Being a Better Writer: Is Three a “Magic Number?” · 8:52pm Jun 19th, 2023
Welcome back, writers! It’s Monday again, and Emancipation Day atop that! Which is a new enough holiday that I think I’ll just forgo any break and work like normal. Especially since I really want to be writing Axtara – Magic and Mayhem right now.
But I can’t do that today until we’ve gotten today’s Being a Better Writer post up, so we’re going to dive in here and get talking about writing.
Well, almost. First, I am going to respond to a comment but make it a full bit of the “news” catchup. Last week in the update post I noted that I’d started the opening of Axtara 2 over, setting aside the first two chapters I’d written in favor of a smoother, hopefully better opening and recap. Which led to a comment from a reader asking if they would possibly see that cut content put up on Patreon as a supporter reward. And to that I say … Maybe.
Effectively, I say this because some of the opening is getting recycled, while some is getting reborn in a way that is far different to how it appeared in the first go around. In other words, sharing that content might introduce new side characters that in the new version behave very differently, or moments that are much smoother in exploration with the current Axtara 2 draft. So while I’m not saying “No” at all … I am saying “Wait a bit longer.” I need to get further into this draft of Axtara 2 to know what’s well and truly gone, and has no harm in sharing, and what would merely be a spoiler for the actual book, which I’d rather save until we’re close to Axtara’s next adventure coming out.
So yeah, not quite yet. There are a few smaller pieces of it that, depending on the next few chapters of the current draft, however, will either be worth sharing in the original form, or just as they came up in the current project.
However … if you Patreon Supporters are itching for more Axtara content, I would hint that you may want to go over to Patreon and type “Ryax” into the search bar for my posts, whereupon you’ll be given all four parts of A Trial for a Dragon, a short story (for given definitions of short; it’s about 60 pages) set in the Axtara universe following our banker’s older brother Ryax. I know, I know, it’s not the loveable banker, but … Well, let’s just say I’d want to read A Trial for a Dragon before reading Axtara 2. It’s not key, but it’s certainly a bonus (and I’m already looking at ways to get A Trial for a Dragon out into the world before Axtara 2 hits.
Okay, that ended up being more news than I planned. Let’s dive into today’s post, then.
So, today’s post actually went on the list due to another Being a Better Writer post. A few months back, many of you will recall a very unique post on “Nintendo’s Rule of Three” and how it could be applied to writing. Which is a fantastic post you should definitely read (more on that in a bit), but it also at the time of writing prompted a quick check of the BaBW archives and a note made on the next Topic List of “Hey, cover the classic bit on three being a “magic number.”
This only became more amusingly apparent when another site linked to the post on “Nintendo’s Rule of Three,” encouraging people to read it, only for a large discussion of sorts to start in the comments from a host of people who all quickly made it apparent that they hadn’t read the post, but thought it was discussing three being a “magic number.”
Which, I stress again, it was not, at least not in this way. Go check that post out if you haven’t, because it’s an interesting one. Or at least open it in a new tab to read after we tackle today’s topic. Which we’re going to hit right after the jump, and that’s now.
