I'm writing a fantasy novel for children.

[Kerrybuchanan]

I've always taken wizard to cover men and women, and "warlock" to be the male version of "witch". And weren't the female magicians in Harry Potter referred to as wizards?

I think they were referred to as witches and wizards. Not that I read HP. Not at all.

 

[Wayne Mack]

Though the formal definition of wizard appears to be male only, I think in general usage, wizard can apply to either.
Oxford definition for Wizard
Synonyms for Wizard

 

[Guanazee]

Hi there. I'm writing for children, too. A horror fantasy for middle grade. High fantasy is a hard sell to agents/editors right now but you should write what you're passionate about. You never know what will sell.

 

[Swank]

I think having female wizards would be readily accepted and would be preferable to the term witch, due to the negative connotation associated with the latter.

Wizard is the nice word, while witch is the put down. I'd use both, depending on who's talking.

Dragon, wyrm. Orc, goblin. Engineer, mechanic. Gunslinger, cow poke. Designer, seamstress. Etc.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

The trouble I'm facing is that I get easily sidetracked, how can you stop yourself doing that?

 

[chrispenycate]

The trouble I'm facing is that I get easily sidetracked, how can you stop yourself doing that?

There are two basic techniques (and dozens of intermediate ones). If you're a plotter plan out the phases of your story in advance, and ignore all off-map interventions. If you're a pantser (panzer, perhaps?) investigate those side paths, supposedly short cuts and potentially depth improveng bypasses. Some of them are likely to be interesting in their own right, others opening secrets about your major characters, and you're going to edit the talelater, anyway. Just don't throw away the unuseable ideas.

I'm on juvenile right now, too. My seven year old grandnephew was tI ested to have twelve year old reading skills. He likes dragons, so I'm filtering out the naughty bits from one of my dragon tomes (even I don't put erotic literature into the hands of pre-teens) and slightly simplifying the vocabulary. How long should a YA volume?series be? (He's worked his way through three of the 'Eragon' tetrology) At present I'm at 65,000, but cutting scenes with me almost always involves adding more elsewhere.

Afterthought - perhaps a sorceress as a female wizard? Alright, wisdom isn't predominant in the job description…

Certainly make a change from attempting to amputate enough words to create seventy-five.

 

[Valtharius]

The trouble I'm facing is that I get easily sidetracked, how can you stop yourself doing that?

I've heard amphetamines work.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I've heard amphetamines work.

I'll definitely won't be doing drugs.

 

[Rufus Coppertop]

The trouble I'm facing is that I get easily sidetracked, how can you stop yourself doing that?

I'd love to know the answer to that one myself.

 

[Rufus Coppertop]

I'm feeling quite excited now, is this usual?

Absolutely.

Can wiz

You're the one writing your book. You can choose to make wizarding a job description rather than a gender role. It's up to you.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

The trouble I'm facing is that I get easily sidetracked, how can you stop yourself doing that?

Fall in love with your character and enjoy spending time with them.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

This project came to a standstill. After doing some research I decided this was not for me.

 

[Toby Frost]

Fair enough. Sometimes things just aren't.

 

[redzwritez]

There's a lot of fantasy that has female and male wizards. Terry Pratchett's Equal Rites centres a lot on it. There's also other forms of media that embraced it. Wizard of Waverly Place, for example. It was a Disney show where every person, girl or boy, with magic was called a wizard. Honestly, I think it's a really fun idea. I think you could really play around with whether wizard is just the accepted name for anyone with magic, and why that is, or if women want to be known as wizards for a particular reason. Is there a difference between a wizard or a witch or sorcerer or is it just used as an umbrella term for all kinds of magic? Either one, or any other idea for that matter, is fine.

 

[Bramandin]

This project came to a standstill. After doing some research I decided this was not for me.

So what are you going to do now?

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

So what are you going to do now?

I've just started another thread, whereupon I am embarking on writing short stories on the romantic scene.