I suck at writing political intrigue... let’s fix that!
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- čas přidán 22. 02. 2023
- Political intrigue is one of the biggest weaknesses I've noticed in myself as an Epic Fantasy writer. And as one of my favorite parts of the Epic Fantasy genre, I really want to learn how to do it well!
And in this video, that's exactly what I'm aiming to learn!
This writing vlog includes an analysis of some of my favorite novels to discover what makes political intrigue work in Epic Fantasy, an overview of each of these lessons with examples from the books I read, and my own brainstorming to figure out how I can apply some of these lessons to my next series!
It was a really exciting process!
What do you think of this writing vlog? Do you like these types of analysis and application style writing vlogs? I experimented a little bit with a different style of editing, what do you think?
Let me know in the comments below and I'll get back to you 🙂
One book I read to help me understand political plotting was the 48 laws of power. For a writer it might as well be called "48 ways to have people plotting against your main character".
I read that too. Thumbsup.
Thanks for the suggestion! I've actually already watched a summary of the book and all the laws on CZcams, but haven't taken notes on it yet. It does seem like a handy book to have on hand if you're trying to brainstorm schemes!! Might be a good time to read it for real!
Same here!
@@john_writing_ I haven't read the book (just tried understanding the principles through different summeries), but I saw the principles in action in novels.
Damn, thx for this rec. This sounds like an amazing book
Consider watching some political intrigue outside of a fantasy genre.
The godfather, House of cards, all the presidents men, Ghost Writer.
Putting a fantasy twist on some underused tropes could be interesting.
Thanks for the idea! I definitely enjoyed the first few seasons of House of Cards and reading The Godfather. I'll have to give those others a look too!
Thanks for watching :)
The way I see it, Political Intrigue is not a game of honour vs treachery, but threat v/s opportunity. The morality of your character is defined by when they terminate a threat, which is usually defined by the effort it would take to turn that threat into an opportunity. Opportunity, on the other hand, is like hit points. Your character can only miss so many before it kills them.
Could you expand on that or give an example? It sounds interesting but I don't get the threat part.
@@sv_q9676 Take Cersei from Game of Thrones. The moment Ned Stark is a threat, she eliminates him, branding her as a morally evil character. On the other hand, Tyrion tries to make nice with Janos Slynt, only for the character to spit in his face, causing Tyrion to exercise his power. So he is more morally sane than Cersei, but not as morally right as Ned Stark, who let multiple opportunities for power go, and failed to turn threats into opportunities. He would never have held the information hostage because Robert was a friend. A more morally grey character would the information distributed among his closest allies and make Cersie insecure about it. Then he would swoop in and 'get his troops in line', hence turning her into an ally, albeit a begrudging one. I hope that makes sense?
On Writing and Worldbuilding by Timothy Hickson helped me personally a lot with figuring out what powers make Empires/Monarchies/Societies work and how I can manipulate them to fit my story (there are also other nuggets of wisdom in there). Because there are more forces than just political figures who can manipulate politics.
You know what's funny? I actually already own the book, but I bought it before I was even interested in fantasy. That does sound useful, I'll have to give it another look while plotting.
Thanks for the suggestion! And thanks for watching :)
Thanks, man! I was searching for a book like that!
What a great video! Fun, too. 🙂Your brainstorming ideas are intriguing. Thanks for including the map. Have you heard of Ken Liu and his series, The Dandelion Dynasty? The books are epic fantasy with political intrigue, monsters, and magic, inspired by Chinese history. I haven't read them, but they're highly recommended.
Long time no see! Hope everything has been going well!
The series sounds interesting! Looks like I'm adding a new book to my TBR :)
Lovely video! I especially loved the checklist of patterns you noticed in a lot of political intrigue books, which I'll be sure to reference when I get around to editing the political intrigue novel I finished drafting recently. (It is pretty much 100% political intrigue. I know nothing about political science. Needless to say, it will need a lot of editing.) Also was happy to see The Traitor Baru Cormorant here--it's my #1 favourite book!
Thank you for this. I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year, and the story I plan to go with will have some political intrigue plots, so I'm trying to get a feel for what that entails. I appreciate your thoughtful analysis, and I've taken some notes that should help me.
your book sounds awesome
I subscribed the second you mentioned The Lies of Locke Lamora, you have excellent taste in literature lol
Right! Have you read the other books in the series too??
@@john_writing_ Only a dozen times or so... Every time 'The Thorn of Emberlain' gets pushed back on the release schedule, I listen to or read the series again to scratch the itch lol! So help me, if Lynch isn't able to publish the entire series, I might actually explode.
I'm going to start 'The Greatcoats' series by Sebastien De Castell next to hopefully help with my, er... Attachment issues. It's fine I'm fine everything is fine.
@@LittleMissSomething Sounds like true love to me! Just please don't explode!!
I hope The Greatcoats is able to tide you over until the release🤞
I'm trying to write a Mc that is smarter than me and better at intrigue. It is hard.
Man, at this point, I like your videos before watching them!
Do you know books that can teach topics like these?
I'm happy you find my videos consistently enjoyable :)
As far as books teaching these topics, some of the other people in the comments have given some good suggestions. I'd especially check out The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, because that one could be an almost endless seed of ideas for political intrigue schemes.
Otherwise, I mostly like to get ideas by seeing what others do. If I were you, I'd just look at the political intrigue you like and figure out why you like it.
@@john_writing_ I feel like I might miss some points. I understood its fundamentals/ mechanism when I learned how the 'flow' of power worked from 48 laws.
But if there's anything I'm still missing (which I am), then I'd like to learn it.
Haha, maybe we need a 48 Laws of Power book club during camp nanowrimo prep 😂
At some point you should start reading less books and going through more experiences and testing your ideas out, gather a bunch of players and do a roleplay campaign, test your ideas out, or try to tell someone who is interested in literature and stories about one of your stories, I don't even read books but I make some really good quality stories, even though I'm not too good at writing books, it's the same way that learning the grammar of a language doesn't necessarily make you good when it comes to speaking it.
This was awesome. Do we get to see how your story turns out?