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a vital tool for victory at the climax of the story. The success of the trick is believable because we saw it work before.

Tip #4. Set up a filing system for storing information about your world, including profiles of all the characters and a short synopsis of each completed chapter. You may think that you will have no trouble remembering that your world has two moons and purple stars, and that Yovanni has a mole on his left cheek, but things tend to get fuzzy after 50 pages or so. It is not necessarily essential to know where your story will go, but you do know where it has been.

Tip #5. Even though fantasy characters often command unusual powers, those abilities cannot be the mainspring of the conflict. The story will be compelling insofar as it is based on universal human themes and struggles, such as love, lust, loyalty, power, sacrifice, suffering, revenge, and personal integrity. When the chips are down, the final outcome hinges not on how many spells the protagonist has acquired, but his or her personal qualities. The fireworks of a magic contest get wearisome after a while, and more and more gimmicks are required to hold the audience's interest. To really get the audience's attention, put a likable character into a critical situation where all the usual paranormal weapons and shields are neutralized, and s/he has nothing to rely on but greatness of heart and strength of will.

Tip #6. Keep writing. Keep writing. Keep writing. When the task gets wearisome (and it will), get some exercise, take a bath or a nap, and write some more. Even when you think it's all garbage and there is no point going on, keep writing and don't let yourself off the hook until you are finished. That's the only way it's going to happen. If the final result is less than you hoped for, it's still something to build on. If you don't have time for a novel, try a novella or short story. If you stop for too long in the middle of a work, you will lose your flow, your point of view and style will evolve, and you will find yourself starting over again and again and never getting to the end. Don't discuss the work with anyone else until it is finished, and don't spend much time on revisions the first time through. If you manage even 500 words a day, you will be the proud parent of a 180,000-word epic before the year is over. Then you can start honing, tinkering, and revising, and recruiting those all-important extra eyes to give you feedback.

Enjoy your adventure! It's hard work, but it's also fun. It's the ultimate free-form role-playing game, where the only limit is your imagination. Even if your characters are so vivid that they develop a will of their own and defy your efforts to control them. you still have the final say on what happens, and how. What more can you ask?

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