That is, if the Killing Curse is unblockable instant death, why doesn't anyone who knows it just use it every time, assuming they're fighting to kill?
Don't they, though? Rowling never detailed her battles that much, but I did get the impression that the Death Eaters, at least, tended to use AK almost exclusively.
Keeping track of the precise spells you've explicitly mentioned Alex knowing/doing is a good idea.
As for dueling: I don't think it's necessary to make magic dueling seem like fencing dueling. There are a number of different types of dueling, after all, including with guns, etc. I think it's much more important to make it interesting to read.
I feel like elaborating on it [dueling] too much begins to make the story read like the dreaded fictionalized Role Playing Game where you can tell the author has written up a character sheet for the protagonist.
Not necessarily; it depends on how you do it. For example, talking about general theory--what kinds of defensive and offensive spells there are and the like--or individual strengths and weaknesses and styles--Alex likely being an all-out attacker who isn't very mindful of her defenses, etc.--shouldn't be too RPG-ish. As long as you don't get into detailed descriptions of individual spells, or like, assign damage values to them or something, there's likely nothing to worry about. Then again, I probably have a higher tolerance for this kind of stuff than most.
Alexandra is in a precarious physical situation that requires a whole bunch of physical and magical maneuvering to get out of, and I've been going on and on with it, and while I can clearly picture it in my mind, it may read really tediously (or worse, improbably) to the reader.
Action scenes are difficult. I actually think tediousness is a more dangerous enemy than improbability here--I think people are willing to overlook the latter once or twice, but the former is always unforgivable, especially for action scenes, since they're supposed to be fast-paced. The general issue is, describing the action in enough detail to make it easily picture-able usually makes it long-winded and boring. I don't really have any advice in this regard; probably the only way to get better at them is to practice.
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Date: 2011-04-04 09:38 pm (UTC)Don't they, though? Rowling never detailed her battles that much, but I did get the impression that the Death Eaters, at least, tended to use AK almost exclusively.
Keeping track of the precise spells you've explicitly mentioned Alex knowing/doing is a good idea.
As for dueling: I don't think it's necessary to make magic dueling seem like fencing dueling. There are a number of different types of dueling, after all, including with guns, etc. I think it's much more important to make it interesting to read.
I feel like elaborating on it [dueling] too much begins to make the story read like the dreaded fictionalized Role Playing Game where you can tell the author has written up a character sheet for the protagonist.
Not necessarily; it depends on how you do it. For example, talking about general theory--what kinds of defensive and offensive spells there are and the like--or individual strengths and weaknesses and styles--Alex likely being an all-out attacker who isn't very mindful of her defenses, etc.--shouldn't be too RPG-ish. As long as you don't get into detailed descriptions of individual spells, or like, assign damage values to them or something, there's likely nothing to worry about. Then again, I probably have a higher tolerance for this kind of stuff than most.
Alexandra is in a precarious physical situation that requires a whole bunch of physical and magical maneuvering to get out of, and I've been going on and on with it, and while I can clearly picture it in my mind, it may read really tediously (or worse, improbably) to the reader.
Action scenes are difficult. I actually think tediousness is a more dangerous enemy than improbability here--I think people are willing to overlook the latter once or twice, but the former is always unforgivable, especially for action scenes, since they're supposed to be fast-paced. The general issue is, describing the action in enough detail to make it easily picture-able usually makes it long-winded and boring. I don't really have any advice in this regard; probably the only way to get better at them is to practice.
I really like the pictures. :D
-TealTerror