Dante on 31/1/2009 at 14:57
Quote Posted by Herr_Garrett
Got your point (altough I actually think that the picture just looks as if it was take in a desert, the seabed looks like that, too.), but fishes don't just hang around, breathing sand :D They still live in water for most of the time. Yes, I know that there are species of fish that can kill dogs and climb trees, but nevertheless,
nevertheless, the general statement that fishes spend the majority of the life in water and that it is crucial for their proper life functions, is sound and proved. :p
Anyway. I was metaphorically speaking, aye? :cheeky:
:laff:
Quote Posted by Elster
hmm already so much said, i have not really much to add, just one advise:
Keep it simple.
I agree with you on just about all of your posts. Trust me, I hate long, useless subplots and long, useless descriptions and long, useless other things. Unlike some authors, I can't write page after page of this sort of stuff. I hate it and I'm awful at it.
And I do read a lot of fantasy and intrigue (often both in one book) so I write for myself -- I am the target audience.
Herr_Garrett on 31/1/2009 at 15:47
Quote Posted by Dante
I write for myself -- I am the target audience.
Tolkien did the same, and look where he got to :D;)
I sense a great potential in you, lad! :cheeky:
Ombrenuit on 1/2/2009 at 08:37
Honestly for me I went as far as to map out the city (in terms of general locations and districts) and began to just write stories about things going on in it. I played with the location and the people there until it started to come alive and feel almost autonomous. Not to say my writing is anything short of mediocre, but I think, if this isn't too "new agey" as an author you have to "spend some time" in the location you want to write about. Pretend you're going sight seeing there. What do you see, smell, hear, taste? What kind of people do you meet? Etc.
theBlackman on 1/2/2009 at 09:59
I am enjoying this conversation immensely. All have good points, and as many seem to be writers of one type or another, appreciate the clarity of most of the posts.
Beleg Cúthalion, I was speaking in broad generalities, because a pedantic in depth discourse on any single aspect (Plate tectonics?) would only detract from the subject at hand IE, "How to make a believable city and populate it".
I've dabbled a bit my self, (a search in the COM GEN will turn up some scribblings), but don't consider myself a author or poet. I have read a few thousand books in my 72 years, however, and know what immerses me in a plot.
Do your thing Dante. I only say that if YOU can't believe it, neither will your readers.
Dusty
Herr_Garrett on 1/2/2009 at 11:59
(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFKtHSlaMVI) KEEP IT REAL! :D
Actually... Even if one writes shit, you could still sell it as "Art". That goes around a lot these days.
Is it going to be High Fantasy or Low Fantasy, by the way?
Dante on 2/2/2009 at 22:31
Sweet, I just mashed the refresh button and lost my entire post ...
Quick points, then:
High vs. low fantasy. I have no problem with low fantasy, but when certain GRRM fans prance around insisting that ASOIAF is way better than high-magic fantasy due to its realism ... well, it drives me nuts. The gritty fantasy fad is getting on my nerves. I don't mind readers who like it, but when they act all superior because the books they read don't involve magic, I feel like stabbing my eyes out. God forbid they might muster the nerves to read some Dorothy Dunnett or Colleen McCullough or—gasp!—nonfiction.
/rant
I realize I didn't answer your question. :erg: I guess it's somewhere in between. I want magic in the background so it has no significant impact on society. But when it shows up in force, the shit hits the fan. Gandalf comes to mind: He pops off fireworks, intimidates Bilbo, and lights the way in Moria—cute little tricks. But then when the Balrog shows up he goes absolutely batshit crazy! :ebil:
Quote:
I think, if this isn't too "new agey" as an author you have to "spend some time" in the location you want to write about. Pretend you're going sight seeing there. What do you see, smell, hear, taste? What kind of people do you meet? Etc.
Yeah, I've been coming to grips with this in the past few weeks. I've found myself working more on the world than the plot lately. I like how it's shaping up: somewhere between the Byzantine Empire and Renaissance Italy, dominated by Machiavellian aristocratic houses and a rigid social hierarchy ... There's a gambling den that is in fact the nucleus of the Guild of Thieves, and a cult that worships an enigmatic deity who, at the dawn of time, destroyed a primordial civilization and then created the universe as we (er, they) know it. Magicians do their thing by swapping their memories for "God's," thereby suffering both retrograde and anterograde amnesia.
What an incoherent pile of trash.
"It" ain't a real word! :laff:
bleaksand on 7/2/2009 at 20:46
Quote Posted by Dante
… Magicians do their thing by swapping their memories for "God's," thereby suffering both retrograde and anterograde amnesia.
That description reminds me of the pitiful monk character from the book,
The Iron Council, by China Mieville.
The monk's order was called
"The Moment of the Hidden and the Secret", and they worshiped an unforgiving god called
Tekke Vogu. Prayers to this god would reveal hidden secrets (both trifling and significant) but sometimes at a dear cost to the supplicant -- i.e. The *loss* of a skill, ability, sense, memory, or even gender!
There was no free ride with
that god … :eek:
Dante on 8/2/2009 at 18:44
Hmm, funny you should bring that up because I just tried out Perdido Street Station and couldn't get into it. I wanted so much to like that book. :erg:
Beleg Cúthalion on 8/2/2009 at 19:29
It's a little freaky with all the made-up things but for me it's no pain to read and aside from that I cannot really put a book down forever. However, I'm having a feeling that China Miéville wrote his protagonist according to his own ...physics. Anyway, I'm listening to an (
http://www.scifiaudio.com/authors/mieville.html) interview now and I'm probably wrong.
Dante on 9/2/2009 at 02:54
I listened. He has some good stuff to say. It's my fault that I can't get into his books—I'm just not comfortable with his whack-o settings because I'm so damn used to Middle-earth and the like.
