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Below are 13 journal entries, after skipping by the 20 most recent ones recorded in
A Fantasy Writing Community's InsaneJournal:
| Friday, August 31st, 2007 | |
| 3:57 pm [khajidu] |
Wishes and fullfillment What are your tendencies in fullfilling your characters' whishes ? Do you tend to never give them what they are dreaming of, or would you rather give them what they want, but in a twisted way ? I for my part tend to follow the saying "Think about what you want, for fear you might get it", in the sense that I give my characters what they want the most, but in such a way that it causes them many problems. And when they start complaining, I ask them "What the heck ? I gave you what you wanted !". Current Mood:  curious |
| Monday, August 27th, 2007 | |
| 12:15 am [emilie_burns] |
Another Conlang Post The previous post led me thinking along these lines. Sometimes, you need a conlang. You can't go around naming dragons Pamela and elves Barry. Not unless you're writing in a very tongue-in-cheek humorous style. But people tend to notice when a name is 'made up', and start rolling their eyes at it too. The best solution is to develop a language and let the naming patterns emerge from a race's native language, no? But not everyone can develop conlangs for whatever the reason. I've done research into it and everything I find says first determine what things sound like. Which I cannot do. Which means I'm stuck with hiring someone else to do it for me. Which in turn leads to copyright issues. And the fact I'm not exactly able to plunk down a couple hundred or whatever would be a fair price to develop a couple of languages. Is there another recourse aside from just scrapping three rough drafts, a detailed universes, and plot-intensive several-novel outline because fantasy writers need their own conlangs to be taken seriously with names for places and characters that aren't normal Earth languages? Current Mood:  discontent |
| Sunday, August 26th, 2007 | |
| 9:15 pm [kutsuwamushi] |
Opinions on conlangs? Creating languages is one of my hobbies. My worldbuilding projects always involve creating a language--in fact, that's one of the first things I do, so I can use the language to name things. You can see the beginning stages of one of my created languages here. Anyway, the point of this post is to ask you your opinions. I have a couple questions I've been pondering for a while, but any other thoughts are very welcome! -- One of the things I struggle with the most is finding a balance between what's good for the story, and what I want. This is mostly an issue of sounds: how my hypothetical readers will react to the names and words that show up in the story. ( Read more... ) -- How much presence you like made-up languages to have in the stories you read? I plan to only use my languages to create names and maybe a phrase or two that will be understandable from context. It's a lot of work for just that but it's independently enjoyable to me so I don't mind. I know that the more I include, the more I run the risk of my languages sounding "stupid." I've read stories with fake words or phrases and rolled my eyes because something was off about them. And there wasn't necessarily anything objectively wrong. It's just one of those things. -- If you conlang or are interested in linguistics, do you think this colors your reactions to the made-up names and words that show up in your fantasy? I can no longer stand froofy fantasy names like "Alairthyien" or whatever, and I definitely notice if some of the characters have real names, while others are made up. If you're not into conlangs or linguistics, I'd really appreciate your opinions, too! Particularly in your reactions to fake languages in your stories. |
| 12:05 pm [beccastareyes] |
A Worldbuilding Post (with questions) So, as August folds into September, I start thinking about possible NaNo ideas and fleshing out a world to write in. So, I have this thing. And I realized, while I had added magic, there might not be a reason I need magic -- neither of the protagonists have it, and it doesn't impact the plot. On the other hand, the worldbuilding might not make sense with it. So I wanted to get others' opinions. I also worry that, since it's based a lot on the history of astronomy, that it's going to turn into Obvious Retelling of Galileo's Life in Fantasy-land. ( My world. Let me tell you about it. ) |
| Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 | |
| 9:35 pm [xtricks] |
Themes What are the themes that interest you as a writer, or reoccur in your work? Themes, for me, are what's 'behind' the plot, the characters, the setting - they're what your work is ... 'about' ... what it's talking about, the kinds of messages it's responding to and communicating about. I belive that all creative work has themes even 'fluff'. I think they - and creative work - is always better when you are aware of and introspective about, your themes. Some of mine are: being a mistfit or outsider, having some sort of notable difference or change happen to you - that will result in your life changing in some way that can be either positive or negative, depending on the choices you (the character) makes. Heroism - what is it, what kinds of people are heroes and what is the cost/benefit of being one? Social expectations - most of my characters violate social expectations, whether it's the cop who gains visionary powers, along with seizures that cost him his job and make him look 'crazy', or the man who choses to cross dress long term to be with the man who loves him in a socially accpetable way. What are yours? |
| 2:52 pm [khajidu] |
Question about Copyright I would like to know if my copyright is threatened if I tell about my concultures on the Internet. I would like to publish stories in my settings. Current Mood:  anxious |
| Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 | |
| 1:36 pm [khajidu] |
Species in Fantasy What are the species in your fantasy worlds ? Mine are two subspecies of humans, one living on each continent. They can have offspring with each other: one of my characters's parents are both hybrids. My character himself has many children and is a grandfather. I also have sentient sailships. They are artificial intelligences, they use nanotechnology to repair themselves and fusion to get energy. They came to the planet several thousands of years ago. |
| Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 | |
| 4:02 pm [khajidu] |
I don't know if it's the right place to ask, but... I could not find any community about conlangs, conculturing or worldbuilding on InsaneJournal. I think it would be useful to create one, especially for people who don't have a LJ account, or don't go there anymore. Is anyone interested ? Or could we just discuss our constuff here ? Current Mood:  geeky |
| Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 | |
| 10:59 pm [darkredd] |
Violence in Fantasy and other Literature I've been thinking about violence in fiction lately. Has some spoilers for Kill Bill. ( Why you can't just butcher people in novels ) Current Mood:  exanimate |
| Tuesday, August 14th, 2007 | |
| 3:55 pm [malus_servus] |
A question of race I need some new intelligent races to help me feed one of my plot bunnies. The setting is a island with a gi-normus volcano in the middle of it. So far, this causes drastic evolutionary and ecological change and is basically Darwin's niche city. So far, these are the intelligent races I've got (feel free to critique): Bipedal hyenas that live in the swamp regions Massive lava bears that live near the volcano Werecrocadiles, official community in swamp with renegades near rivers Sea serpents that are more cetacean than reptilian So, what can this magnificent community think up? Current Mood:  creative |
| 12:29 pm [kittydesade] |
Intro Hi! I'm Jag, and I'm a fantasy writer. (Hi, Jag!) Um, yeah. I'm kittydesade on most of the major journaling sites too, you may have seen me there. You may not. I write... a bunch of things, fantasy being one of them. I actually started out writing fantasy, two novel outlines and most of the first done as my Senior Project when I was in high school. I was 17, for those of you not in the US. Now I've revamped the plot of that novel three or four times and I keep going back and thinking I'm going to write it again (would anyone be interested in reading if I did?) but I haven't so far. I also have the sequel outline written but never touched it. I've been published a few times in some magazines and am currently trying to sell my mystery novel. I may switch to trying to sell my fantasy novel if that doesn't work out. Mostly I just write whatever pops into my head and screams the loudest. Fantasy, however, is a big part of that! So, yay! |
| 2:50 pm [khajidu] |
Multiple first-person POV ? Hello, this is Khajidu and I'm new here. I just have one question. I would like to write my story in multiple fist-person POV, but I need advice about how to handle it. I intend to write separate chapters for each POV person, like GRR Martin did for example, but I still need advice on keeping the voices of each of my POV characters distinct and separate. How should I do ? |
| Sunday, August 5th, 2007 | |
| 3:55 pm [limyaael] |
Welcome! Feel free to post anything and everything to do with fantasy writing here. The community is open-membership and posting isn't moderated; I don't expect that to have to change, really. You can introduce yourself first, but you don't have to. For a first discussion topic: Since it seems to be the topic du jour for some parts of fandom: ( How morally responsible do you feel you are for your fantasy? ) How do you address the issue of moral responsibility when you write? Is it something to worry about later? On publication, perhaps? Never? |