GB Feature: Creating the Dragonlance World Interview
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GB: Your Dragonlance novels featured some of the most memorable characters I've ever had the pleasure of reading about (Tanis, Raistlin, Tasslehoff, Fizban, and Lord Soth, to name a few). Can you give us an idea of what it took to come up with each character's background and personality before actually starting the writing process?
Tracy: Initially the characters were put together - quite literally - by committee! Everyone working on the project would set around a conference table and eventually we came up with a '˜typical' party of adventurers that would be the core of our story. What we didn't know at the time was that a good party of D&D adventurers does NOT necessarily make for good novel writing; there were far too many characters on stage at the same time. Every time they went anywhere in the first book, they moved like a tour group. Worse, before we started working on the books they were very two-dimensional characters. Breathing life and dimension into these characters was both challenging and rewarding.
Margaret: The one I remember most clearly was Raistlin. When I was developing the plot for the book, I had to come up with back stories for the characters, give them personalities, etc. All I had to go on was: the artists' portrayals of the characters and their game stats! With Raistlin, I knew he was a third level wizard (which non-gaming readers of the novel would say, "Huh?"), that he was frail and sickly and that he had a strong and powerful twin brother, Caramon. I knew that their companions called Raistlin "the Sly One". I also knew from the artwork that Raistlin had golden skin and hourglass eyes. I had to find a plausible reason for all these. The most difficult was, of course, the golden skin and hourglass eyes. I knew it wasn't genetic--Caramon looked perfectly normal. So the answer was, of course, the magic. The magic had done something to Raistlin, changed him. I asked myself: What if a mage had to undergo some sort of test? What if that test was one in which you had to stake your life on the outcome? Failure means death! How would your overprotective twin brother, who has guarded you all his life, feel about that? Answering these questions led me to know and understand the character of Raistlin as I have known few other characters (or even real live people!).
Two exclusive stills from the movie are also included, so be sure to check those out as well!
