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Author Craft / Re: Awareness
« on: October 06, 2010, 01:25:26 AM »
Thanks for the replies!
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Author Craft / Awareness
« on: October 05, 2010, 07:28:07 PM »
Some stories, like Dresden, thrive on the gradual revelation of how magic works in their universe. Others, like the Potter series and Tolkien, keep the mechanisms behind the magic unrevealed. Each has its own good effect. Currently I am working on further developing a project that's been in the works for a few years, and am wondering if I should tell the readers how magic works through characters, through the story, or through appendices, or not at all. What think you all?
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Author Craft / Re: Branches of Magic
« on: October 05, 2010, 07:23:41 PM »
Really it depends on how magic works in your written world, but here are some (from games, texts, and other places)
Alteration
Evocation
Mysticism
Illusion
Thaumatergy
Chronomancy
Geomancy
Sorcery
Conjuration
Restoration
Divination
There is also the more Oriental/elemental approach. Magic is a way to manipulate and control (or even create) different aspects of the elements (traditionall fire, earth, air, and water, sometimes with others added).
Alteration
Evocation
Mysticism
Illusion
Thaumatergy
Chronomancy
Geomancy
Sorcery
Conjuration
Restoration
Divination
There is also the more Oriental/elemental approach. Magic is a way to manipulate and control (or even create) different aspects of the elements (traditionall fire, earth, air, and water, sometimes with others added).
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Author Craft / Re: "there are five things only that can be written about"
« on: August 26, 2010, 02:27:01 AM »
Shattering of a world-view/coming of age/enlightenment (Once and Future King T. H. White, Harry Potter series, others)
Destruction of man by his creations/consequences of action (Frankenstein) - not necessarily just a variant of destruction of good by good.
Destruction of man by his creations/consequences of action (Frankenstein) - not necessarily just a variant of destruction of good by good.
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Author Craft / Re: story twitches
« on: July 20, 2010, 04:17:14 PM »
Suggestions:
* Try having that inner conflict presented as already resolved. Mention it as little as possible. For instance, show your character has made friendships already since the departure.
* Overshadow that with a bigger inner conflict. If you can make it clear that something gnaws at your character more than a small regret of old family, that should take precedence.
Alternatively, you could just make it clear that this person isn't one to be longing for familial company. Maybe it was his/her fault that the old family didn't feel like home.
Hope some of that waffle helps.
* Try having that inner conflict presented as already resolved. Mention it as little as possible. For instance, show your character has made friendships already since the departure.
* Overshadow that with a bigger inner conflict. If you can make it clear that something gnaws at your character more than a small regret of old family, that should take precedence.
Alternatively, you could just make it clear that this person isn't one to be longing for familial company. Maybe it was his/her fault that the old family didn't feel like home.
Hope some of that waffle helps.
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Display Case / Re: DISPROVE THIS
« on: July 12, 2010, 02:30:06 AM »A quick question to those who believe Mab fixed the Little Chicago: Couldn't Lea have fixed it as well? We find out that Lea has been protecting Harry from nevernever side with a flower garden. She's always been close to him and helping him in little ways(rescue from the fire in bianca's party, old lady voice impersonation to save Harry from Grum, etc). We also know she is second only to Mab, since Aurora said Lea was stronger than Maeve and Mab herself said Lea is second only to her. Lea had the motivation and the power to fix it right? Wouldn't that theory be more likely than Mab?Has Molly ever expressed an ardent desire to turn Harry into a dog?
If so, wouldn't Molly be Lea?
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Site Suggestions & Support / Re: Policy Changes: How do you feel?
« on: July 07, 2010, 11:48:42 PM »Not a "Political Correctness" issue so much as a "Jim don't want to hear you guys arguing about this when you're sitting on his couch drinking his beer." The new policy applies to both Left and Right, and everything in the middle. As for the Be Nice Or Go policy, that's not about sensitivey cuddlesomeness, it's just abiding by our host's standards of behaviour. Manners, basically.
Darn it, I missed the beer too!
You weren't here for the Epic Pissing Matches that spawned in TT. We've got people on the Left, Right, Middle, as well as some people who are Extreme Left on a couple issues, but also Extreme Right on others. Even I, paragon of genteel and respectful conversation, from time to time, once in a great while, would upon rare occassion. say things that might be considered sarcastic, unpleasant, even snarky. We had some good discussions, good points, thought provocationey things. And for every one of those conversations, there'd by 6 where things just kept going south of nasty. Then the "debates" would spill over into unrelated threads about the books, kitty cats or cheese. This happened more and more.
That's what I heard, and I understand why it happened. I just regret that it had to.
We still have the Advice Corner, where people can to get help and support, (as opposed to just bitch).I’m very glad that was left in there, but sometimes you really do need to let it out and have someone get you through it. I guess I’m just too idealistic about humans’ capability of interacting peacefully. Wow. When did I become an optimist?
Thanks for the response.
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Site Suggestions & Support / Re: Policy Changes: How do you feel?
« on: July 07, 2010, 09:14:41 PM »
The new board organization looks good, and I like it. Mainly, I'm just peeved that it had to happen. I wasn't even aware of much badness going on until it was flattened by the B-17 81st Airbourne "Mods."
Overall, I've always thought the quality of modding and admin on this board was very good, and I still think so. So far, only a couple of decisions made rankle me.
The Angst corner. Used properly, it made the community healthier, and I know it was definitely a good way for some members of the board to get much needed support and care. I hope that not too far down the road the members of this forum will be deemed responsible enough for that to be brought back.
Touchy Topics. I wasn't a member back when it was around, but it sounds like it would have been both fun and informative. Political correctness doesn't suit me, and I confess to be being annoyed that the new changes seem to support it. Also, it doesn't seem very Dresdenish (Dresdenic?). Voltaire got it right: "I do not agree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it."
However, being a lay member, I acknowledge that I don't know everything which was going on. I feel the mods do an excellent job (kudos to you all!), and if select of the forum were abusing their rights, then the decisions, while regrettable, make sense to me. Hopefully we can get the cookie jar back again soon.
Overall, I've always thought the quality of modding and admin on this board was very good, and I still think so. So far, only a couple of decisions made rankle me.
The Angst corner. Used properly, it made the community healthier, and I know it was definitely a good way for some members of the board to get much needed support and care. I hope that not too far down the road the members of this forum will be deemed responsible enough for that to be brought back.
Touchy Topics. I wasn't a member back when it was around, but it sounds like it would have been both fun and informative. Political correctness doesn't suit me, and I confess to be being annoyed that the new changes seem to support it. Also, it doesn't seem very Dresdenish (Dresdenic?). Voltaire got it right: "I do not agree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it."
However, being a lay member, I acknowledge that I don't know everything which was going on. I feel the mods do an excellent job (kudos to you all!), and if select of the forum were abusing their rights, then the decisions, while regrettable, make sense to me. Hopefully we can get the cookie jar back again soon.
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Site Suggestions & Support / Looks
« on: June 30, 2010, 04:49:37 AM »
Any chance of a vote on changing the forum's appearance a little? I wouldn't mind looking at a different set of colors every now and then, even seasonally.
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Author Craft / Re: balance of sympathies
« on: June 10, 2010, 11:29:46 PM »I still regret Uncle Dudley not turning out to be a deep-cover SAS type who took Voldemort's head off with a shotgun in the final book, but that may just be me.
Not just you: 'loved the idea of Voldemort getting killed by Muggle weaponry.
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Author Craft / Re: balance of sympathies
« on: June 10, 2010, 09:54:35 PM »
I'm new to the writing craft, but am also an avid reader. Hopefully you get something out of this.
The movie The Prestige. Excellent film. If you haven't seen it, see it. If you have, skip to next paragraph.
Despite his flaws, I continuous found myself favoring Jackman's character. Likely cause? Reader's sympathy was well established at the beginning with the loss of his wife. Maybe I also just preferred his performance.
The beginning of the story favors Jackman's point of view as well. You never doubt that the story is about both, but you see a little more from Jackman's eyes. This stacks up with previous posters' advice that I saw.
Alternatively, you could go the direction The Dark Knight did. The Joker was a completely despicable character in terms of moral make-up, but it also made him fascinating, and easily my favorite character in the movie. One way to go might be to make one of your characters someone who the readers are drawn to in spite of rather than because of themselves, and have the other be palatable and entertaining. Unlikely given your plot description, but possible.
Inevitably, readers will pick sides. One way you can keep the balance a little is to keep them guessing, like Rowling did with Snape. I love Snape as a character, and am glad he turned out good. But I also would have loved it had he been the Machiavellan villain I’d heard one theory call him, topping even Voldy and being the real antagonist. If you change the circumstances surrounding your characters, it’ll keep them wondering who’s going to do what.
Hope you get something good out of this, and good chance to you!
The movie The Prestige. Excellent film. If you haven't seen it, see it. If you have, skip to next paragraph.
(click to show/hide)
Despite his flaws, I continuous found myself favoring Jackman's character. Likely cause? Reader's sympathy was well established at the beginning with the loss of his wife. Maybe I also just preferred his performance.
The beginning of the story favors Jackman's point of view as well. You never doubt that the story is about both, but you see a little more from Jackman's eyes. This stacks up with previous posters' advice that I saw.
Alternatively, you could go the direction The Dark Knight did. The Joker was a completely despicable character in terms of moral make-up, but it also made him fascinating, and easily my favorite character in the movie. One way to go might be to make one of your characters someone who the readers are drawn to in spite of rather than because of themselves, and have the other be palatable and entertaining. Unlikely given your plot description, but possible.
Inevitably, readers will pick sides. One way you can keep the balance a little is to keep them guessing, like Rowling did with Snape. I love Snape as a character, and am glad he turned out good. But I also would have loved it had he been the Machiavellan villain I’d heard one theory call him, topping even Voldy and being the real antagonist. If you change the circumstances surrounding your characters, it’ll keep them wondering who’s going to do what.
Hope you get something good out of this, and good chance to you!
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Author Craft / Re: Originality--How important is it?
« on: June 10, 2010, 09:22:42 PM »It depends. There's a limit to how long the same thing over and over can be enterntaining for many people.I wish my brother had some for music tracks...very true. I suppose I should have worded that better.
I would suggest Hannibal Lecter as an example of an extremely dislikable character who seems to nonetheless be compelling to readers in bestseller numbers. Judge Dredd is eminently dislikable in some ways and has been going strong since 1977.That would be an example of an exceptionally interesting character. I wasn't using likeable exclusively in the sense of amiable or palatable.
And I am saying that in and of itself is a limited perspective, as I was just positing the other day. Equally sympathetic characters with different notions of good finding themselves in conflict is a different shape of story, for example, but it works. Not everything in the Hero's Journey redux.I'm not familiar with your other post, but my point was that at their core, all story structures are skeletal. They mean little unless you have a spark to draw you in. For instance, that story you supplied wouldn't interest me if I didn't care for the characters, or if the writing style was bland.
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Author Craft / Re: Originality--How important is it?
« on: June 10, 2010, 08:19:36 PM »
If you're trying to be original, yes, it's kind of important. If you're just trying to write something entertaining, not especially.
Ultimately, most stories are about the same thing: how characters react to situations. You can merge them with great settings, cool mechanics (Butcher magic rocks!), and whatever good idea you want, but if the characters are dislikeable or just boring, the whole thing becomes that way. Think about all the genres of fantasy out there. Take Terry Pratchett, J. K. Rowling, Jim Butcher, and J. R. R. Tolkien. All of them are widely regarded as great authors. Despite all their nice gimmicks, though, it's the characters which make the stories worth telling. Substitute a bunch of nameless mannequins into LOTR, and nobody cares about it. Take Terry Pratchett's narrative and voices away, and you have some mildly entertaining fairy tales. Stripped down, the stories are the same: protagonist faces problem. Protagonist meets supporting characters. Protagonist and Supporting characters fight evil antagonist.
What you need to make a story riveting varies. With some writers it's their voices. With others it's their humor. With still others it's characters, philosophy, you name it. That isn't to say that elements like setting, mechanics and other aren't important though. I wouldn't be half as interested in the Dresden Files if they weren't the magical mysteries they are. But if that's all they were, they wouldn't be enough either.
So for your story(ies), you need to figure what it is you can do which makes it interesting. Write experimentally, and see what other people think. They're you're target audience after all.
Ultimately, most stories are about the same thing: how characters react to situations. You can merge them with great settings, cool mechanics (Butcher magic rocks!), and whatever good idea you want, but if the characters are dislikeable or just boring, the whole thing becomes that way. Think about all the genres of fantasy out there. Take Terry Pratchett, J. K. Rowling, Jim Butcher, and J. R. R. Tolkien. All of them are widely regarded as great authors. Despite all their nice gimmicks, though, it's the characters which make the stories worth telling. Substitute a bunch of nameless mannequins into LOTR, and nobody cares about it. Take Terry Pratchett's narrative and voices away, and you have some mildly entertaining fairy tales. Stripped down, the stories are the same: protagonist faces problem. Protagonist meets supporting characters. Protagonist and Supporting characters fight evil antagonist.
What you need to make a story riveting varies. With some writers it's their voices. With others it's their humor. With still others it's characters, philosophy, you name it. That isn't to say that elements like setting, mechanics and other aren't important though. I wouldn't be half as interested in the Dresden Files if they weren't the magical mysteries they are. But if that's all they were, they wouldn't be enough either.
So for your story(ies), you need to figure what it is you can do which makes it interesting. Write experimentally, and see what other people think. They're you're target audience after all.