. Her want is destroy those who did it. Her lie is that the vampires are the ghost. And her need is to allow herself to truly mourn in order to move on, maybe fighting the vampires in a most effective and constructive way instead of brute force. The truth is that her violence and wrath will destroy her, and turn her into something her loved ones would not love.

I neat trick I noticed in writing is that the length of descriptions can serve to give a scene its pacing in action. Long and drawn out descriptions are great for suspenseful and slow events, while short and simplified descriptions are great for events that are happening in rapid motion. You see a lot of drawn out descriptions in horror stories when a character is hiding from a monster or killer, while short descriptions are usually seen in action/adventure stories during a battle scene.

Holy shit I wasn’t expecting a Mistborn reference in this video, I love that series.

I just found your channel today. I’m not a fantasy writer or a novelist. I’m currently working on a comic, in fact the first piece of writing I’ve tried. I’m still in the development stage and your videos have already helped me iron out some ideas. Thanks, and I really hope my story comes out as good as it is in my head!

0:56 made me immediately think of something like Soul Eater, honestly really cool. You never see stuff like that in media these days...

My question is should you at the start of the book have a section explains how the magic works before the story begins cause I am writing one and I’m not sure if is should a do that or not

I'd like to shout out the single dumbest magic system I have ever read: Animus Magic from the Wings of Fire series. It doesn't seem to have limits (somebody actually gives someone else Animus powers at one point), there is no tangible cost (it 'eats away at your soul' except for all the times it doesn't,) It's not actually underused it's just that Animus Dragons are just super rare, it has that instant mastery problem (we've never seen an Animus Dragon actually practice, they can just sort of do it.) A smart Animus Dragon could theoretically make themselves completely invincible... and one actually does. The plot of three books relies on the fact that the bad guy literally cannot be killed, like at all. It _does_ lead to one of the most clever counters to magic I've ever read, but still.

One of my favorite forms of antagonists in stories are the ones you don’t really know are the antagonist until further along in the story, or you start off thinking they aren’t the bad guy.

Thank you for including practical applications of these tips and strategies

#4 aka plot armor

I had an idea for a false antagonist: a hero from the past who takes up a villain role to seek and test the next hero of the hour. Basically, this former hero, who was morally ambiguous to start, finds the successor and pushes the current hero to realize their destiny.

“Adjectives are obviously really cool”

Thanks!

I think you are wrong. All the points you said where in a specific public very fanatics with fantasy but if you wanna sell, you have to write for the big public(sorry that how it works) because there's people only want to read a good story, not the next lord of the rings. Or do you really if nowadays the lords of the rings public for the first, will be so famous and the master piece it is now? With the generation we have now? Mm, I'm not sure...

Didn't know this guy had films and books better than the movies and shows seen in this video

Hey Jed, I love the videos and stories! I wanna write a for-fun story for me and my friends but idk if you can review it for free? I don’t really know, and if not, it’s okay…

I’m thinking about applying these character arc insights to American politics and polarities. The psychologies at work here help make sense of the ascents and descents, the fervor and relentlessness, the tragedies and farces, the strange power dynamics.

I think the reason why writers use traumatized children as their characters is because they are curious and growing also trauma makes people grow.

I would argue for a split within what you call "force of nature", between forces of nature and pure evil villains. They have some things in common, but arent identical. Forces of nature are broader, and they often dont have an individual making decisions. The classic one is death. They don't have a reason, they just are. They aren't even really evil, just dangerous. Meanwhile the pure evil antagonist is someone like sauron, or the emperor, or jack from Puss in Boots. They're individuals, evil, often dark lords. They have personal goals such as power or destruction, and an actual person/body. It's not the same.

Love the video. I think one of the best uses for Innate ability is a Person vs Creator story, even if the trope of "you've been selected by God to spread his divine will, or you're the chosen one" has been used all around. I still believe some good story's can come out of unique uses of it

I was reading the book of Spartacus, by Ken Ben who wrote “The Silver Eagle”. One of the gladiators threw a jibe at Spartacus and he responded with “IN YOUR DREAMS!” While I’m certain the phrase or something similar was probably said at that time….Ive considered that comeback and “your mom” jokes to be a modern statement and it truly broke the immersion that I couldn’t finish the book.

8. Doing the Whedon

Honestly, number 7 seems extremely dumb to me, as it seems to basically try to establish hard magic systems to be superior to soft magic systems. None of the two systems are better than the other, it solely comes down to implementation. No you don’t have to explain every aspect of your magic or even the fundamental in some cases, as long as you understand what other writing techniques you have to implement to make the story engaging.

Anybody know any good books where the protagonist has a dark secret? As a ghost.

(Arms full of sticky-notes) oh... It's what's ON the sticky notes that's important... 😅😭

The thing I like about your videos is how validating they are. I tend to doubt the quality of my work a lot, but then I catch one of your videos and can confirm that I have already applied almost everything you suggest, despite not necessarily knowing that was what I was doing. What you say about the first time you wrote a book also reminds me of my first manuscript. I was 11, maybe 12, and just started writing from the prologue with no idea as to where I was going, and made all the mistakes possible, until I eventually dropped it. It was too big of a mess, and handwritten, so not fixable easily. I think too many young writers forget that the people they look up to for writing good books didn't just get there on the first try. In my case I've been writing for 16 years without ever even attempting to publish anything. In that time I've been free to experiment and fail a lot, and thus learn from those failures to do better on the next project. What you give on your channel is pretty much a cheat-sheet to skip over all the mistakes we had to make, by breaking down what you've learned, and I appreciate that, even if it is oftentimes redundant information to me, as it at least helps reassure me that I have indeed learned, and am a better writer for it. Cheers.

I’m not really planning to write any books, I’m only writing to get my story down to turn into a game. You can’t really do anything other than hear and see in a video game

Just leaving a personal note. For a Game I am working on. Main Villain will be the Force of Nature Secondary Protagonist will begin as a False Ally Archetype and will become the dark mirror Because of the Primary Protagonist’s anti-villain actions. -GB

Again, thwarted. I came to have my story pointed out for an easy way to improve it.

This may your best video yet. Lot of great stuff in here. :)

Jed herne is amazing. Ibe really been able to evolve my storytelling.

13:47 Shortest piece of advice for fantasy writers out their on info-dumping: Just apply the Chekov's gun

lol the atla 'magic' system breaks every rule except the skill/study one and MAYBE the scant resource one as well. still is one of the best cause it leabs HEAVILY into the study aspect. its literally the entire overriding plot. ao this list is pretty sh!t imo. you can break each rule pretty easily

lets be real. the "every nail" problem is the most realistic and is acceptable. i find it weird that you used superman as an example of a good habit when hes the very embodiment of an "every nail" he punches the everloving shit outta people. the "every nail" peoblem doesnt exist if you can create compelling conflict/risk somewhere else and frankly if i had gravity magic my enemies would find their way through that roof or a windows or a door. no need to get cute. just yeet em.

Owen's story is basically the same as hundreds of chinese manhuas, where as Jan's story very much inspired from the manga colourless

I have thought about a storyline I'd been wanting to express, either through writing or through gaming media, and this was quite helpful. I can't say I've actually started writing, but I have conceptualized the ideas until I reached the soggy middle. One thing is that I kind of have two protagonists, though they are opposed to each other and forced to work together. I don't think I really have a definitive antagonist, more like I have a concept that is the defining opposition to the protagonists. Should I just consider one of the protagonists as the antagonist, or is this enough of a concept to work off of? I'm mostly curious as I haven't seen a story that has this sort of plot style and I thought it might be an interesting idea to explore, assuming it's something that could work. If this is something I'd have to take classes for, I will certainly consider it when and if I get to the point of actually writing out the story.

The first one that comes to mind for me, is why doesn’t everyone use the magic (or alternatively, what is the point of magic everyone can use). Magic historically refers to arcane arts performed by a only a few talented people, and this lore is fairly universal in our world. You ought to think through how your magic adheres to that, otherwise you shouldn’t even be thinking of it as “magic” at all, and more as fictional abilities.

Huh. At the begining of Ned's story he beheads a man, saying; "The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die." His story ends with him being sentenced to death unjustly, and Joffery didn't swing the sword himself. Neat.