Swept Away - A Narnian Swashbuckler

Thanks so much. I had originally considered her being alive but having given her new husband a son. How would Joseph handle it? What would he tell Elwin? I tried a couple of ideas but finally realized it was not only morally easier but focused on Joseph's difficulty in trusting Aslan which he overcame to the point where even though she died he did not lose his faith. That was the one best answer.
 
Yes, it was the perfect ending.

I just wanted to let you know that I have been exploring the Swept Away website. It's fantastic. I love the pictures.
 
John and Joseph, you were posting this at a crazy time in my life, so I didn't get to read it until today. It's awesome, of course. In a way, I expected the adventure to work out, because all the CON always work out -- Digory's mother was cured even though he knew he was risking losing her to do the right thing, when he did it ... And that would have been fine, if they had gotten Fiona back ...

But when Sir Joseph was talking about all the things he prayed for and they didn't happen, I thought to myself: this will be a good story if he gets her back, but if something should happen to prevent that happily-ever-after and Sir Joseph is still able to see Aslan's hand in it, then it will be an even better story. You managed it very nicely!

The story, while unusual for a CON story, is much better in its own right because of the bittersweet ending. Well done! Thank you for this.
 
How did you make it so amazing? Like even I remember, the traveling chapters were interesting. I've been told epics are planned, they just happen, so how did you make it so brilliant?
 
Gosh, you made me blush. And a badger with red and black stripes isn't fit to be seen. :p

Long stories like Swept Away have several layers of structure. Each of those layers give me an opportunity to carry through plots and subplots and break it into neat chapters. The mechanics of writing long stories need to be learned separately from developing a good writing style.

The story has a central theme, each major character has a development arc over which he achieves some personal goal, each chapter is a self-contained adventure designed to be read in a single setting.

I'm willing to teach the method to anyone who is willing to actually sit down and use it and practice it till he/she gets good at it.

Even some great writers never mastered the mechanics of long stories. Many like O'Henry spent a lifetime writing splendid short works. That proves you can be an excellent author and still think the challenges of long-writing are not worthwhile or personally appealing. I like a good long write myself, and I took the time and effort to pick up on what makes other long works successful and tried to make it my own.

Remarks like yours make it all worthwhile.
 
In the course of the project, John would send me increasingly longer, more fleshed-out drafts of the developing story, giving me the openings to offer my input. Few stories of any length are simply dashed off in one try!

And I haven't forgotten about the sequel; just can't do everything at once.
 
The story has a central theme, each major character has a development arc over which he achieves some personal goal, each chapter is a self-contained adventure designed to be read in a single setting.

I'm willing to teach the method to anyone who is willing to actually sit down and use it and practice it till he/she gets good at it.
I'll take you up on that!!! I have a feeling that this is what I need.
 
On the forum, the threads that were posted to most recently appear at the top of the list. Those which haven't been posted to for quite some time drop off the list and have to be searched for.

People post a "bump" post to cause the thread to resurface. I bumped this thread so it would be visible to enter in the fanfiction competition.
 
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