Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.

Writing Excuses 9.24: Side Quests

Side quests come in a couple of forms — they may be something inside the book that takes the characters away from the main plotline, or they may be adventures that take place outside of the book itself.

We talk about the first type, and how to make sure they’re in the book for the right reasons, citing examples from The Wizard of Oz, The Hobbit, Redshirts, The Way of Kings, and The Hollow City among other stories.

In covering the second type, we talk about how ebooks have made ancillary, side-quest releases more common, and we cite the book trailers for the Partials series, the Glamourist Histories Christmas Stories, Steelheart, and the Schlock Mercenary Bonus Stories.

Homework: Create a story in which you have an incredibly powerful character, and a sidekick, then flip the relationship so the sidekick is in charge.

Thing of the week: The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy and Todd Harris, narrated by Bronson Pinchot.

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