@Reiling826
Last seen: Mon 17 May, 2021
Signature:
Recent posts
: Re: How To Make Something Straight-foward and Dark Into A Kid's Picture Book? Let me explain. My book is about a little boy directed by a "wolf" to burn his farm's sheep. Consequently,
Your question is: Could this plotline be geared to young children? Honestly, I would deliver a strong no.
Unless you make it more lighthearted like how I suggested in my comments, as Chris answered - it would not be appropriate for young children and no publisher would publish it.
Don't get me wrong, it's still a good idea and it would probably work for older audiences, but it is a touchy topic that is controversial on how to teach to young children. If I were you, I would consider the following:
A: If you absolutely need to publish this for young children, you should make it more lighthearted and subtle, because if you end your book with the mc dying while going to a meatpacking factory you will totally terrify your young audience in an unneeded way.
B: If you care about this topic and decide not to write it for children, you should write a novel for older kids directly addressing it instead of dancing around it with animals and such.
If you do write this book according to point B, you need to do lots of research to make your book as factual as possible.
Does this help?
0 Reactions React
: Re: How to write a novel which is taking place entirely in a foreign country, with foreign culture and foreign characters? How to write a novel which is taking place entirely in a foreign country,
Your question is very broad, but I try to answer it depending on how I interpreted it.
I too, sometimes struggle with writing cultures, characters, and countries. The best tool you have is Research. In order to write about foreign traditions and people, you need to understand them first.
In these pandemic times - you most likely will not be able to find and talk with someone familiar with the culture of interest. So, your second best thing to do is research the culture and people. You can do this online, or you check out books on the wanted subject.
You should learn as much as you can - even information that you don't think you will need. You never know if you might need it. And, the more true information on the foreign country you have, the more authentic your book will seem.
If it is safe for you - I would highly recommend meeting someone from the foreign country, or anyone with knowledge of the specific country or region.
The best way, however - would be (if it's safe) to travel to the country and get personal, first-hand experience, which will greatly help you.
After gathering your information - you need to write your story! Make sure to be respectful when writing about your culture. Be realistic and include as many relevant facts as possible.
Hope this helps!
0 Reactions React
: Re: Should I use "people" for non-human creatures with humane mannerisms? First off, my question is not this question. I am asking about a creature resembling a human and not a bug. Also, I put
There are thousands of small tribes on Earth who call themselves by names that translate to "The People". Thus their tribal names claim that only members of their own tribe are people, and all other members of the species Homo sapiens are not people.
A significant minority of those tribes have warlike cultures, where men are expected to gain wealth and prestige by stealing from other tribes and killing members of other tribes. Those tribes are, or at the present usually were, enemies of all other humans, except for anyother groups which were their allies. And calling their tribe "The People" certainly helps spread the idea that members of other tribes don't have rights to be respected.
To me "people" means a group of intelligent beings, no matter whether they belong to one species or a million different species, and no matter if they are all biological or some cybernetic.
On Earth there are millions of species of lifeforms, plants, animals, and other lifeforms, and at least one species whose members consider themselves to be intelligent beings and people.
In prehistoric times there were a number of other species of hominids which seemed to be intelligent beings and people as well as can be told from the fossil record. Those included, but were not limited to humans, defined as members of the genus Homo, of which Homo sapiens is the only surviving species.
Among the thousands of mammal species existing today, there are a few with large brains which exhibit sufficient intelligence that it is legitimate to wonder whether their intelligence ranges overlaps with that of Homo sapiens and whether they should be counted as people. They include at least four species of apes, at least three species of probiscideans, and many species of cetaceans.
And in my opinion, as long as there seems to be even the slightest possibility that members of those species should be considered people, they should be treated like people with the right to live. Better safe than sorry.
But at the present time it is legal to hunt and kill members of some of those species in some legal jurisdictions.
So I don't approve of the idea that only members of the species Homo sapiens should be called people, because of the possibility that members of other species existing on Earth today might also be people. And I don't like works of fiction that limit the word "people" to members of the species Homo sapiens because it helps to spread the idea that no other beings on Earth have rights that should be respected.
And what happens if a space ship from an advanced alien civilization lands on Earth? What if some humans react in disgust to their strange alien appearance and attack them? It would be very easy for angered members of a more advanced civilization to find ways to destroy all life on Earth. Even if their spaceship is not equipped with dedicated weapons, the spaceship itself with the enormous power it controls could very easily be used as a weapon to devastate an entire planet.
There are real life stories about people who believe they encountered aliens from outer space and say that their first reaction was to attack them. If real aliens ever land on Earth, a similar reaction could result in the total extermination of all humans.
And yet despite that obvious danger, as far as I know there is not a single jurisdiciton on Earth which has made a law specificaly saying that any beings which look like they came from other space should be treated as people and that attacking them is forbidden.
So I strongly oppose the practice of using the word "people" as a synonoum for "members of the species Homo sapiens", and to the widespread belief that only members of the species Homo sapiens are people with rights, a belief that can only be reinforced by the practice of using the word "people" as a synonoum for "members of the species Homo sapiens".
So I think that all writers of science fiction and fantasy stories should make a point of having all the good characters use the word 'people" to include members of all the species of intelligent beings in the story, and have only evil, misguided, and bigoted characters restrict the word "people" to members of their own species.
0 Reactions React
: How to reveal a secret romantic relationship? So I'm writing an "enemies to lovers" book. My two many characters have hated each other for 7 years, they make a dare to see who can
So I'm writing an "enemies to lovers" book. My two many characters have hated each other for 7 years, they make a dare to see who can hook up with the most people by New Years. Slowly they fall in love, and on New Years Eve he kisses her and she kisses him back. However, the girl's best friend is helplessly in love with the boy, so their relationship is a secret.
How can I write a big reveal in a way that won't come across as cheesy or out-of-place? Just in general, what should I avoid when writing this scene?
0 Reactions React
: Re: Asking about chapter's length Is that okay if in a short story, a chapter's length is 450 words? And then you find a chapter with 1000 or more words?
Well, a short story should be around 1,000 - 10,000 words total. If I am correct, short stories usually don't even have chapters. If you find it necessary to add chapters, and you stick with the chapter length of 450 words, you could have no more than 22 chapters (assuming every chapter is exactly 450 words and you are trying to get a maximum word count for short stories of 10,000 words). One example of a novel is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone had 17 chapters, totaling a total word count of 77,508 words. This would be on average 4559 words per chapter. So, if you stuck with around 22 chapters then you would technically have had more chapters than the Harry Potter example - but almost 4,000 fewer words per chapter. It is true that the Harry Potter example is a novel, and you're writing a short story, but it doesn't matter. Why would you have more chapters with way fewer words each than a novel? Considering this, as I said before, I would personally stick with few or no chapters.
Here are some links to support what I stated above and to provide further readings on this subject: www.masterclass.com/articles/word-count-guide#:~:text=The%20average%20short%20story%20should,is%20500%20words%20or%20less https://blog.reedsy.com/how-long-should-a-chapter-be/#:~:text=From%20these%20numbers%2C%20we%20can,the%20most%20common%20sweet%20spot.
0 Reactions React
: Re: How long can a prologue be, and what should you not do? A while back I wrote a prologue about the beginning of time and space and all that. One thing I noticed later is that between the
I know this is an old question, however there have been more recent replies so I figure it's not terrible of me to add one more on.
I'm not a published author yet, as I'm still working on my novel. But I'd like to contribute my opinion as an avid reader. I'm sick of seeing the hate for prologues. I love them, so long as they are gripping and add to the story something that is necessary. If it provides important information essential to the world (though not in the form of an info dump of course), or the POV of someone other than the protagonist, or will be necessary in order to understand events/scenes in following chapters or later in the story, but it just doesn't work within the main narrative, then yes it would be fine to make it a prologue. It depends entirely on each individual story whether or not a prologue is needed. For some it is, for others it's not, and genre comes into play here too. Someone else in these replies gave a pretty good Do and Don't list. You would do well to follow it. There are other good lists like that if you Google it, as well.
I have never skipped a prologue personally, and frankly the people who do are the lazy ones. It's not laziness on the writer's part. That's just a ridiculous accusation coming from someone who doesn't know how to write a good prologue themselves. I can't understand why anyone would skip prologues as a rule... it's like tuning out of a teacher's lecture on a subject and jumping straight into the assignment (you may get lucky sure, or you may fail that unit). Or fast forwarding the first 5-10 minutes of a movie. You're only going to be confused throughout the rest of the story, or you'll be asking questions that were probably already addressed in the prologue, but you were too impatient to read it. I'm honestly surprised they would even bother to read a whole book at all if they're too lazy to even read a prologue.
A well thought out prologue takes as much work and care as every other chapter in a story. And If publishers/agents toss your manuscript without reading it simply because it has a prologue, they're garbage and you're better off without them anyway. They're probably going to do a very lazy job or just be generally nasty people to work with. If you think of it like that, keeping a prologue means you can weed out the less desirable publishers and agents, haha.
As for length, there's no set limit. However, If your prologue is even longer than the average length of your chapters, you may want to think about what you can cut out or disperse throughout those main chapters instead. As much as I love a good prologue, even I would find one upwards of 10k or more a bit too wordy. Personally, I would try at least not to exceed 5k words with 2-3k being ideal, though ironically my current novel has a 7k word prologue (It's still a rough draft, so the length may be subject to change). So it really is a case by case basis.
In summary, above all YOU decide what's best for YOUR story. Don't let other authors dictate to you that you shouldn't have a prologue if you feel your story needs one. Length is as subjective as the necessity of prologues themselves, but a good rule of thumb is that it should probably not exceed the average length of your main chapters, and in fact is best off being a bit shorter than them. Since your question is years old, I hope you were able to finish your novel and maybe even publish it by now. Happy writing!
0 Reactions React
: Re: Which options for self-publish large book with Print on demand, bible paper and hardcover? I want to publish one book with about 1,200 pages. We are talking about a book for daily use My requirements
I have published several long books with IngramSpark and the quality is good. ("Steam Submarine" by Robert Denethon) And yes the price is slightly higher than a traditional printer might charge per item, but the tradeoff is you can do print on demand so there is little up front cost for you.
If you really want Bible style pages and so run with a traditional printer you will have a large up front cost and need to have a print run of several thousand at least. This is quite costly.
Good luck!
0 Reactions React
: You can still make the plot exciting without tons of action. You said you wanted your book to be a character-driven novel in the light of right and wrong, using other elements of writing
You can still make the plot exciting without tons of action. You said you wanted your book to be a character-driven novel in the light of right and wrong, using other elements of writing you can still have that type of book. One element you could use is mystery/suspense.
For example, your MC could be so subtle and mysterious with suspenseful murders and whatnot, turning it into this type of mystery, thrilling, exciting, and eye-catching, but still giving lots of room for character development, change, and right vs wrong.
A different element you could use could simply be how you write. You don't need to change the plot, instead change your writing style, to make the plot seem to sift and bubble with a type of closed/honed in action, where instead of big picture car chases, you narrow down to those riveting little details, making your plot and story much more exciting.
The last element you could change would be consequences. Make it seem like a life or death struggle. Make it inspirational, but with the threat of being caught or failing to prevent animal abuse loom above your MC. This would also accomplish making it more exciting.
I hope this helps!
0 Reactions React
: An essay on Career Goals I have to write an essay on career goals. I am applying for a Master's program. Do I start from the basic as to why I chose the subject and how and what do I
I have to write an essay on career goals. I am applying for a Master's program. Do I start from the basic as to why I chose the subject and how and what do I intend to do after the master's immediately and in the long run? Or do I just start from what I will do post doing master's from my target university? What are the essential points that I should include?
0 Reactions React
: What are some potential problems you can have if you happen to share similar names with an author? I am a freelance author consultant and have ran into a unique problem. My customer happens
I am a freelance author consultant and have ran into a unique problem. My customer happens to share a similar name with a famous author and she is concerned that there might be potential problems if she publishes under her own name. I would like to know if there is any possibility that she could find herself in legal trouble for using her own name.
0 Reactions React
: Re: Is the website allpoetry.com beneficial for poets and writers? I've found this website and could see huge number of poets and poetesses in it. Does anybody know about it? I would like to know
I've been active there the past 12 days and it's starting to feel like the Mummy's Tomb. In thirty hours of participation, I've yet to see someone offer a suggestion, let alone a critique. I found a couple strong poems but no takers for anything more than pleasantries. I showed a wildly gifted party girl where to cut some lines but when I argued that giggle shouldn't be overused, she went berserk. Another guy had two brilliant stanzas in short poem; when I asked if he knew Hart Crane's Voyages, I didn't hear back. His Bio says he ran an online forum for a couple years. When the one other commenter called his work Old School, and I asked then what is New School, the OP asked what does school mean? Only two of the ten critiques I wrote were responded to. And those two didn't survive another question. The critiques in their most exclusive subgroup, dedicated to feedback, look like pages from a treatise: the comments are full page paragraphs without anything that looks like a line from a poem. It hadn't occurred to me before but I'm starting to wonder if this isn't a Potemkin Village or Stepford Wives?
In fairness, they have impressive functionality. for the first month allow you to see most of what's there. My critiques, typically brief line edits, leave people dumbfounded or pissed off. I assume pissed off bcz no one ever answers back. How unusual is that for a forum? I asked the one woman, who's the leading gold medal winner there, if she also writes critiques? No response. I shared a line edit with the one guy who consistently writes at a high level. Nothing. A good poet will at least tell you to fuck off. Carolyn Castle below seemed to scram when it was time for her to be more specific about her experience on the site. That's how it feels to post there. Lots of awards and ribbons but no feedback. So Potemkin Village, as unwieldy and bizarre as that may seem, fits the facts better than active forum.
Update 10/9/20: my comment was more a reflection of my impatience than something amiss with the site. For what I can see there are many people here, almost as if they're living in foxholes and looking for leadership. A few of the most talented people are restrained because of the disparity in experience. Lots of focus on form first and blessed day. Ethos is don't offend but at deeper level place seems to be lacking leadership and nothing else.
0 Reactions React
: Re: Should my main character make a ginormous mistake? I'm rereading my draft, and there is a part in the book where when the main character is helping others escape prison, she accidentally reveals
You've really got two questions here:
Is killing too brutal for my book?
Do my characters need to make mistakes?
No one here can answer #1 for you. It depends on your audience and the tone of your book. I won't go so far to say that books for kids shouldn't have killing; people die in Harry Potter and even in nursery rhymes. You should be careful about how graphic the descriptions get if your audience is young though.
As for #2 , mistakes are often an important plot point, especially at the beginning of the story. Many stories start with the main character making a mistake that starts the central conflict. Mistakes are also important when it comes to making characters relatable. No one in real life is perfect, so a perfect main character often comes off as flat.
0 Reactions React
: How to Become an Powerful and Beautiful Expository Writer? I'm a terrible writer. I know I am and it's totally ok though. Well, it's not totally ok but I have no other choice to deal
I'm a terrible writer. I know I am and it's totally ok though. Well, it's not totally ok but I have no other choice to deal with it till I die. I'm a little embarrassed by it but what can you do? It might be due to the fact that I'm slightly mentally dyslexic. I sort of think backwards. When I write freely, you'll notice that many of my sentences should be in reverse order. So, I end up switching sentences a lot.
Anyway, I don't want my 2 children to become like the poor writer that I am. I would love it if they developed writing skills that they can wield as powerful tools for the rest of their lives. I think writing well is such an important skill no matter what you end up doing in life. I strongly believe this.
Last week, I read my friend, a district manager send out emails to his reports and to his subordinates. I was really bedazzled by the way he wrote. It was so crystal clear, convincing, and even beautiful. He doesn't even check what he has written. He writes it and immediately sends itI How does he do it?
How does a person truly become an great expository writer? I've been searching the internet but none of the websites have really convinced me that they know what they are talking about. I haven't read anything that demonstrates methods that I feel will really turn my kids into good, solid writers.
0 Reactions React
: Re: What's the best version control system for a book writer? I'm a writer—no programming, only prose in text files, mostly in Emacs org-mode, some in markdown-mode. I want to implement a version
I've been using a fairly simple system to track changes in my writing for a couple of years. Secondly, I prefer a GUI front-end and a local archive to manage my working documents, although I also use the Cloud to store backups.
Like John Clayton, I use LaTex to write books, but I don't need a full functioning version control system, so I use an Open Source software, called Meld, a Linux-based Gnome2 diff and merge tool to track changes. In addition, Meld can be integrated with more expansive version control systems, such as cvs, subversion, bzr, darcs, mercurial, monotone, and tla. Download it at SourceForge.net and pair with the Linux distribution of your choice. I use Linux Mint today, but have used Ubuntu in the past, where Meld can be installed from both software centers. It works seamlessly in both.
0 Reactions React
: Re: Publishing in multiple languages I wrote a book in Spanish. I translated the book to English, French, Arabic and Italian. I want to publish the book in these five languages simultaneously but
I suggest networking. Right now there are online gatherings with writers, translators, publishers and agents in which you can connect. Particularly they are also important to know about publishing rights. If you want a different or complementary path, I suggest search the net and do your own research of publishers in the different countries. Consider self-publishing.
I am on a situation, as a Spanish to English translator of a book to find a way to publish the book in the English market, in a way that it also acknowledges me as a translator.
Good luck!
0 Reactions React
: Are the Arthurian legends freely available for use? I put a bit of Arthurian fantasy into a short story I wrote. I originally thought that this was perfectly acceptable, as many books do
I put a bit of Arthurian fantasy into a short story I wrote. I originally thought that this was perfectly acceptable, as many books do so, and the original stuff is ancient. But after reading this, I'm not so certain.
Is there a general guideline of what material can or cannot be used for your own work, if you plan to publish? At what point, say along a sliding scale from mythology to Lovecraft Mythos to modern works, does one need to get permission from a copyright holder?
0 Reactions React
: Re: How to refer to a crowd of many different species? How could I say the equivalent of "A pouring wave of humanity," when there are more than one species in the scene being described?
how about "a horde of people of many different species", or "A dense crowd with members of all six species who lived in the city".
0 Reactions React
: Re: How to make a childish character that isn't annoying to the reader? I couldn't decide what type of dragon I wanted to write, so I decided to do a Rise of Skywalker and now my dragon is
Just a suggestion, but maybe consider splitting the dragon's personality up into an id/ego/superego system?
He can have a childish id that lacks impulse control and throws tantrums and all that. He can have a general ego - a mode where does other things like expand his territory or whatever regular business he has, and he can have a superego mode that's all old and wise with all the cool ancient dragon powers that inspire shock and awe... Just to balance it all out.
You could set up triggers so the readers learn his patterns and what sets him off, so they end up having some suspense...
Also, dragons don't need to be sympathetic. If the reader feels like they're in the dragon's head and they understand how his motives work and how he's wired, then they have empathy and with empathy comes genuine interest.
I think the main question is how human you want your dragon to be? What are his needs? What are his priorities. In a sense, it wouldn't be fair to a dragon to impose a system of human morality on him. All writers are human and all readers are human, so we end up writing very human characters even when we're writing aliens and killer sharks, but he doesn't have to be human.
Children grow out of childishness to function in an adult society. Children don't play with fire because they feel and fear physical pain. What are your dragon's drives/fears/needs? Does he have to blend in with other dragons? Does he need the village for food? Does burning a village help him in any way?
Are you basing his need for collecting things on Hoarding Disorder? There's poor impulse control and then there's compulsion. Does he feel a need to burn and hoard?
I think it'll come to you the more you think about the story itself. Once you have a handle on the world and all the characters, the dragon might more or less shape himself. Eg, if you have a world full of high-tech, magical dragon hunters, you're writing a very different dragon compared to one that exists in a world that's all sunshine and butterflies and bread-baking farmboys who don't believe dragons are real.
People can make suggestions but you alone will know how developed you need this character to be. If you only need him for a flyover or to show up to help the heroes by burning baddies to death, he can be a juvenile as Smaug.
0 Reactions React
: Re: What do you call someone who is neither/both an antagonist and a protagonist? In the story I'm writing, I want to include a character who is a free radical. At some points she helps the main
Anybody who’s “poly-tagonistic†in a sense, in my opinion, is simply human. We all battle our whole lives attempting to discern right from wrong. And if you aren’t, then you’re most likely a nihilist. It’s the Tony Stark method. Anti-hero!
An individual who desires to be a savior, unknowingly creates all his worst fears that he manages to physically manifest, forcing him to become,â€the heroâ€
A lot like our government.
0 Reactions React
: How to Describe Topography I have an image in my mind but I can't describe the topography, so I would always repeat, "grounds", "a little elavation", "inside the forest","some mounds,"surrounded
I have an image in my mind but I can't describe the topography, so I would always repeat, "grounds", "a little elavation", "inside the forest","some mounds,"surrounded by houses", is there any references on how to produce this image much better for the reader?
The image in my mind is a settlement, the good forces are there to defend against the enemy forces and they are laying traps around the houses, the ground and etc. Its a war fiction. So I'd like to make good descriptions of warzones. Are there any references to that?
0 Reactions React
: How to write a female character that is not just a genderflipped male character? Recently I submitted a comic book story to a publisher, and they criticized that the main character is basically
Recently I submitted a comic book story to a publisher, and they criticized that the main character is basically just a shonen protagonist (for example, Son Goku from Dragon Ball, Ash from Pokemon, etc.) in female form. They're interested in keeping the character female, but suggested that I should put more emphasis on the female aspects of the character, to make it more distinct from the average male shonen protagonist. How should I begin doing that? (note: I'm a man)
0 Reactions React
: Re: Will including maps at the end of my novel keep readers engaged? I am writing a fictional historical novel. The setting is in another part of the world, nearly 100 years ago. I would wish
[Added May 20, 2020. I just noticed that the question was about a real word situation about a century ago. People do know more about the geography of the real world than they know about the geography of totally fictional imaginary places. However, I for one know a lot more about geography than most people do, and I know enough to know that I am quite ignorant of many details of the geography of many places. There are many places in the world where I would have no idea which was the logical direction for characters to travel in a specific situation. I could certainly use a good map to help me understand course of events in many historical situations.
You may have heard of the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25-26, 1876, for example. One of the reasons for the defeat of the Seventh Cavalry was that most of the fighting was not in the flat lands southwest of the Little Bighorn but in the hills northeast of the Little Bighorn in terrain that was not so suited for cavalry. It also happened that Custer was unable to reach a ford to cross the Little Bighorn to assist Reno before Reno retreated.
About three years later, the Battle of Isandhlwana on January 22, 1879 during the Anglo-Zulu is often compared to the Little Bighorn. The first British victory in the war was on 29 March 1879 when the main Zulu force attacked the heavily entrenched camp of Colonel Wood's column at Kambula and were repulsed with heavy casualties, greatly depressing their morale.
About a day's ride from Kambula was a Zulu stronghold at Hlolbane. While expecting the Zulu army to attack Kambula, Colonel Wood decided to send a force to attack Hlobane on March 28.
If I was writing a fictional story about this, I would have mounted volunteers discussing when they would be ordered to attack Hlobane. And I would have the youngest officer in Weatherley's Horse, Sublieutenant Rupert Weatherley, aged 14, express the opinion that Wood would not be stupid enough to send them to raid Hlobane until after the main Zulu army attacked Kambula and was defeated.
When asked why, Rupert would say that the terrain at the Little Bighorn was unsuitable for cavalry operations, and is considered was a major factor in the defeat of the 7th cavalry. And a cavalry attack of Hlobane would face worse odds since there were thousand of warriors in that area, outnumbering the mounted force as badly as the 7th Cavalry was outnumbered by Sioux, and the terrain at Hlobane would be much worse, and more favorable to the Zulu infantry, than the terrain at the Little Big Horn. Rupert might draw a diagram in the dirt to illustrate his point.
Hlobane was about twice as large as the battle area at the Little Bighorn, consisting of two plateaus surrounded by steep slopes which it would be hard to get horses up or down, and separated by another steep slope difficult for horses, and with much rugged terrain favorable for infantry at the top. Thus it would be even harder for cavalry detachments to support each than it was for Custer and Reno to do so at the Little Bighorn.
So Rupert claims that a significant force of infantry would be needed to support the cavalry in any attack on Hlobane. But if an infantry force was marching to or from Holbane and was caught in the open by the main Zulu force, they would be slaughtered as at Isandhlwana, though the cavalry would be able to retreat to the fortified position at Kambula. So Wood would not dare to send infantry to Hlobane until the main Zulu army attacked Kambula and was defeated, and would not send the cavalry to attack Hlobane without infantry because that would be too similar to the situation at the Little Bighorn and be risking a similar defeat.
And if I was writing the story, Rupert would say that on March 26, right before orders are announced for the cavalry to ride toward Hlobane on March 27, and attack it from two directions on March 28. And Rupert would apologize for his opinion, since obviously Wood knew a lot more than Rupert and Wood obviously didn't consider the risk of repeating the Little Bighorn to be very large.
And in real history Wood did attack at Hlobane on March 28 in terrain that was much worse than at the Little Bighorn, with a divided force as at the Little Bighorn, and with the numbers about the same as at the Little Bighorn, and an additional factor which didn't happen at the Little bighorn, the main Zulu army was seen approaching, something Wood must have known could have happened, and the local Zulus were greatly encouraged by that, and the results were rather similar to the Little Bighorn.
Anyway, local geography matters a lot in war, travel, trade, natural disasters, and other events which can be interesting subjects for historical novels. If thinks maps can help explain why the geography dictates the course of events, you should use maps.]
While reading the question I had the idea that perhaps a novel could show a series of maps showing the characters's growing knowledge of the world. At the beginning they might have good knowledge of everyplace within a couple of days walk, within 20 or 30 miles.
And they might imagine that every other place in the would is within about another 20 or 30 miles from their home. So they might have heard that the evil realm of Darklordia is to the north and so picture it as being between 20 and 30 miles thick and beginning just 20 or 30 miles north of their home village. if they heard that the Empire of Goodlandia is to the south they might picture it as being and beginning about 20 or 30 miles south of home. And they might imagine the whole world is a disc about 40 to 60 miles in radius centered on their home.
And as they travel for days and days and days without reaching places which they thought were just beyond the limits of their knowledge, they ideas about how large the world is will get bigger and bigger. So every now and then you might include a map showing how far they are traveled and thus how might larger their mental map of the world has become.
{Added 05-20-2020. And if the story is set in a giant archipelago of islands like Indonesia or Ursula K. Le Guins's Earthsea instead of on a continent, the characters can have boats but never have traveled farther than the next island in any direction. So the maps could show the new islands they learn about as they travel farther and farther from home.
J.R.R. Tolkien made a map of the northwestern corner of Middle-earth while writing The Lord of the Rings. So the travels the characters take make a lot of sense with times, distances, and directions adding up very well. Except that it has been pointed that there is an inconsistency between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings about the terrain around where the trolls are encountered on the way to Rivendell. I have suggested that an earthquake changed the course of a river and a road was rerouted to follow the new course of the river between the two stories.
I have also noted that description in the story of the travels between Moria and Lorien to the banks of the river Anduin does not agree with the map as well as it usually does, so I am not sure whether to think that the map is a little inaccurate compared to the map, or the story is a little inaccurate compared to the map.
Tolkien was also very careful with time. For example, he used an almanac of the phases of the Moon in the year 1941 to model the phases of the moon in the fictional years 3018 and 3019 of the Third Age. And so the number of days in the story between when the Moon is described with the same phase, such as full, adds up to the proper number of days, except that there are one or two descriptions of the lunar phases which are not at the proper dates.
One of the appendixes to The Return of the King, The Tale of the Years, gives specific dates for everything that happens in The Lord of the Rings during Third Age 3018 and 3019. And I happened to notice there is a chronological difference between the story and the Tale of the Years at one point, when the Tale of the Years spreads out some events over at least one or two more days than the account in the story itself suggests. And if someone had pointed that out to Tolkien he would have wanted to rewrite the story and/or The Tale of the Years to make them agree with each other better.
So in my opinion, writers of fantasy should create maps of their imaginary settings while writing their stories and should compare the maps and the stories frequently and adjust one or the other whenever they find a discrepancy.]
0 Reactions React
: Republishing a poem from a lost journal I am not a professional poet. A few years a poem of mine was published and reviewed by the South Asian Ensemble journal. This journal no longer exists,
I am not a professional poet. A few years a poem of mine was published and reviewed by the South Asian Ensemble journal. This journal no longer exists, I cannot find it online and neither in print. I wrote to the former editors, and did not hear back from them either. Neither could I locate the issue of the journal with my poem on Google on miscellaneous websites.
As a result the published poem is lost.
When I try to submit to a new journal, it asks me if the poem was published elsewhere. How should I submit the poem for review again?
0 Reactions React
: Perhaps if you need a term, try "magical realism"? 98% like our world, but that little difference is what makes it fantasy... whether it's if subways will sometimes take you sideways
Perhaps if you need a term, try "magical realism"?
98% like our world, but that little difference is what makes it fantasy...
whether it's if subways will sometimes take you sideways to a different realm or unexpected country,
or the Byzantine Empire stayed pagan,
or if whenever Bob reads a book, all other copies of it are forever deleted, but he doesn't know this effect,
or far more people are blind than in our world, so the technology is less screen-based...
0 Reactions React
: Re: Dumping an entire world for dramatic effect? About 1/3 of the way through my story the main antagonist "wins" and is able to completely remake the world of the story into his notion of an
While there is a risk of alienating the reader, it also depends on how much investment they have in the world change as a plot point.
If it's something that the reader is aware may happen early on, or their journey reaches that point naturally (with much in need of change from the first world) you will probably have the most success with it.
But does that world necessarily need to be gone forever?
As an example, you could show what is great/horrible about each world, and twist the readers perception of them and have the characters try to get back to their original world after realising that the new one isn't all it's made out to be.
0 Reactions React
: Re: How to subvert expectations and abort plotlines without alienating the reader? Subverting expectations and suddenly aborting plotlines was a no-go zone for me for a while. The only time I could
If you are subverting expectations just to be different, don't. That's how you get disasters like the final season of Game of Thrones. That Arya thing Shadowzee mentioned isn't the only expectation they subverted poorly.
There's two big problems with setting your goal as to subvert expectations.
You're focused too much on meta-goals. Where your work fits in the genre is much less important than whether or not it's good in the first place. If you're too focused on subverting tropes, you will not put enough effort into other aspects of the writing. Maybe characterization takes a dive because characters have to do things they otherwise wouldn't just to subvert some expectation. Maybe there's plot holes that have to be left open because closing them would fulfill expectations. Remember, it doesn't matter how many tropes you subvert if no one reads it.
Not all expectations are bad. Look at the laser hallway in the first Resident Evil movie. They show it off towards the beginning of the movie as an impenetrable security system. Wouldn't it have been disappointing if Alice had just got in some other way? Wouldn't it have been disappointing if that other guy hadn't been sliced apart by it? I mean, that's a great CGI effect, and we easily could've missed out on it if the writers wanted to subvert Chekov's Gun.
In general I think a good way to tell what expectations are OK to subvert is to see if that subversion would add or remove tension. I think it's nearly always good to use a subverted expectation to add tension. Ned Stark's death, Vader being Luke's father, Halo being a weapon that kills everyone not just the Flood are all good subversions because they expand pre-existing plotlines and open up new ones. Bad subversions wrap things up too neatly with no chance of more development, and they do so in a way with little to no buildup.
0 Reactions React
: RNG 109 Watermark I've been reading up a bunch of Screenplays from movies that I liked and came across a couple of them with a curious watermark on them, saying "RNG-109". I noticed this on
I've been reading up a bunch of Screenplays from movies that I liked and came across a couple of them with a curious watermark on them, saying "RNG-109". I noticed this on a version of the Script for "Catch me if you can", "The Ring (2002)" and "The Shining".
Google didn't spit out anything that would help me, which is why I'm asking here.
0 Reactions React
: Re: Avoiding racist tropes in fantasy I'm interested in starting a pleasure project: a fantasy story, along the lines of a witch delivering a prophecy to a king about a dangerous and deceitful foe
Actually stereotypical fantasy characters would not be "racist" but "specist" since elves, dwarves, orcs, etc. are members of different species, not different races. And all humans are members of the same species, despite their variety in personality.
Of course it is not certain that other species will have the same degree of variation as humans do. One way in which species may vary from each other is in how much variation there is within each species. So some species might be less variable than Humans, others might be as variable as Humans, and others might be more variable than Humans.
Maybe a member of one species will be angry at a protagonist for expecting them to behave in a specific way, and curse the first member of their species who Humans met, the origination of Human stereotypes about their species, for being so eccentric and thus creating such misleading stereotypes.
Or maybe some of the characters may be outcasts from their societies because they don't fit in, and thus other characters won't know which of the stereotypes of their species they will follow until and unless they get to know them.
As for appearances, a fantasy author can create characters, especially nonhuman ones, with any appearances they want to, including any skin colors they chose to. So you can color code the various species in your society, or make every single species, including your Humans, share the same wide variety in skin colors, more or less lighter or darker shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, for example.
By the way, about "banking goblins with hooked noses that totally aren't Jews." I never heard of any banking goblins in any works of fantasy except for Harry Potter, first published in 1997 only 22 years ago, though I don't read a lot of fantasy. The only fantasy Goblins I remember are in George MacDonald's The Princes and the Goblin (1872) and The Princess and Curdie (1883) and Tolkien's similar Goblins in The Hobbit (1937). And Tolkien's Goblins in The Hobbit are the same species as Tolkien's Orcs in The Lord of the Rings, the origins of fantasy Orcs. So I really can't picture Goblins as bankers in fantasy, except in stories written by writers who really distrust the banking system as anti-banking propaganda!
0 Reactions React
: Re: Compelling story with the world as a villain My main character is up against the world, or, rather, the world and reality are up against her. A good story is in some ways defined by its
Your world is a character. Possibly more than one. Your environment is a character, your political structure is a different one, your culture, yet another. There is a lot of advice about how to attain this.
www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-to-make-your-setting-a-character www.thecreativepenn.com/2019/05/01/writing-tips-how-and-why-to-treat-your-setting-like-a-character/
It sounds like your wanting to take thus a step further by making your world your antagonist. In order to do this you need to humanize it. Take the different aspects of your world (environment, culture, political structure, etc.), give them motive and make that motive clear to your reader. What does the world want from your character? To take something from her? Drive her crazy? Kill her? Find the motive and make it a theme throughout the story.
Give your world emotions (anger, greed, distrust, joy) and describe those emotions as you would a person.
*Nothing could quench The Rebublic's insatiable hunger for power/wealth
*Society is a cruel friend. It promises pleasure and happiness, Then ostracizes you if you can't follow its rules.
*The reality she knew had abandoned her. Once a patient guardian, it had turned traitor, and taken everything she loved with it.
*The city screamed night and day, always angry and inconsolable.
Your world needs to act upon your character physically as well as emotionally. Always putting something in the way of her progress.
*The laws strangle her independance.
*The streets pummel her with trash.
*The super-secret facility laughed at her attempt to infiltrate it.
Your world will also need a character arc. It will be more believable as a villian if it changes, grows and adapts as your character moves through it.
I really think this can be done, though it will take seeing the world in a unique, and being able to describe it. Good luck!
0 Reactions React
: (Self-)publishing a book using copyrighted material - adaptation for younger readers I have written and drawn a children's book. It's an adaptation of the Hobbit condensed into 32 pages aimed
I have written and drawn a children's book. It's an adaptation of the Hobbit condensed into 32 pages aimed at 4-8 year olds (can be read to and read by children). I had the book printed for private use (it was a Christmas present) but I would really like to publish it to make it available for others because so many people have asked me. But Tolkien's works are copyrighted.
My question is- can I publish it? And if not, would making name changes be enough, or would it still be an infringement?
0 Reactions React
Terms of Use Powered by ePowerPress Stock Market News!
© selfpublishingguru.com2024 All Rights reserved.