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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
A Fantasy Writing Community's InsaneJournal:
| Thursday, February 25th, 2010 | |
| 11:02 am [madalias] |
Characters in search of a novel I find myself stalled and wonder if my situation is at all common. I did some writing on post-to-play website and found that I was a good writer in that context. Many of my friends encouraged me to start an original work of my own using characters that I had previously created. I've found that is easier said than done, so I guess I'm interested in knowing if other people have had similar problems and what they did to solve them. To put it in a nutshell I have no problem creating believable interesting characters, but I can't make up my mind about their world or the point of the plot. I suppose what I'm curious about is where do other writers start? Do you start with a character or do you start with a plot or a conflict or an idea? Have you ever created a character in one genre and rewritten it for another genre? Oh and the most important question of all... Is anyone alive out there? Current Mood:  curious |
| Saturday, July 18th, 2009 | |
| 12:49 am [madalias] |
So here we are... Alright. So this is the Fantasy Writers Community originally started by Limyaael. And while no one seems to have seen any sign of her in ever so long, it appears that at least a half dozen of us are still around and still interested in fantasy fiction. So we'd like to find out what we few (we happy few) are still about and what we are looking for from this community. Before I open the floor for comments. let me just post the description our founder wrote when she founded this asylum: The Fantasy Writers Community A community for anything to do with fantasy writing, including but not limited to: -posting your own writing for critiques. -talk about techniques or markets. -reviews of books and short stories. -discussion of specific authors and their works. -asking questions. I suppose I'm looking for people who have more writing experience than I do. (which shouldn't be too hard) For people I can bounce ideas off of. For a place to go to help me look at problems a new way when I get stuck in a rut, etc. |
| Thursday, July 16th, 2009 | |
| 9:37 am [madalias] |
Anyone out there? So the last entry in this asylum was made about a year ago... So I'm wondering is anyone in this community still actively interested in fantasy fiction? If so, have you moved to another asylum? Do you want to continue to use this one? Is anyone out there? Anyone at all? |
| Sunday, December 28th, 2008 | |
| 3:25 am [duskpeterson] |
Re-creation (fantasy novelette & holiday story)  What can you give a slave who, by law, can own nothing? He could not leave this room without his father's permission. And he could not imagine going to his father and saying, "Please let me go gather moss so that my slave can have a proper New Year for once." |
| Thursday, June 19th, 2008 | |
| 8:13 am [cat_mcdougall] |
Crossposted a couple places I'm going back through some notes, and need to flesh out my world building. Badly. So; I've got these world building questions but was hoping someone could recommend more. Links, books, anything. I'd be interested. Thanks. Current Mood: curiousCurrent Music: Placebo - Broken Promise - Placebo & Michael Stipe |
| Thursday, March 27th, 2008 | |
| 10:26 pm [kellicat] |
Dark Lord Rant I'm posting this here because I thought you would enjoy it. So you want to have a dark lord for your hero to overthrow? Okay, I’m always willing to read about an interesting dark lord. However, there’s just one problem: most dark lords are as dull as re-used dishwater. Boring dark lords occupy so many fantasy books that it takes a lot to make me pick up a book with a dark lord. ( Here are some ways to persuade me to pick up a fantasy book with a dark lord ) |
| Monday, January 21st, 2008 | |
| 10:51 pm [itrytowritewell] |
Hi, just a quick question. In my story, the people use 'formals' to address one another. First Formal: Council member/High-ranking official Second Formal: Noble (which means anyone with a large plot of land) Or a Stranger (just in case) Third Formal: Middle-class Fourth Formal: Servant Fifth Formal: Their name If you call a man by his name without permission, it's seen as a challenge. For a woman, you're asking to marry- with permission you're a really close friend or a brother. If she's already married, you're challenging her husband. The 'formals' replace 'you'(masculine), 'you' (feminine), and 'they'. Yes, there are twelve different pronouns. You may call me a language geek. Anyway, should I leave these out when writing my story? |
| Saturday, December 22nd, 2007 | |
| 1:08 pm [duskpeterson] |
Bard of Pain (fantasy novella) - Chapters 6 and 7 (final chapters)  In the battle-weary lands of the Great Peninsula, only one fate is worse than being taken prisoner by the Lieutenant: being taken prisoner if you are the Lieutenant. Available formats: Free: HTML (online; click on the link and scroll down a bit). For sale: DOC, LIT, PRC, RTF, TXT, and MP3 (audio book). Note: As a holiday present, I'm posting the final two chapters of Bard of Pain today, so that those of you who have spare time during the holidays can read them. "Now that they have me in their hands, they won't bother you. They know that I have all the answers they need." His voice grew lower. "I have been trying to prepare myself for that." ( Post comments on this chapter at my blog. ) |
| Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 | |
| 11:36 am [duskpeterson] |
Bard of Pain (fantasy novella) - Chapter 5 of 7 In the battle-weary lands of the Great Peninsula, only one fate is worse than being taken prisoner by the Lieutenant: being taken prisoner if you are the Lieutenant. Available formats: Free: HTML (online; click on the link and scroll down a bit). For sale: DOC, LIT, PRC, RTF, TXT, and MP3 (audio book). He had always feared fire the most. ( Post comments on this chapter at my blog. ) |
| Sunday, November 25th, 2007 | |
| 1:11 am [duskpeterson] |
Bard of Pain (fantasy novella) - Chapter 3 of 7 In the battle-weary lands of the Great Peninsula, only one fate is worse than being taken prisoner by the Lieutenant: being taken prisoner if you are the Lieutenant. Note: Not a work-in-progress; the story is finished and is being serialized weekly. I announced this novella last year in some places, but I'm reserializing it online in honor of the publication of the booktrailer, the e-book editions, and the audio edition. Click on the next link for all of these. "Gasps, and then moans, followed by tears, sobs, curses, screams, pleas for the questioning to stop, more screams, protests that one doesn't know the information – and then the breaking." ( Post comments on this chapter at my blog. I forgot to post the notice about Chapter Two here – sorry about that. ) |
| Thursday, November 15th, 2007 | |
| 8:41 pm [sinande] |
Through dichromatic eyes... One of my fantasy races in the making is dichromatic, they lack "red" cones. I'm currently working (in the broadest sense of the word :P) on a short story thing with one of these people as the viewpoint character. I was wondering how I could describe colours from that viewpoint in a realistic way. And this is the first time in my life I regret my full complement of colour receptors. In other words, I have not the faintest clue. If anyone could help me out with ideas, or even better, personal experience, I would very much appreciate it. |
| Sunday, November 11th, 2007 | |
| 8:17 am [duskpeterson] |
Bard of Pain (novella) - Chapter 1 of 7 The user info said that we could post our writings here for critique. Well, this would be post-publication critique, but I'd still welcome feedback. In the battle-weary lands of the Great Peninsula, only one fate is worse than being taken prisoner by the Lieutenant: being taken prisoner if you are the Lieutenant. As the world's most skilled torturer struggles with his change of fortune, he finds that his fate is intertwined with the destinies of an idealistic army commander, an affectionate prisoner, and a protégé who reveres the Lieutenant's art. . . but is on the wrong side of the conflict. Note: Not a work-in-progress; the story is finished and is being serialized weekly. I announced this novella last year in some places, but I'm reserializing it online in honor of the publication of the booktrailer, the e-book editions, and the audio edition. Click on the next link for all of these. The beginning of the end for him (or so it seemed at the time) came in the moment that he stepped into the shadow of Capitol Mountain and was assaulted by a stranger. (Post comments on this chapter or the booktrailer at my blog.) |
| Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 | |
| 10:28 pm [shiran] |
On Titles (as in Noble or Official) Just a little question since the place seems a bit quiet. In your worlds do you have a complete, separate system of noble titles (if you have nobility) or other official titles (for religious figures, military leaders etc.)? If so, do you use them in your actual writing, or do you still find it more convenient to use 'priest' for a priest instead of 'zag-sagrasa'? Also, what does an intricate and frequently-used system of titles imply for a society? |
| Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 | |
| 8:02 pm [kittydesade] |
Worldbuilding, Part 1 So, I finally finished that stupid outline. And now I'm ready to start world building! To that end, I started looking over the outline, and that I started making a list of questions that I think will need to be answered when I write. This is the first part of the list, at least as far as I got before I decided to post a chunk of questions so that didn't get too overwhelming, and some other questions have already been asked and answered when I posted the first part of the outline. (The outline is up on my journal, for those of you who want to see.) Is there anything you think I've missed in the category of things already addressed? I probably should have addressed 'Gender Roles' in part two or something, since it looks like the second part is going to be mostly the social/human behavior aspects. Still, this is as it occurred to me? Thoughts, questions, comments, observations, etc? ( Read more... ) (Cross-posted to ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} specficwriters) |
| 12:07 pm [itrytowritewell] |
Hi. I go by the name of Crystal. I need help trying to characterize this one character. You see, every time I imagine her; she always does the weirdest things. I have tried to replace her, or rewrite her character, but she always comes back. If I don't find a way around it; I might have to scrap the story entirely. Her name is Jural, and she's a bit of a ditz. She was born curious in the innocent way; if you know what I mean. She lives in a society that uses wolves to hunt- yes, I know, cliche, but it's starting to not be so cliche- and thus, they base their society quite heavily on wolves. It is a gender-equal society. From the time she was born; her parents were very lenient with her. But that was only because when she did something bad, she didn't mean to. *Unlike her brother, Ronas, who was very... rambunctious.* Edited because I forgot. Sorry! Her brother, while at first slightly jealous at the attention she received(jealousy was resolved), protected her with a view that she was weak and needed to be protected. Most characters in that type of society would have smacked Ronas later for being so condescending, but no, Jural has to be the type to get slapped and then apologize for 'making' the other person angry enough to slap her. You know, Jural is one messed up character. She is most definitely mentally retarded, but even so, could she be that retarded? Your comments are appreciated. Current Mood:  annoyedCurrent Music: Roddy McCorley- you should hear it if you like history |
| 10:19 pm [shiran] |
Hi for the first time Hello everyone! First for the introduction; I'm Wilson, from Singapore; writer by aspiration, soldier by national obligation. Also I'm Chinese by race, which might explain these ideas... These days I've been working on building a world with an Empire - pardon the capital E, it comes with the territory - and it strikes me that different polities and societies, depending on their size and power, often have fundamentally different views of their identity and how it is propagated or passed on. In that sense it seems to me that empires gravitate naturally towards grandeur as part of their identity, seeking to make their power (which is often over rather reluctant subjects) physically manifest in their culture. So what are the views of the community on this? And, as a side question since I'm trying to build that imperial culture around that idea for now, what are some things that do awe you? |
| Thursday, October 11th, 2007 | |
| 9:55 pm [topazlily] |
MY FIRST POST– AND A QUESTION This is just something that I've been thinking about for a while. How much would having magic (or telepathy, or whatever) affect someone psychologically? I'm not talking about a scenario where drawing on the Mystic Source eventually fries your brain. I mean how would the fact of having special abilities shape a person's character? Would he or she be profoundly different, disturbed even? Or just a basically normal individual whose powers were only one aspect of his or her personality? –Enough of that. I'd better introduce myself– I'm Topaz, artist by trade, writer by aspiration and cynical optimist by outlook– yes, that IS a complicated one, isn't it? *waves to everybody* Current Mood:  cheerfulCurrent Music: See: Current Location |
| Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 | |
| 1:48 pm [sinande] |
Sudden questions about magic It's good to have this fantasy community here, hopefully you can help me with your opinions. So, I have a world where magic is quite clearly elemental, most mages can command only one of the six elements (I'll have to work out the genetics to some more detail before I can actually say how rare mages with two or possibly more talents would be). Provisionally about one in a thousand people has some talent in any one element, might be more if this number turns out too small. I have two questions that came up in connection with this system. First, with magic so clearly divided (though quite rare), is it likely that most or even all religious and/or scientific worldviews in that world would be based around six elements? [On a side-note to that: since the extra two elements, light and shadow, are concerned with the mind and emotions, how likely would they be to receive a different treatment from the other four, more material elements?] Second, how plausible it is that some cultures persecute certain types of magic? A specific example: an empire's official religion has two gods, one of Light and one of Shadow - the latter by no means evil, in case people suspected otherwise -, and of course masters of those two elements have high status, considered blessed by the gods, blah-blah. Now, my idea is that these guys consider any other type of magic as blasphemy, demon-worship, abominable barbarian custom, you name it. Is this realistic when it's clearly really useful to have fire mages in your army, and other, not quite friendly cultures have no objection against doing just that? I would very much appreciate your opinions and ideas on this stuff. Would be really helpful in sorting out my cultures. Current Mood:  pensive |
| Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 | |
| 3:15 pm [inoru_no_hoshi] |
Greetings! My name is Mara, and I'm an author. *cough* Okay, so this isn't an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting--even if, sometimes, writing seems like a habit impossible to kick. Not that I'd WANT to, but.. Meh. Anyway, about meself: I'm eighteen going on nineteen, and have been writing, or attempting some version thereof, for a good decade-ish. (I honestly can't remember a time when I wasn't trying to write...even if many early attempts were, well...tripe, to be kind.) Right now, a lot of that is fanfic, but I've some original works I intend to shop around...once I get around to finishing and/or writing them. (My big failing. ;_;) In fact, I have a piece of flash fiction pending acceptance/rejection in Strange Horizons' slushpile. Right now, I mainly write short stories (five thousand words or less), having found that I have a hard time focusing on longer fiction. That said, I must be a glutton for punishment, as I failed NaNo last year, and yet have every intention of attempting it again this November. (It is worth noting that I didn't succeed with my attempts via To Boldly Nano's "NaNo All Year Round" thing, either.) I am utterly fascinated by languages (oh, if you could see the list of languages I intend to learn...), and their creation. This is called conlanging, correct? Fascinating and fun, whatever it may be called. Oddly, if/when I go to college, I intend to major in Archaeology (with concentration in Egyptology), and minor--or double-major--in Linguistics. Plans do have the oddest way of changing on a body, though, so nothing's set in stone. (I would like to add that this combination has nothing to do with StarGate. Really. Uhm. Hm. I guess you don't need my entire life story (which is good, because it's supremely boring), so I'll just add that I have glasses and am mostly deaf, but adore my hearing aid for what it allows me to hear. :D I'm thinking I shall like this asylum. Whee, loony bins always need more loonies, right?! I'm rather tired, so I apologize for my, er, random insanity. You don't want to see me on coffee. LOL. ~Mara~ Current Mood: Tired & Insane! |
| 3:19 pm [darkredd] |
I was reading a manga called Berserk (WARNING: NOT WORK SAFE, NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART, LOTR-LEVEL LENGTH), and I noticed something peculiar - Gatts, the protagonist, is inordinately powerful. Not only does he have a robot arm that conceals a cannon, he has a monstrously large sword (no Freudian imagery intended) and can wield it with ease. Also, he's a jerk of the first order, gladly sacrificing those who help him, and pushing away those who try to get near him. Gatts is scum. But for some reason, I can't stop reading about him. ( Spoiler alert! ) |