Are You Writing Serious Fantasy?

[littlemanpoet]

smilies/redface.gif Ouch. I thought you had written "prosac" as some kind of modern ironic fantasy magic weapon. No, "prosaic". <whew> M. has this little Celtic blockflute she keeps in a pouch she wears around her neck. That blockflute keys her identity. Hmmmmm....only character who has any little mundane item in all my stories. Hmmmm!

[Nar]

Ok, LMP, someone needs a little book of matches from their favorite restaurant. Maybe some flaming redhead would like that, hmm? You should come up with something to console your suffering messed up brother too (speaking fictionally here, folks). For that matter, isn't a belt used as a sling at one point, in the course of what is a rather ominous association overall? That's gear, that's humble, that's useful! A sling that immobilizes the injury while impeding movement-- what does this mean! And what about those chairs-- you know, the ones in the bad guys lair! smilies/wink.gif Chair-lair-- Ah, I knew I was a poet! Check out my other thread on Sam's pans, I've talked myself into tears over their fate, practically. The poor pans went into the fissure! Lost, lost, never to cook coney again! (The rabbits cheer!)

Casting things away, the more wrenching the better, now that's a fantasy theme with potential, and, I think, very much in the spirit of Tolkien! Sam casts away his precious pans, and Frodo casts away his precious Shire. That's part of what makes LotR transcend ordinary 'power-and-vengeance' or 'prince-and-princess happy ending' fantasy novels.

[Saxony Tarn]

An interesting "can of worms" to open, Nar, as usual...

hmm... mundane object that suddenly took on plot significance far & beyond its humble station... let me think about that one for a little bit...

i don't think i have anything that made quite as good a character tag as the pots -- but then again, it's early morning for me. Time for Second Breakfast, right Sam?

s.t.

[Eol]

One the characters in Interregnum, Thestyl has a common "useful" gear.

She begins in the story with a long, yellow scarf. Thestyl will either wrapped around her hair to keep her hair concealed or around her neck during cool times. You never see her without a scarf or veil.

Novah D'korat, well it would be her brigadine. For those do not know what that is. A brigadine is a vest made of material with metal plates ribited the material and it usually sandwiched between two pieces of leather or quiting. A very handy piece of anrmour.

[ October 10, 2002: Message edited by: Eol ]

[Lila Bramble]

Any signatures of my characters about an item or weapon?? Hmm...maybe Lila and her staff would be an example of that. Although I haven't written out fully the example I speak of, I know what will happen.

Lila has a staff that is basically bonded her, and they share the same life force (it's a long story!) If Lila's staff, or even the pearl that is palced upon it, is destoryed it will bring death to her, as well. I don't want to continue for the sake of Saxony, but if she wishes to hear what happens...

[Thenamir]

One thing that moves me when it is thrown away is something intangible -- a desire. In the Rohan RPG, I play my namesake character Thenamir of Gondor. One of his motivations is to exact revenge on the band of Dunlendings that once killed his wife (shades of Daniel Jackson in Stargate SG-1). He has lately been thrust into the leadership role of the band of warriors he has travelled with for so long, and is in a position to take that revenge now if he desires. But there is a greater goal, one upon which the fates of many more people in Middle-Earth may turn, though he himself does not know what it is...yet. He has to willingly cast away that desire for revenge, even though it might be completely justified, in order to do his honorable duty. The struggle which he goes through (and continues to go through) to subordinate his desires for the greater good is one of the conflicts that makes his character more interesting. (At least, I hope the stuff int hat RP is interesting to SOMEONE other than myself...)

[Saxony Tarn]

Oh no, Lila, don't not post it on my account (i've already read more than they have, right?)

and maybe i should ask folks who've read mine to select the tag items... that would give me a better idea of how well they were placed.

(give you a hint, after a certain outdoorsman with Herbalism proficiency shows up, a certain wild medicinal plant starts earning its status as a cast member. But what OTHER items... hmm...)

Maybe it's more what items are conspicuous by their ABSENCE, for example, as Nar and Lila will relate, a certain backpack and pair of leather bracers were nowhere to be found in the vicinity of their owner...

s.t.

[Bêthberry]

Not something thrown away informs "Bethberry" but recouping something lost. Like Thenamir's "Thenamir", my "Bethberry" has a long backhistory. Initially, I created 'her' as the daughter in search of Goldberry's lost voice and I deliberately worked her against type in that she was never described beyond the most minimal way. She was of appearance, height, age indeterminant, so that none of those characteristics could be used to place her. In her first RPG, she became a voice of restraint and compromise among young male gamers--male Mary Sues--who were interested mainly in hack and wack. Thus, she had no weapon but her wits and her skill at using the terrain and the animals she worked with, a horse and a falcon. She left that RPG not through the glories of tragic death but through mundane illness, loss of memory from injury in a storm. The amnesiac has recovered here now, where that original impetus, to challenge the thoughtless delight in battle, has become less crucial. Yet she is still in pursuit of that original goal and she still provides, as the daughter of Tom and Goldberry, an echoing hymn of what Nar has called "the original music of Uluvatar." One of the things she will do is again challenge misconceptions but those will be different and they will draw her out into a far more assertive role. Her conflicts are not internal so much as external. In this, she is not a 'modern' character at all, but a character conceived within Tolkien's universe of focussed evil.

Bethberry

[ October 12, 2002: Message edited by: Bethberry ]

[Lila Bramble]

As the question still stands, in my opinion an interesting story would have that one special thing about a character, or even each character. Whether its a unique and outstanding personality trait (urgh..the dreaded character sketch!) or one weapon or one act, it makes the readers job much more fun.

((Saxony, sorry for my absence at your site. Life has been so busy in school, elfwood, the arts...but I will get back soon!))

[Lila Bramble]

Not like this contributes to the subject at hand, but while at my job of babysitting, the child was watching a fantasy called 'the Dark Crystal' they had on video. It is an amazing fantasy unlike any other I have ever seen before.

It dosen't have the traditonal big bad evil guy with elfs and some humans and some thrown in dwarfs like some other fantasy's. Every single race hasn't been used before, clearly created totally from the writer. No elfs, no dwarfs, no nothing used before. 100% original.

I don't know why I had to post this, but I loved the movie so much, I just wanted to see who else had seen it or liked it. It might even be (in my opinion) even more original than Lord of the Rings, though Lord of the Rings is deffinantly the best!

[Eruialiwen]

Mind if I join? I've been writing fantasy since I could pick up a pencil and I'm enjoying this topic smilies/smile.gif

[Eol]

Eruialiwen
Welcome to the thread!


Eol

[littlemanpoet]

Welcome, Eruialiwen! And post often! Have any answers for the many questions, or questions for the many answers? What's your writing about?

Lila: I think I saw The Dark Crystal many years ago. It's a movie all done with muppets, right? As I recall, it seemed like it had a villain but then at the end it turned into a metamorphosis/butterfly phenomenon. Which is to terribly oversimplify the story, but that's all I really remember. A grotesque deathbed scene, too, I believe. Right?

[littlemanpoet]

Bethberry: Nice to see you here at AYWSF! Have one on the house!

------> |_|)

The Bethberry story is, I assume, here on the Downs somewhere? Where can I find it? "Goldberry's lost voice" - I'm hooked!

Is this fanfic? Do you have any original fantasy? Seems to me you're gifted for it.

[Lila Bramble]

LMP- Haha, yes, the grotesque bed-death scene is quite hard to forget. And the muphets reference- I actually liked that style of 'acting,' it was quite interesting. What I meant by no major villain was that it wasn't one ruling king that held the fate of the world, but an entire race.

Bethberry- You intruiged me very much with your mention of Goldeberry's lost voice, as well!

[Eruialiwen]

Thanks smilies/smile.gif

My writing has been about much in the fantasy world. When I was younger, of course it was much simpler, mainly due to the fact that I didn't know about the laws of fantasy. Most fantasy stories I wrote had to do with heroic beasts, and usually not human-types, although the human-types were involved at some point of the story, sometimes it was only a brief mention.

The story I'm working on now has the working title of "The Unicorns of Zalderonn". It's been revised three times in the five years since I first wrote it. 2001's revisation had a strong Marion Zimmer Bradley influence in the first book (it's composed of 5 books); there are just certain writers that influence my writing. But I was unhappy with the length of what 5 books would be--the first one just seems to draw on and on and the same will be with the third book (I'm currently in the middle of the second). I envisioned breaking it down to three books, a trilogy. Trilogies are better, anyway, or in my opinion anyway smilies/wink.gif. And now, my influence is Tolkien. I'd already begun the intense process of creating the planet's history, the species of its trees and flowers and animals and races of human-types, and I'd begun to map out its continents and great rivers and climates; and the solar system the planet belonged to etc. How I write, I try to put a realistic approach to the unicorns and other animals, as the unicorns can talk to one another and understand other animals' languages and human-types'. There are a couple rules, however. The animals do not speak the same way the human-types do, and their voices are at too high and low a frequency for the human-types to hear, thus the human-types think that they can't speak at all. And each species has their slightly differing language, understandable to one another no matter which "nationality" they're from. And animals understand one another to a certain extent, although the equine races know the languages of all their specie, as they're related to the First Race, the Old Race, the unicorns. And because of that fact, the equine races are held high by other species, and by the human-types, even as some of the human-types poach them for their horns.

I'm trying to use elements that no-one's used before. Like the unicorns and winged horses (pegasi) being mortal enemies, and the unicorns being prophetic, and different colors other than the usual overall white. I try not to make the unicorns seem all girlchild-y, or faerietale-y. The unicorns and their history remind me of Tolkien's elves, although I didn't copy from him. There's a lot of battle, a lot of history, a lot of adventure. Wheeee, my mind's turning to mush, I'll be back to answer/question some of the other questions/answers! smilies/wink.gif

[Eol]

I'm trying to use elements that no-one's used before. Like the unicorns and winged horses (pegasi) being mortal enemies, and the unicorns being prophetic, and different colors other than the usual overall white. I try not to make the unicorns seem all girlchild-y, or faerietale-y

Nice! I recall in some myths that unicorns were not nice, pure creatures as common in Western European belief. These things were mean. I am happy to see that someone else other myself and my friend willing to take a different view.

Look forward to see your stuff!

Eol

[Eruialiwen]

Nice! I recall in some myths that unicorns were not nice, pure creatures as common in Western European belief. These things were mean. I am happy to see that someone else other myself and my friend willing to take a different view.


Exactly--I recall that as well. My story's unicorns are, for the most part, peaceful, even the stallions (sometimes called stags by the human-types) are mostly tolerant of other male unicorns. My unicorns are not pure creatures, as there are some who abuse their powers (as the main enemy in the story...he's basically like Sauron with a horn smilies/rolleyes.gif.) Though they enjoy flitting among the trees like 'normal' unicorns (and wood-Elves...); they are savage if threatened or intruded upon. They're hard beasts to kill. They're rarely vicious to their own kind, even during the rutting season (although my unicorns mate at any time of the year, but more conspiciously and famously at Solstices); the fights are elaborate and rarely result in injury to either stallion.

But they're not afraid to kill if they need to. In the story, many a poacher and pegasus and unala (a sabre-toothed tiger-like beast) were gored to death or beaten into the ground by the hoofs, and if in extreme danger the unicorns will use their magic. Their magic is more of Gandalf and Saruman's type of magic (and always was, long before I read Tolkien!), not the kind that makes flowers spring from the ground wherever they walk. They're not magicians! But the unicorns in my story are a warrior race, not calm beasts that lay their heads in the laps of virgins. Young unicorns are more like the Western European vision of unicorns, and the threat of virgins is widely known to them. Adults aren't affected by virgins, not because they're less pure, so to speak, than their youth; they just know how to control their emotions and aren't subject to the manipulations of a dewy young maiden.

My unicorns are, in a sense, pure creatures, but they're not supposed to reflect the virtues of human-types as the Western European unicorns were supposed to. I mean, to one another and other good beasts they are honest, and loyal to their race and their ancestors, and compassionate for the most part unless roused (which doesn't take much to do) and on rare occasions can bond for life with a human-type and be as faithful and savage as a well-trained dog. But if they are forcefully taken from their homeland, the young who haven't much skill in their own magic will pine to the brink of death; the adults will brutally fight or kill their captors in order to escape.

Tales and myths say that cutting off a unicorn's horn causes it to die immediately (remembers the movie Legend and shudders). In my story, unicorn horns cannot regenerate like a stag's antler. It's more like they bleed to death like an elephant whose tusks have been ripped out by poachers (or something like that!). And plenty of their life-force is in their horns, but not all their magic is. Much of their magic comes from all over their bodies, but it is in the horn where it's mostly concentrated. They suffer greatly when their horns are removed. Although this is hard to do, because the horns are incredibly strong--in other words, one can't simply snap it off, fragile as it looks.

OK, this post was way too long than I intended it to be...LOL...hope I haven't been just rambling! Glad to find someone else who shares my views about unicorns not being pure, submissive creatures@!

[Bêthberry]

*quaffs proferred glass*

Thanks, lmp. As time permits, I will drop by here. As for finding Goldberry's lost voice, lmp and Lila Bramble, "Bethberry's" genesis was in a place like to Beleriand that was broken and sunk as the world was bent. Her futher adventures are in the RPG forum here, in the archives of "On Patrol" and "Picnic at the Bonfire Glade."

Bethberry

[ October 14, 2002: Message edited by: Bethberry ]

[littlemanpoet]

Friends, twenty pages may be about all we can manage. Perhaps it's time to let this join the library. Check out my signature for an alternative place to carry on these discussions.

[ October 14, 2002: Message edited by: littlemanpoet ]

[Eol]

Ya know, I think LMP is right. * Eol give LMP and hand*

Congrads on getting your thread at twenty.

[Lila Bramble]

WAHOO! 20 PAGES! But, Bethberry... my name is actually Lila, not Lily. But its okay, many have made that mistake.

In my novel I have many creatures in the horse-like family, but they're their own race since I like to have original things, or as Bethberry said, an original idea of an already created species.

And I've never trusted those unicorns, anyway...I had a dream where this was this one with red eyes and blood on his horn and another with a body impaled on its horn... smilies/eek.gif

[Bêthberry]

My apologies, Lila Bramble. A 4 am reading offers no excuse. It has been corrected.

*curtsies*

[littlemanpoet]

Thanks, Eol; none of this would have been possible without the active interest of especially of Starbreeze, Niphredil Baggins, Nar, Thinyandoiel, Saxony Tarn, Lila Bramble, and you; and there are many others. Thanks to all of you for a very enjoyable thread these 20 pages.

[Nar]

*sniff* And thanks to all, and to you, LMP ... *snuffle* And all these great people who just showed up like Bethberry, Eol, and Eruialiwen ... and Saxony Tarn tending the bar over there ... I need another Ale! |_|) *crying in her beer* Everybody have another round of Ale, orange juice or lime rickey, on me!
|_|) |_|) |_|) |_|) |_|) |_|) |_|) |_|) |_|)

[Saxony Tarn]

What? It's closing time already?

:: looks at clock ::

Last Call for Mead of Inspiration!!

|_|) <-- to the bards!

s.t.

[Lila Bramble]

*wipes tears* Well, this place sparked my interest in writing fantasy moreso than keeping and playing out my ideas in my head. I met so many great people! Thank goodness for FWW...BUT I'LL MISS THE BARROWS! (after all, after they won't post my story anymore smilies/mad.gif I have no other purpose for visiting.) Thanks for everyone's ideas, adn lmp, for being so welcome to me, along with so many others! And Saxony, for being such a great bartender! Lay one last drink on me!

*Sits on the bar stool along with everyone else as they sip on their mugs*

GOOD-BYE TO OUR POSTS ON THE BARROWS, I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

[Morquesse]

Great, now I'm going to cry! smilies/frown.gif
First, thank you all for getting me to actually write stuff, if it had not been for this thread I'd probably not start writting for a long time, and not know what I was missing. In fact it was this thread that got me to join this message board. I may not post much here, but I read stuff when I can.

~M

[ October 17, 2002: Message edited by: Morquesse ]

[dragongirlG]

Bye to the thread! See you at the group? Okay? If you're not in it and love this thread, then join!

Thanks to all the people who participated in these discussions. You all were great!

[littlemanpoet]

up

[Mitheithel]

Well, I have tried for years but infact the spirit of Tolkien is haunting me. Now at least I think I have escaped from it, and my story will be completed soon (in a few years maybe) smilies/smile.gif

[Airerûthiel]

> Are any of you writing serious fantasy?

Yes, I'm a little less than a third of the way through a novel and in the planning stages of one others (possibly two although I don't know if it counts). The book is called 'The Thirteenth Heir' and it's about two teenagers who find out about their secret pasts and have to save their country from the dictatorship of the Dark Lord.

>If so, how have you dealt with the temptation to be imitative of Tolkien?

It's very hard. I just let the words flow and then edit what comes a little too close. As Tolkien himself said, "All writing is part of a cauldron, and every writer takes something from this cauldron and puts something else back in."

>How long have you been working on your story, and why?

About five months, writing about a chapter a month. I've been writing it because I love writing and I've wanted to be an author since I was six.

>What pitfalls have you faced and how have you overcome them - or not?

Getting out of holes in the story (when I get writer's block). I usually overcome them by writing a later scene I've had an idea for and then saying to myself, "Right, how can I link that to this?" I usually have chapter synopses written out before I start work, so I know where I want to take the book.

By the way, if anyone wants to read the book, click on More Than Stars in my signature. Please review if you can, I appreciate any critique I get.

Edit: If you're a member of FWW, then elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo and Anar caluva tielyanna from Torfithien!

[ April 27, 2003: Message edited by: Airerûthiel ]

[the guy who be short]

ok, i wanted to post quickly but ive only read the first half a page of this topic! assoon as im done, ill read the rest. so if anything seems copied from you, its not.

If so, how have you dealt with the temptation to be imitative of Tolkien?
not very well. i have angels as well, and i keep callingthem valar! and then one rebellious one. there are minor plot differences. eg, the angels rebel to protect earth, god wants to surrender it to the evil angel.
i have men, the key characters; dwarves, bald so hopefully nobody thinks i copied jrrt!, and some time of plant people. im still developing the plot. but the evil angel will be captured, then he will escape again, which is similar to morgoths capture and release. im afraid most of the key characters are copied, but the plot will be slightly different. im rambling.

How long have you been working on your story, and why?

let me check... nearly two months now, and because i wanted another epic like the lord of the rings. thought from reading this forum, it seems there will soon be many.
its a poem entitled the tale of the fall of men into evil, and i think there will be a sequel to it, which will be prose. its strange, because im already planning the sequel and ive only written 2 chapters of the poem!

What pitfalls have you faced and how have you overcome them - or not?
i had my own language, but i thought it would just be very obvious that id copied from jrrt if i had my own language in there. so i decided to delete it from my work. this means i made a new map in english. however, unfortunately, the geography was already incorporated into the poem. so im going to have to rewrite a part of it.
my sats exams (i am 13) are in one or two weeks, and i have spent lots of time revising, allowing only a little to write.

[ElentariGreenleaf]

Hi.

I'm actually writing a Fantasy book at the moment. I created a new land, just like Tolkien did. His work on LotR inspiered me to even create my own language. But, unlike Tolkien, I do not plan my writing. I just jump straight into writing it up. It's currently 20 pages of A4 and five chapters long, though the 5th is only a paragraph or two.

It's about a girl called Angel (not an original name, but that's a common tongue name) who runs away from home searching for Demwa, a boy she has only spoken to once. She meets some friends, yadiyadiya..... you get the idea.

The story involves magic, aswell as Eilhuirts, which directly translates as 'Animal Humans'. It also involves the Elementals. Oh, and a cat. ^_^

It'll be a while though before it's published. I'd say... oooo... at the rate I'm writing it.... 50 years? lol ^_^ If you want to read what I've done so far, pm me.

Hehe.... that probably has nothing to do with this topic though, cause it's twenty pages and I am NOT reading it! (the topic, not my book ^_^ )

Elentari the first, otherwise indigestable.

[the guy who be short]

How do you guys feel about including a *hmhm* sexual *hmhm* relationship in your story?
just romance where its necessary!

Next, how do you keep track of names etc. and phrases you like, that pop into your head? I mean, I keep it all in a notebook.
names of people (and i use the term loosely)
i get by scrambling up the names of people i know. place i just make up, or have connected to who lives there somehow. i keep my ideas in a very badly kept scrappy book. also, i write a small outline of each chapter in a bigger book.

Next, what inspires you? Is it everyday things, or something you read, or dreams? Or a mixture?

jrrt, of course! i also have a none fantasy planned for when im older...

Next, (wow, I ask a lot don't I lol), How do you feel about other people reading your work? Would you be brave enough to share it with the world and publish it or would you be like me (and Maika apparently), who are too scared to even show people we have known for years?
i would publish it. in fact, im trying to publish a very short poem i wrote now. hopefully it will be in a big book of poems by children next year!
i also email my poem, step by step, to my friends, english teacher and librarian, to see if they like it. theyre my editing team. im not shy to let my friends or a few teachers read it, but i get very shy when i have to talk to people!

Next, how long do you write for before you feel that it is finished and you can't do anymore without spoiling it?
im only two chapters in. i also keep making minor changes whenever i reread it, and i made a new map (as i said in the previous post) with altered names, places, landmarks etc. i havent really planned the end yet, but i hope i will just know when it is finished.

Next, (almost finished!) Do you illustrate your work or leave it to the reader's imagination? And do you want to design your own front cover or have someone else do it?
i havent illustrated it yet, but i think i may draw a few pictures. but like someone (forgotten name, sorry!) said earlier, im not gonna draw the main characters as they should be left to the imagination.

if you see a book in the next 10 years written by jay pancholi, with a title (maybe) of The Tale of the Fall of Men into Evil, please buy it!

[ElentariGreenleaf]

MY book's basically based on romance and fantasy. Angel and Demwa fall in love at first sight. It has a major role in the plot line too, as Angel goes searching for Demwa.

Names and phrases stick in my head. In fact, just this morning I thought of an ending for my book, even though I'm no wehere near the end. It will stick in my head for sure. ^_^ Maybe I should write some ideas down though.

What inspires me is mostly my own feelings. I long to live in a place like middle earth, but I can't cause no where like it exists, so I write the book as if I was actually there, as someone watching the characters.

I listen to the LotR TTT soundtrack when I write. If you ever read my book, you'd notice a definate pattern of happy, sad, happy, sad where the music changes.

I love it when other people read my work. I love to get feedback so I can improve certain bits. I intend to get my book published when it's done. I'm not in it for money, as I'm only 15 and really don't need any. I just want to share my dream with other people.

I'm going to keep going with my work until a feel that it is done. You'll know when it's come to an end, especially if you're like me and think up the ending first. I can now derict my writing so it gradually leads to the ending I thought of.

I add things and change things, especially to my map ^_^. As you write, you find flaws in the map, or things that need adding. On my map, a girl with no experience of long journeys travels to and from a waterfall in under a day, every day. I found that on my map the gap between her town and the falls was too big, so I had to (well, atleast will) change the map so it fits with the story.

I don't illustrate, as I feel the reader should be allowed to interperate the writing however they like. I will probably think up a rough idea for my front cover, and then get someone else to interperet both my idea and the book to make one.

I'll look out for your book the guy who be short. Look out for mine:

Eidu Are by Gabrielle Steele (the title may change)

I also started another book before this one, called Diamond Stone. It's set in mordern day, but it has a fantasy twist. I kinda gave up, but I've taken it on again ^_^

[littlemanpoet]

Delightful! Welcome to the virtual bar! Our usual bartender (Saxony Tarn) being absent of late, I'll serve the drinks.

----------> |_|) |_|) |_|)

Cheers!

Mitheithel: How has the spirit of Tolkien been haunting you? How have you been able to escape it (if one would want to smilies/smile.gif )?

Airerûthiel: I usually overcome them by writing a later scene I've had an idea for and then saying to myself, "Right, how can I link that to this?"

That's a great idea! I'll have to remember that for my other writer friends. I really don't have too much trouble with writer's block myself. I don't know, I just seem to be one of those lucky ones for whom the next thing just comes. Of course, I've been at it since 1986, so I guess you might say I've had some practice.

When do you know it's done? I know mine's not done. I've learned so much by being part of a local writers' group for the last three years, that my writing has changed drastically and my skills have improved a lot! But I still don't know the ending. Well, I used to have an ending, but it's been feeling more and more like just a plot twist the longer I think about it.

So, how do things work over at Fictionpress? Is there camaradarie? A lot of interaction, or not? By the way, I read the beginning couple of paragraphs of your first chapter (all I had time for, sorry) and can quickly say that you have a gift for vivid description. Your strange names don't throw me off, either. I've read stories in which it does. I have one quick suggestion: think about telling the reader know more than she needs to know, whether at the beginning, in the middle, or toward the end. Good luck with your writing!

the guy who be short: Reading the whole thing!?! You are to be most commended! That's a lot to plow through! And I know, 'cause I've done it twice (I have my reasons) smilies/biggrin.gif

What's your story about? (By now you've probably read what mine's about, so I won't bore you with repetition.)

If you'd like to read snippets of a lot of the works mentioned in this thread, check out the link in my sig.

How do you feel about other people reading your work? I love it when people read my work! I like it even more when they say they can't put it down! And demand more chapters. Maybe I'm gettin' somewhere with this writin' thing...

ElentariGreenleaf: I'm inspired by your reason for writing. It's good to see that again. That was my reason, too. Is it, still? Well, maybe. I think I just caught the writer's bug so badly that I can't NOT write, and fantasy is just the best media for me to express my stories.

Well, it's been great to hear from you guys, and thanks for posting!
smilies/smile.gif

[the guy who be short]

How much research does everyone put into their work? Like, if you need to know of a poison, or of symptoms or animal behaviors, etc. Or, when, say, "inventing" a sickness (ie. Frodo after he got stabbed by the Morgul blade) do you spend that much time on making it realistic? A friend of mine says she doesn't. That because it's HER story, and it's FANTASY, that whatever she says goes. No questions. End of story. I am inclined not to agree. What about everyone else?
i agree with your friend. its my world, i do what i want! however, if its something like how to hold a sword, which wouldnt change in another universe, i would research it.

Sane? Why on Middle Earth would one want to be sane? :: shudders:: Perish the thought!
exactly what i think! i think i read somewhere that all geniuses are insane. and were all geniuses, right? i think being insane generally helps me in my plot-thinking. what kind of sane person thinks of rebellious dragons? or a weakling god? smilies/rolleyes.gif

on the question of strong females... i have a QUEEN of dragons and a QUEEN of wolves. only because two of my female friends wanted to be evil, though smilies/evil.gif
all my realms, as far as i know, have kings. although i have a woman who is a key character, gifted with foresight.

how do you handle Magic?
i dont have magic. magic is not believable. i always have reasons why things happen. however, my lord of the sea can control the seas, but i dont think this is magic.
i have psychics, but then, people in real life are (or claim to be) psychic, so thats not magic.

Question for y'all: how do you use your monsters - as foils for the hero/heroine? in unexpected ways?
all will be revealed... soon.

[the guy who be short]

seems i wrote a very long post but for some reason its not here smilies/frown.gif it took me ages...
oh well...
my plot: (if you copy it you will be cursed to a lifetime of flies attempting to eat you)
creation, one angel is evil, yardy yar.... ok, i cant be bothered. heres the deal. you email me at jay_pancholi@hotmail.com, the subject is: your poem. i will then reply to your email, and send you my poem... well, ill keep sending it to you whenever i write a bit more.
so....do we have a deal? excellent smilies/cool.gif

p.s., if you copy me, i will personally find you and stuff a weasel down your throat. be warned.

p.p.s.

heres my introduction, just to get you interested. dont laugh, you must remember im only 13. as you can see, i copy jrrt's style of writing. or if you cant see it, take my word for it. smilies/tongue.gif

The Earth has seen so many things, of which it does not tell,
Of the mighty dinosaurs, what ancient fate befell?
We know not, and we care not, for it is no concern of ours,
What happened in those dark and long-forgotten hours,
Yet here I tell a tale that is worthy of your ears,
A history, our history; what befell in ancient years.

[the guy who be short]

Anybody have any THINGS that kind of took over your story, or grew with the telling?
i decided to have a dragon because one of my friends wanted to be evil (well, she actually wanted to be a witch, and she dhated being a dragon, but shes not really a friend, just an acquiantance so.... anyway... smilies/rolleyes.gif )
the dragon the most powerful thane of the dark lord. but it doesnt end there! she then gets her own army, and, at the bidding of the dark lord, brings about the downfall of a major city!
and it still doesnt end... she then decides to rebel against the dark lord, and gets all the dragons and many other evil creatures to leave with her.
so i now have a 3rd side in my wars, and a powerful one at that, with all the dragons, just because the person i sit next to in mathematics's friend decided she wanted to be in my poem!

Things that started out as just things but grew into something much more central to the plot?
see above!

how do you rip a hole in the Space-Time continuum
you dont if you love life. or earth. or something on earth. well, you dont if you love anything. just dont try it! please!

I just wanted to know how ppl started their stories
see the above post

Do any of you know where I can find an Elvish dictionary that I don't have to download?
here (http://www.ardalambion.com), but its only quenya. however, it makes more sense learning quenya than sindarin, seeing as all elves spoke it, save the avari east of mirkwood.

NazgulNumber10, wow, youre an awesome poet! are you sure youre 14? you should join mensa (it costs a tenner for the tests i think)

I couldn't beleive it! Its simple - if people in books had normal lives, no one would read the book! People in books have adventures becuase otherwise the person wouldn't be worth reading (or writing) about.
well said. maybe the person meant why do normal people never have adventures? i often ponder this, and i guess the answer is an adventure doesnt have to be thrust upon us, we can choose to have one ourselves. i mean, if we really wanted, we could go live in a forest for a week. that would be an adventure... however, i dont think any of us are that insane yet. im nearly there... smilies/biggrin.gif

How do you make your adventures and mishaps seem realisitc, and not seem like everything happens to the same person, impossibly frequently?
use different people? im sort of using the silmarrilion as my basis, so theres no real one hero. how about this character seeks adventure, so many things happen to him/her? hope that doesnt ruin your plot.

ive read seven pages and im tired... im gonna read some other threads. ill probably be back in a few weeks, since i have exams, but email me for my poem!

[Faramir Fan]

I have just finished...

But I don't know what you would call it...

It is the story of Faramir and the War of the Ring. Told by Tolkien and I quote him often, but I wanted to fill in some of the missing parts.

For example, I wanted to develop a relationship between Faramir and Boromir, before Boromir went to Rivendell. I quite liked how that turned out. Also when Tolkien says that Eowyn and Faramir talked for five days, I wrote those conversations, as well as conversations between Faramir and Denethor, Faramir and Pippin and Faramir and Merry.

I followed the story completely and did not make any changes, only changed the perspective to be that of my favourite character's...Faramir.

Some of my difficulties, bringing my language to that of Tolkien...I used my thesaurus alot!!!

Also I had to change my ending. Just like ROTK, my ending after the War of the Ring seemed somewhat anti-climatic and I had to delete the last 2 chapters to avoid that. Which was really, really hard because I rather liked them. But as one reader told me, they really liked my ending...before they had read the last two chapters and I realized that he was right. I had ended it and to continue detracted from the story itself.

I must say it was a complete departure from anything I had ever written before and it was quite challenging, but in the end worth it...

[Lila Bramble]

Hullo, hullo, and a warm welcome to both the guy who be short and ElentariGreenleaf, and I must say that you make fine additions to our quaint pub situated at the Barrows. I am just so happy to be back in familiar territory! Lay one on me, lmp!

Ok, so I read the mention of not including magic becuase it is unrealistic. Um...aren't we writing fantasy? That's what makes it so fun, you can add things that aren't the least bit realistic and get away with it! Well, there is some form of barrier, but it sure dosen't start at magic.

An evil angel, hey? Well, could be considered a dark angel, or perhaps a follower of God blinded by evil? Or is this an entirley new 'form' of angel? Please explain, I'm interested!

Thirteen!! SOMEONE ELSE IS THIRTEEN! Um, sorry about that, it's just that everyone is so much older than me and its harder to relate to their works.

Just a question to either one of you. Have you ever heard of a fantasy author named Geraldine Harris? She is under Unicorn's publishment, the same publishing company as Lord of the Rings, but she seems almost unheard of. Her four part novel series, the Seven Citadels, was incredible.

Another welcome! |_|) (or something like that...)

[GreyWolf]

All of you seem to have great stories. I've tried to write a story but I can't think of a good plot (without coping Tolkien).

Anyway I noticed a lot of people saying that they wanted to create a language. I found something that might help, but I havn't tried it yet. Go to www.zompist.com (http://www.zompist.com) and then click on the Language Construction Kit on the right side of the page.

Hope this helps.

[ April 27, 2003: Message edited by: GreyWolf ]

[Nimiriel]

Hi guys!
Just wanted to step in and say bye, now that this thread is to be closed. I know I haven't been around much (not for about a year, shame on me) but everyday I'm grateful that this topic was started, and that I was so lucky as to be invited to join FWW (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FaerieWordweavers/). I'll see you there guys! And everyone else: Good luck with your writing!

|_|)

[the guy who be short]

well, basically god tell the Manell (angels) to sing, and whatever they sing he brings into existance. but one angel is jealous that god can make things, whereas all he can do is sing. so he doesnt sing, and sullenly sits in a corner smilies/smile.gif
ok, theyre in the void, and there is no corner, you know what i mean! then god puts humans on earth and Naivag plus 6 angels have to go there to teach them. naivag pretends he is god, and warps creatures. email me for my poem!

THE THREAD IS TO BE CLOSED?
is this confirmed? tell me youre joking. if not, at least give me time to read the 12 pages i havent yet read. otherwise my writing skills will suffer... tell me you were joking smilies/frown.gif

[the guy who be short]

How do you end a story?
well, as ive said possibly a dozen times, ive only written the first two chapters of my poem, and only planned the next 10, if that.
since my poem is titled: The Tale of the Fall of Men into Evil, i guess itll end something like this:
thus the race of men fell into evil.
im only just formulating the ideas of how they fell into evil though!

[ElentariGreenleaf]

WHAT? THEY SERIOUS CAN'T CLOSE THIS! They could open another one if this one is too long, but permanantly close? Where did this vile rumour emmerge from?

I always try my best not to copy Tolkien and other Authors, but there is always slight simalarities ^_^ Like my evil people, the Reapers (Nieils, in Pestied), are kinda like a cross between RingWraiths and Dementors. Here's the first encounter with one, in Eidu Are by me:

A chill suddenly went through the group. Fog rolled down from a nearby path, spreading like water. No bird sung, even the wind was silent.
“It’s a Reaper!” said Atulan quickly. “Quick, hide Angel. They mustn’t find her.” Atulan drew his sword while Clai and Truse urged Angel to hurry behind a rocky outcrop. Atulan knew there was nothing he could do against the Reaper. They freeze people’s very being if they make eye contact.
A tall figure cloaked in long, billowing, black robes stepped out from path bend. Its hood was thrown back revealing a moth-eaten face, cheekbones highlighted by large shadows where the muscles had withered to nothing. Its eyes had lost all colour but for a small slit for a pupil. As soon as it sensed Atulan it turned, hoping to find a meal. Slowly it crept forward, bending slightly from lack of food. It needed life, for death was beginning to consume it.
Atulan saw at once that this Reaper was weak. He made a great effort not to look anywhere near the foul creature’s eyes. He felt death near, but not the foretelling of his own death, but that of the Reaper. There was a chance of victory. Atulan charged towards the Reaper. He swung his sword at the Reaper’s neck, only to be met by the creature’s own, shorter blade. The sound of metal clashing against metal rang out over the mountain. Atulan strained to get the upper hand in the locked sword fight, but the Reaper was still too strong.
“Run!” he shouted at the top of his voice. At least the two Elementals would be able to save Angel. He looked away for a moment to check they had left, but his opponent took advantage of this, and pierced Atulan’s side with the short blade. Atulan turned back to fight, but looked straight into the Reaper’s eyes. His very soul froze with a fear none can defeat. The Reaper kept the eye contact as Atulan slowly fell to the floor, being drained of his life.



And Truse's description of them to Angel:

“It is to do with the Nieils. You will not have heard of them. I dare not utter that word again. They are also known as the Reapers for they suck the souls from the living, though their very appearance can cause people to kill themselves, leaving a free soul to eat. They are pure evil. Not one of them could have a spark of goodness for hatred burns into their being. They are in allegiance with the animal-people on Eil Flencrad. Only the bad animals live there, suffering in silence until the Resolution.”

[the guy who be short]

Does anyone know what their goal is yet?
describe how men fell into evil. why Gods children turned evil, and why some turned their hearts against him. to describe how Naivag (near anagram of Gavin, a friend) introduced all evil into the world.

im planning a sequel too... i dont know what will be in it though. so far, ive got: the escape of Naivag from captivity, his return to Earth, and how those who fought against him have fallen under the shadow of vanity. ive also though of putting a daring rescue and a few civil wars in there...

On Endings: I tend to like to have a definite end to my stories. A sort of "and they all settled down and lived happily ever after", as Bilbo said.
no offense if youve put a "and they all lived happily ever after" ending in your novel, but I HATE THEM. its so predictable that the hero will win, and good will triumph. who seriously thought the ring would not be destroyed?
thats why my ending will have a twist... an evil twist... smilies/evil.gif

I did make up my own land and world and people, but I feared it was much too close to the layout of Hyrule of the Legend of Zelda, and too much of a leech off Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings', so I destoryed the document.
theres nothing wrong with being a eech! you should see MY map. exactly the same style as jrrt! all of it! and as for the storyline...what decent creation story doesnt have an evil angel?

"Need-to-Know" reader info -- how do you give enough but not too much?
well, first of all i say: all the angels sung (save one). so people think hmmm... whys he not singing?
then i say hes jealous of god and they think: looks like a shady character... wonder what hes gonna do...
then i put he goes down to earth, pretends hes god, and all the evil he does.
hopefully people ask themselves those questions, though im not really sure if they do!

****decides to put this in for no apparent reason****
for my religious education homework, i had to draw a title page for my martin luther king project. instead, i wrote a poem, the lay of martin luther king! (lay of gil-galad?) my friend says its good but i dont like it that much...
****ends random note****

do you take someone from an unimportant role and decide to give them a big part? DO you ever reconsider the way you just left them off and pick them back up again?
i dont think this counts, but... i have a morrainech the first, and in my sequel im going to have a morrainech the seventh. and they act the same, both really sickeningly good and anti-evil. plus theyre descendants/anscestors. i dont know if that counts, but never mind.
oh, ive thought of another one! i was going to have this kingdom entirely destroyed. but then about 600 people escaped, and their king who was meant to die had major battle parts. i havent written this bit yet, its still subject to change.

page 9 and a half, and im kicked off. hopefully back soon.

[Nimiriel]

No one KNOWS if it's to be closed or not (as far as I know) but most threads don't make it after they've reached twenty pages... But LMP and the others know much more about this than I do. I hope the thread will last, and maybe I'll even be able to catch up... I hope so.
Oh, and GreyWolf, thanks for that language link, it looks like just the thing I need.

[ElentariGreenleaf]

If they close us cause we have too many pages, we could open a new one. they only cose the long ones cause they take too long to load. They did it with Crazy Captions, the Green Dragon, and some others i think....

[the guy who be short]

Firstly, are your places similar to any on Earth. For example - Tolkien's Shire is supposed to be similar to England.
lets see... no, i dont think there are any dwarves living under mountains anywhere in the world! i havent really thought about it, theyre just made up realms from thousands of years ago (like jrrt)

Secondly, How civilised to you make the people that inhabit your world? I would say that Tolkien's characters were sort of around 13th Century in English terms.
considering they are the first ever humans, extremely civilised! they are primitive (as in, swords and axes, not fridges and tvs), but they are fairly noble. like the knights of the dark ages id say.

Thirdly - if you have used elves how have you portrayed them? Terry Pratchett portrays elves as forces of evil, greedy and malicious, but Tolkien portrays them as a gentle and advanced people.
no elves, but ive already describedthe greedy, yet often good dwarves. the tree people are fairly evil. smilies/evil.gif

speaking of names for dragons (im on page 9, ok?), ive decided not to have my acquaintances jumbled up name for my dragon. thassam jonane (samantha jones) is just not noble! something harsh and evil sounding, thats what i need. tharashnane?
strange... i hadnt read your post, lmp, but my dragon name still had "tha" in it! oh well, guess thats not really a very interesting coincidence.

what plot device gets your story going? A tip in the balance of power, as Niphredil thinks, or is it something else? Are there better and worse plot devices? overused and hackneyed ones?
i think the "rebellious angel" is much overused. but hey, you need an evil angel. i think it is a tip in the balance of power, since god cannot destroy Naivag, as the angel is a part of him. so he has to abandon Earth, so Naivag becomes the most powerful person. well... thing.

i am writing a fantasy novel, and anything i come up with that is similar to tolkien, i change.
if you keep this up you wont have a novel smilies/biggrin.gif
jrrt incorporated a little of everything into his epic, so i dont think theres anything wrong with copying him. even jk rowling did it, and she is a great author.

i cant distinguish ME or Neremorn- a fantasy world- from our own.
ME is our earth- just in the past. in past days they used to call it middle earth. i frequently go around telling people middle earth exists, because theres a (very slim) chance everything in LotR is true!

sighs... 8 and a half pages. you know, itd b a lot shorter withut the drinks. but wheres the fun in that? |_|)

this is strange. i have yet to complete the 2nd chapter of my poem, but im planning the 3rd book already! itll be set in the future, where god (who, if you hadnt already guessed, gives up on earth and goes off into space with his angels) gets tired of just hanging about in space. i thought of that in music. its all ive got so far. heres something interesting- in my poem, its black vs. white, yet in its sequel there will be shades of grey.

[littlemanpoet]

Me? I know more about this than others? Uh, not really. It might be worth it to ask and see if the mods are willing to let us open a new thread of the same ilk. By the way, "closed" doesn't mean "gone", it just means "sorry, you can't post here anymore". At least, that's been my experience.

Just wanted to say, I'm really, really intrigued by Faramir Fan's project. Of course, the others sound really fun, too! smilies/smile.gif

[the guy who be short]

I like the idea of starting a war by pulling a chunk of country into the ocean.
how would this start a war? unless you sink a city or something...
i like the idea f a war between the sexes. perhaps i should put this in my poem as a reason why one of the species are dead.

themes-
good vs. evil

um. thats it. there are probably more, but thats what its basically all about.

1. a fellowship kinda thing. a group of people from many different walks of life who battle a common enemy. Most include a wizard, and elf, and an orphan
2. a battle against an ancient evil. most worlds have had a dark past with the reign of a dark lord (acually mine had no dark lord, but for ages the world lived in fear of a sleeping darkness). Now that dark lord seems to be returning to power and the fellowship must stop it.
mine is set at the beginning of the world, with the evil just coming into power. but in the sequel i wont have a fellowship. actually, i dont think this is essential, just the dark lord is. i mean, a dark lord can be stopped by a big enough army, not only a fellwoship. or you could stab him or something. theres a number of different ways.

thanks for the support lothiriel. and when i am rich i shall still be a geek. i embrace that and use it to my advantage. thats the kind of person i am very resoursefull and alaways planning ahead. I shall be an example of what a geek can do and inspire others to do something with thier geekiness.thanks
we geeks shall rule theworld. i mean, it takes a geek to actually sit down and write a book. you need to have a wide vocabulary, understand sentence and paragraph structure... theres alot you need that a normal un-geek will never have. if you look on other threads ive visited, youll see im trying to get an uprising of geeks so that we can set up a tolkienite regime. not many people respond.
KEEP BEING A GEEK! smilies/smile.gif

there is a darkside to being a geek too. a very dark side......
is this starting a war in your school between you and any jock except those you like? and dumbases who take advantage of you and use you for answers? because ive started one in my school. well, war is so strong... unrest. why do they all want to harm me?

NazgulNumber10, your a great poet, for want of a much more extreme word. my lazy brain is shtting down at thi time of night. anyway, can i read some more? ive only read that one poem, but it was sooo good. im a poet too (or try to be) but youre a genius.

ok, back on track. How do you feel about religon in fantasy? is there one major, or do different cultures have their own. Or, are there no traces of religon at all.
abandoner god. for some reason, some humans still worship him. others worship particular manell.

must go, its 10 and my sister demands her room back

[Mattius]

Hey I thought I would get my post in before the thread gets closed down, if it does that is! I haven't read ALL of the past 20 pages but have several.

How have you dealt with the temptation to be imitative of Tolkien?

Its hard, believe me it really is. I thought long and hard before putting pen to paper (or finger to key as the case may be) but decided that I really needed/wanted something Tolkein-esque without being a complete rip off of his works. After much deliberation I decided on something. As Tolkien's mythologies are based in our history and on Earth, not some other planet or fantasy world I would do something similar. My work would be based on Earth too but in the future (eww I HATE that word- so sci-fi-ish!). My idea would be that the world has changed and civalisation has taken several thousand steps backwards for whatever reason- could be mass nuclear war, disease whatever- the reader makes up their own mind. I do not want to get bogged down in science and technical stuff about how life came to be this way, in my works it just is. Phew, so therefore the world is in a medevil style environment in which I can work in without having to deal with our history.

How long have you been working on your story, and why?

I have been working on it on and off for a few months. Why I do it- for my own pleasure, I don't really think people would like to read it and I'd probably be too ashamed to let them anyway. I allow my imagination to run wild when bored- it happens a lot, trust me- I work in a shop.

What pitfalls have you faced and how have you overcome them - or not?

The major pitfall is my own pessamism. I may write something like eight pages, come back to it a week later, hate it then delete it all. I also am short of time at times with exams and real life comming first.

[the guy who be short]

Anyway, I had a stroke of idea! What if the person everyone thought was their main enemy, the one they set out to destroy, was a mistake? And the thing/person was actually in fact a good person, and became a member of the party, and the whole party was feared?
thatd cause confusion. if everybody thought he was evil, and he wa only travelling with a small band of friends, wouldnt somebody try to kill him?

saruman from lotr. He was nothing but a pawn of saruon, a pawn that reached the end of his row. He was a shadow of something greater and desired that same power.
this reminds me - and brings the topic onto somethingrelated to lotr! - if gandalf and sauron were both maia, couldnt gandalf just fight and topple him? or, if it wasnt allowed, saruman when he turned evil? or was sauron the most powerful maia or something?

while i do have religons in my story, i feel it is important to remain neutral while describing them and their fallowers.
i dont remain neutral - i take an anti-god side (not meaning to offend anyone) because in my poem he abandons humanity to evil, and just skips off. plus, he bans the manell (angels) from visiting humans. i mean, what is the point? so he abandons humanity, why does he have to make sure no one else saves it? (acually, i should know the answer to that. lol smilies/biggrin.gif )

Puts some real oomph in "Namaste" (The Divine in me honors the Divine in you)...
cool! are you indian? or gujarati? anyway, back on topic...

I know JRR Tolkien didn't have a romance in Lord of the Rings
elessar and arwen? or, to a lesser extent, sam and rosie?

What about making up languages? Do you think that adds to a story, or just complicates it?
i tried my own language, and made a whole map and dictionary (if you can call a page a dictionary) and then i decided it was far too complicated, so i scrapped it all. i think yur own language would be ok in prose work, but not in a poem, where, i think, you have less space to devote to geography. or maybe its just me. smilies/tongue.gif
Poetry: do you use it in your story? How much? What kind? Formal? Free verse? Do you imitate Tolkien with yours? How do you know when your poetry enhances your story? Can you tell when it fails to enhance it? How? Care to share some of your story poetry here?
lol, my entire story is poetry. its very copied from lotr, with the same tolkienesque style, plus i use some words he invented, like quoth and thralls! i may have to delete these so its less obvious abut my copying...
i can tell when it fails because i send it to several friends and force them to force me to alter bits they dont like.

a sample:
The Earth has seen so many things, of which it does not tell,
Of the mighty dinosaurs, what ancient fate befell?
We know not, and we care not, for it is no concern of ours,
What happened in those dark and long-forgotten hours,
Yet here I tell a tale that is worthy of your ears,
A history, our history; what befell in ancient years.

I God’s Creation of the Manell and Ou

The One who is Many and Many in One
Decided that there was work to be done
It who was first and by many names known;
In Its mind a vast vision was shown,
Of things that could happen, wonders that could be,
It could use its powers to create beauty!
The Endless Void, blackness dull,
It could make it beautiful!

And so then God, known also as The One,
A great and mighty work begun.
First It made the angels high,
Who once dwelt up above the sky,
And wouldst still dwell there if ‘twas not
For Naivag Leeb who is now forgot
For not all God’s angels true remained,
In one angel’s heart, treachery reigned;
Naivag Leeb was his name,
Fire Spirit, hard to tame.

thats about 20 lines i think, from the beginning. LMP, im emailing it to you as soon as i can find time.

Ahhhh. 'His Dark Materials'. I adored those books so very much . . . His Dark Materials is ignored, and it's the one that violently attacks Christian conceptions
sorry, this is completely off topic, but... i read that trilogy and loved it. i also dont know why its been ignored. it says god is evil! lol, my extremely religious friend says hes going to read it...
ah... back on topic! yes... i guess there might be controversy (is that the right word) when my poem is published, because god is a weakling who abandons humanity.

That trilogy I mentioned above was "His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman. The first volume is called "The Golden Compass",
i dont know if it was called this, and it was probably referring to the alethiometer (sp?), but it is now called northern lights.

Phillip Pullman's series is wonderful, very well written. As it's set in an alternate world
its set in several worlds, one of them is ours, and it is god hes dissing in general, not just any one religion, though i think perhaps christianity would feel the impact more.

ill be back to read from page 13 onwards. and ive been here for half an hour longer than i shouldve been, and i really have to do history homework now. smilies/mad.gif who does that teacher think she is, tearing me away from the downs?

[ April 30, 2003: Message edited by: the guy who be short ]

[the guy who be short]

How much time do you spend, either directly or peripherally, thinking about your stories? Planning for them? Plotting?
most of my school lesson time ,lol! lets see... not much really. but thats because i know the bit im writing now. or do i? i need to spend a bt of time working on my plot.
i think as soon as the sats are over ill be spending lots of time on it.

i dont have mithril but i have adamant, a tough metal only dwarves can forge.

Have you found, since you started writing that you percieve things differenlty - for example, when gazing absently out of the window, do you see a motorway and a pile of dustbins (for example) or do you see them as potential for a great idea for one of your scenes? Do you see Crows or a new species of bird native only to the area where your story is set?
i was looking at my friends spiky hair and i thought... how about a story with nits in somebodies hair? all the spikes are war towers! may still use it.
when i see dustbins i think: how did my people dispose of waste. actually thats a good question. and one thatll be hard to ansswer. thank you very much smilies/tongue.gif

im half way through page 14... this is so long!

i was writing part of my poem at school, but im extremely shy when people read my work in front of me. so i wrote it in cirth runes (angerthas moria!) question: are you strangely like me? you dont mind people reading your work, but not in front of you? or if your shy, do you do it in cirth/tengwar when working around others?

[The Only Real Estel]

HOLY S***! 806 posts! That's got to be some sort of record! No, I'm not writing any fantasy, although I'm sure if I were I'd be kinda tough to resist the temptatipon to copy a bit of Tolien, he stole all the good ideas anyway! smilies/cool.gif

[the guy who be short]

If so, how have you dealt with the temptation to be imitative of Tolkien?
-------------------------------------------------
With great, humungous, amazing difficulty. Especially since in one of my worlds, I have a race of elves.
i deliberately left out elves as i thought that would definitely give away that i was... er... basing my work on tolkien (not copying!)
plus my dwarves are bald!
ive forgotten who it was with the dog sized dragons, but, well, being an author i need to scavenge! could i use that idea please? i havent decided yet, but i would either have them as a new race or the children of the dragons, who for some reason are very small. i await your response.

thread has me on a MAJOR inspiration high.
same! you expert 40-something year olds have great experience, and im really thankful for everybodies advice. plus i get ideas from your ideas. like the dragonettes i want in my poem...

I was just wondering, do you write your story up straight onto the computer, or do you do several drafts on paper and then type it up? Which ever way you do it, is there a particular reason why you do it that way and not the other?
on a very rough exercise book first. and i mean rough. ts front cover has fallen off. this is where i write my first version of my poem. then i revise it a bit, and put it onto microsoft word, because its tidier, plus i can email it to people. i also have a large notebook where i roughly note down my ideas when i get them.

Plus, I type very, very fast, and generally type faster than I write
i type extremely quickly too, as in i cant see my hands properly! but i also write extremely quickly, but extremely untidily. this is why i keep my "proper copy" on my computer, because its actually readable. i read that jrrt would also write quickly and untidily, so that his work becomes indecipherable in places, even to himself.

heres a question... do you think jrrt wouldve used a computer if theyd been available back then? id say probably not, since he hated new industrial things.

70-80 WPM
you count the words per minute? i will do that soon...

I like inventing swearwords. ::blushes:: No, really . . .swears, curses and other exclamations.
i use insults from books, such as: fool of a took! those of you who have read macbeth will know the insult: thou cream faced loon. i like using both. then, one day, i said: cream faced loon of a took! it is my new insult. i know its not really inventing, but it is from famous works.

I like making religions too, though I am a little afraid of creating gods and goddesses as I tend to start beleiving what I right too much.
well whos to say your made up creations arent actually real? theres a minute chance. perhaps manwe and varda and iluvatar exist. perhaps my version of the creaton story is actually true.

i mst go now... part way throuh page 15. soon i will finish...

[the guy who be short]

this is in bold so you look at it! its an important question. did you start writing because of jrr tolkien?
i did, because i wanted another work as complete as his, even if it wasnt as good.

We discuss "the temptation to be imitative of Tolkien" -- IN WHAT SENSE?! Writing style? Plot conventions? Using Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and ancient kingdoms?
i am imitative in writing style, definitely.
i have ancient kingdoms (well, theyre not ancient yet, theyve only just been created, but they will be ancient) i have dwarves that lust for gold (but theyre bald!) and dragons. no elves or orcs, i think thatd just be too obvious.

Oh no, my world must not have elves, that would be imitating Sir Tolkien" is just so much dwarf's bread I want to smack them.

what if elves arent needed for the storyline? see, i have two reasons not to have them.

I really have a problem with my history. As I said, it's supposed(sp?) to be like the Sil, but I'm really bad at telling legends, and I don't know where to start - anybody has any ideas?
this was posted about a year ago, but anyway. my poem is also strongly based on the sil. how about starting off with a creation story, creation of earth, men, and any other creatures you have. you can then go from there.

I am now very glad that I did not type up my story without a written copy - someone has selectively gone through my computer deleting all my coursework and my story. If I had not written all my story down 2 years of work would have gone
what kind of monster would do such a thing? i shudder just thinking of it! eugh! well, theres a lesson in this: keep a floppy. il be borrowing one from my sister.

When you are writing, you usually have so many ideas you want to write several different stories. But you can't be focusing on more than one, so what do you do with all your ideas? Keep them for later, or is there fear that you will forget your ideas or stroke of creativity?
write them in a notebook for later use.

I have a question for you guys about characters. What are your characters based on, physically and emotionally? Why are their pasts the way they are?
their names come from jumbling up my friends names. they are based on people from the sil. or from my mind.

Forbidden Romance should only go if it's a cliche, Lila -- if you can put a new spin on it by all means write it
question: how can forbidden romance not be the cliche version? ah... idea. thank you!

we as authors have to be willing to detach ourselves and actually let -- or make -- the characters suffer a bit
gladly smilies/evil.gif i have sooo much evilness planned, its just unbelievable. youd think i was bent on destruction and death of good things, and on evil... first, i have a kingdom destroyed, all but about 600 people, perhaps less... then another kingdom, this time only about 200 people escape... then a few civil wars in the surviving good kingdoms, and one is broken up and its people turn into refugees as evil assails them... im sooo evil! smilies/evil.gif smilies/evil.gif smilies/evil.gif
anyway, killing/harming characters is not a problem with me. then again, i dont really get to know the people i kill. perhaps if it was somebody i knew, i might care more. probably not! smilies/evil.gif
be back for page 17... this is slw going, eh? soon i will catch up...!

[littlemanpoet]

Yes, I started writing because of J.R.R. Tolkien, but also because of C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams. All three were members of The Inklings, a group of friends and writers who got together once or twice a week to drink beer and read their stories to each other. They spent their time either in Lewis' rooms at Oxford, or at a back room at "The Eagle and Child", nick named "The Bird and Baby". All three have a powerful influence on my story. From Tolkien I tkae the need to evoke Wonder, and of "feigned history"; from Williams I take the rituals of light and dark and the idea of the supernatural thriller; from Lewis, not so much anymore as it used to be. My used-to-be favorite work of his, which is the least favorite of many, is "That Hideous Strength", which is the work most heavily influenced by Williams. My current favorite of Lewis is Till We Have Faces. It IS is best.

I don't have Elves because I have the gods and goddesses (and their children) of the mythologies of the world (well, SOME of the mythologies of the world, namely the ones that most interest me AND are most useful to my story).

I do have a post-creation story, very heavily King James style, that never got finished, but lays out the whole basis for my mythos.

Uh oh! Nar is not going to be happy with you, guy who be short. smilies/wink.gif One of her primary standards for judging a story is, "how does the writer treat his minor characters?" Are they there just to prop up a bit of plot, or does the writer show that he cares enough to give them at least a character trait, even if he doesn't use it? Something worth thinking about....

[Mattius]

I clicked on the link in your sig. How long should it take to be approved poet?

[mark12_30]

Matt, you coming? woohooo! smilies/biggrin.gif

[GaladrieloftheOlden]

Are any of you writing serious fantasy? If so, how have you dealt with the temptation to be imitative of Tolkien? How long have you been working on your story, and why? What pitfalls have you faced and how have you overcome them - or not? I've been writing stuff, but it's really bad, and I'm not fishing for comliments there smilies/mad.gif - it really is. I've tried to write stories that are not fan-fictional, but have failed, though this is my first go at Tolkien. First 3, actually, as I am spontaneously *trying* to write three stories. I've only been working on my stories for about 3 months, and I don't know why that long smilies/rolleyes.gif Well, on all of my past fanfics, I've ended up losing interest, (so far I've tried to do them for the His Dark Materials trilogy, Alice in Wonderland, and something else that I can't quite remember), but I've been pulling along so far, so I might be able to write- and finish- at least a short story. Wishful thinking, perhaps, but I'm trying.

~Menelien

Edit: I used to have another story, and it was coming along quickly, but then it started turning a tad Mary-Sue, so I dropped it.

[ May 04, 2003: Message edited by: GaladrieloftheOlden ]

[the guy who be short]

Nar is not going to be happy with you, guy who be short. One of her primary standards for judging a story is, "how does the writer treat his minor characters?" Are they there just to prop up a bit of plot, or does the writer show that he cares enough to give them at least a character trait, even if he doesn't use it? Something worth thinking about....
i can defend myself... theyre not really minor characters. in fact, theyre not characters at all. they just die... theyre just a statistic. well, i might give a lord here or a duke there a name, but thats it!

You can never be too sure where your' ideas come from
you will laugh so hard when you read this, but hey. may as well humiliate myself. here goes: there was nothing on TV while i was eating breakfast, and i had to watch something, so i watched - pokemon!
yes, i know, but hey, there was nothing else on. and i used to be a fan back when it was actually new and unrepetitive. anyway, the point is, if i hadnt watched that stupid cartoon that cant get characters lips in sync with sound, i wouldnt have got this amazing idea (copied from there of course). so now i actually have a reason for two of my kingdoms to fall out.

Besides that, I want my story to stand out. So I am creating a story in which good will fail and evil prevail
have you noticed how in nearly all books, good wins? or the hero of the book? or even if the ending is sad (as in noughts and crosses) there is always a ray of light at the end (like the baby in noughts and crosses). ever since i was very little ive wanted to write a story where evil wins. now i am!

I need to make the consequences of evil winning this whole whatever and make it believable today
in mine, evil doesnt downright win. this would be a problem, because if they had wed all have been enslaved and we're not. so i have evil defeated, yet poisoning human minds to evil. smilies/evil.gif

Well how about a ten page *graphic* love scene( graphic as in porn graphic
i think one of my friends is reading this. is it a series? in my opinion, and i dont mean to insult or annoy anybody, those books should really have a "warning" sign on the cover.

are you sure you want to go the route of evil winning? That goes against the very nature of fantasy
this wasnt aimed at me, but il answer it anyway! smilies/rolleyes.gif
yes, if you want a short answer. oh, you want a longer one? here goes: my poem is a story of the struggle between good and evil, how there are betrayals on both sides, great kingdoms fall, friendships are made and destroyed between kingdoms and species. yet in the end, against the odds, and mainly because of a betrayal, the good side prevails. yet evil cannot simply be deleted or destroyed, nor can its memory be wiped forever. this is something jrrt taaught me, with his rebellion of the noldor and downfall of numenor. so, evil is defeated, but its shadow remains; and though THe Dark Lord is gone, his effect lasts forever on men.
speaking of which: why are they always dark lords? why not an evil female as the central figure?

how is an orc supposed to reform? Orc to Elf archer: 'But I'm a GOOD orc!' Elf archer: '*twang!* You are now!'
in my poem i actually will have good "evil creatures". they realise if their lord wins, they stil wont be any better than slaves, so they convert onto the good side. there is alot of mistrust between the good Men and the "evil men anyway until a battle where the "evil" lord dies for the "good one".
basically, they can convert, but take alot of believing. ah... treachery. smilies/evil.gif long has it been my greatest aid.

What TYPES of reasons to go wrong or stay wrong would you buy in a bad guy?
havent read if this has already been said, but jealousy. your jealous, you have lots of power, go on an evil spree! smilies/evil.gif

but could it possibly be that they just liked causing trouble, pain, humiliation and all that?
they were elves once. it isnt their fault they were forced into evil. remember, nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so. Or Morgoth, at the utmost beginning, or Naivag in my poem. email me for it at jay_pancholi@hotmail.com, subject: your poem

page 18.... soon

[ May 05, 2003: Message edited by: the guy who be short ]

[ May 05, 2003: Message edited by: the guy who be short ]

[ElentariGreenleaf]

Hmm... I think I have a thing with killing of characters..... I killed off Atulan, then in the next chapter Truse, the third main character! Oh my...... And now I've got to think up a way to bring her back.... Oooo... Angel also just found out she's not human.... hehehe....

[the guy who be short]

describing the evil things he has done, rather than just mention he is an Evil Dark Lord of Doom
my poem starts off right from the beginning, with the creation story, how the DArk Lord of Doom became The Dark Lord of Doom, and all the first evil things he did.
happy? smilies/biggrin.gif

on the black and white theory - i think fantasy is about inventing whatever you want. you could have an evil dark lord, or an evil mule. a knight in shining armour, or a friendly dog.
also, you could have a monarchy or whatever you want. i have never really thought about this before, but all my kingdoms are monarchies! strange.

Tolkien chose to take up a more epic style. I chose to do something with a more historical feel, something that could have happened, but never did
LotR might have happened. perhaps there were once elves on earth, but they left, and perhaps all the west has sunk. he wrote is as a history of earth.

Fantasy has many definitions
according to my dictionary fantasy is: 1)an imaginary scene, story, etc. 2) an idea not based on reality. so fantasy is anything that involves non existant things, eg. elves, or imaginary ideas.
i think fantasy - true fantasy - doesnt even need the battle between good and evil. it could just be a sentence, like this: Gogum is a giant moving postbox, with horns and antennae; he eats Gooks.
see? complete fantasy, yet no hint of good v. evil.

i shall return for page 19... noone can stop me! mwahahahaha! smilies/evil.gif

[littlemanpoet]

Hey guy who be short, ever hear of Samuel Taylor Coleridge? He lived about 200 years ago and came up with the idea of "suspension of disbelief". He also distinguished between "fantasy" and "fancy". Your little "gook" thing, according to him, was 'fancy'. Fantasy, as Tolkien's subcreation, is more than that. Subcreation is making after the image in which we're made. That's more than Gooks, dontja think? smilies/wink.gif

[the guy who be short]

Subcreation is making after the image in which we're made
i am only here for a few seconds, but if i say this: "gooks resemble humans", does this turn into fantasy?

[Ainaserkewen]

I tell you, I was never much of a fantasy person before I saw LOTR. After I had seen it, I got inspired to write my own story. When that failed, I read the books. Inspired once again, I emerged in a wonderful tail of protectors of a foreign land who had to be reencarnated when they died, into humans who couldn't remember they were special. In human form they were safe from harming the earth. My protectors where called Dolans, wise and old as the stars. They originaly looked quite different then they did in present times, the new reencanated ones liked human forms best so they kept them. Unfortunately that meant that they would lose their memory and only the strong could remember their former life. Like all good fantasy, one Dolan went bad and reincarnated into a beast, as all his followers, to kill the leaders of the Dolans, who had killed him when he was gaining too much power over the people. Anyway, the whole story is of how the leaders come back after they were killed and can't remember who they all are, they must defend against the beasts and wait for the riencarnation of the evil one.
Tolkien inspired my story, but it is not written or based on his stories. Although I write alot of fanfiction. Tamed fear, as my story is called, will not be finished for a long time though. It's already into it's fourth book.

[littlemanpoet]

Does it turn from fancy into fantasy? No, not just because Gooks resemble humans. Interesting notion, though. smilies/smile.gif Another distinguishing characteristic separating fantasy from fancy is that fantasy is a story with plot, characters, setting, conflict, beginning, trials, climax, conclusion. A Fancy is perhaps the notion that sets the writer to THINKING about the fantasy story to be written.

Actually, a giant moving carnivorous postbox makes me think of science fiction or horror instead of fantasy.
******************
The Dolen? I've thought of something along those lines, but never really did anything with it, not because I thought it was stupid or something! I really like the idea you're setting up. You're on your 4th book?! Yeesh!

[the guy who be short]

a giant moving carnivorous postbox makes me think of science fiction or horror
i never said they were carnivorous. gooks may be vegetables, for al we know!

Fantasy is escapism of cource. But why do we desire to escape this world?
boredom for me. by writing i can seek adventure. ever since i was very little, i wanted to have a proper adventure, like the people you read about in fantasy novels. but the only way (for me at least) to live this dream is to write.

to make a fortress out of mountain range one needs a shovel and a bit of time
a shovel? A SHOVEL? you'll have a fortress in... ooh... about a year.

Yes, high stakes, that's the key... there is hope, and there is loss, and not always of life, think of the Scouring of the Shire.
my captured "good side" are forced to cross breed with bats and wolves, and to work as slaves. terrible...

pages 19 down, nothng can stop me... mwahahahaha smilies/evil.gif

[ May 08, 2003: Message edited by: the guy who be short ]

[the guy who be short]

Trilogies are better, anyway, or in my opinion anyway
for some reason all my favourite books are in trilogies (lotr, his dark materials, the wind on fire) or sets of 7 (narnia, harry potter)

I am happy to see that someone else other myself and my friend willing to take a different view.
hello? bald dwarves?

ok, ive just got to the point where i joined this thread. it seems it closed itself on october 2002, then, for some random reason of his own, LMP added a post in april 2003 hich stated the following:
up

please kindly explain

[Airerûthiel]

LMP, I don’t know when it’s done is the short answer. I’m always changing words and sentence structures to make it flow better. The only problem with the ‘scene-link’ cure is that usually the links I make up are really bad, so I probably spend more time working on improving those than on the writing I should be doing.

Fictionpress is pretty good. Basically the idea is you post up your chapters and other people read and review them. However reviews are few and far between, and good ones even more so. Most people are lucky to get one review per chapter. I’ve only ever had one actual good critique out of the reviews that weren’t from people I knew personally – most of the reviews are like ‘Oh this is really good, please write more soon!’ There is a sort of camaraderie, but generally it’s one of those ‘I read your work, now you read mine’ type things more than anything else.

By the way, what did you mean by ‘think about telling the reader no more than she needs to know’? I’m curious. PM me or leave me a message at FWW and we’ll talk some more about this.

[Faenaduial]

Great topic. It is interesting to read the posts and see what others are writing. I'm working on a novel inspired by Tolkien, however, taking place afer the conclusion of LoTR. The plot came to me in several dreams.

The hardest thing has been trying to make some of Tolkien's main characters stay out of the story as I want the story itself to be original and not just a FanFic. (I love FanFic's but would like this to be something more). The main characters and story are original.

Writing this story is taking twice as long as I would like as I have also been drawing some pictures to include in the book. smilies/smile.gif

[littlemanpoet]

"Up" is a short hand technique some of the Downsers use to bring a great topic that has languished, back to the top of the list. Ya see, we know that the membership has changed drastically in a year's time. Sure enough, about a half dozen writers new to me have checked this out.

[Airerûthiel]

Perhaps this is a daft question, but if I was writing a piece of fiction about characters I'd made up but it was set in Middle-earth, is it fan fiction or original work? I'm just curious to know. Any help is much appreciated.

[mark12_30]

GaladrieloftheOlden: you wrote that you had started a story but it turned out to be a mary-sue so you dropped it. Sometimes, the thing to do is to FINISH it, and get it out of your system! In other words, make your mistakes and learn from them. I wrote a Mary-Sue (and then destroyed it) twenty-plus years ago. I don't regret it. I think it was a good start to writing.

[Faenaduial]

Perhaps this is a daft question, but if I was writing a piece of fiction about characters I'd made up but it was set in Middle-earth, is it fan fiction or original work?

It seems to me that it can be an original work. For example "Scarlett" was a sequel to "Gone with the Wind" written by different writers using some of the same characters and settings.

What makes books of that nature original is a totally new and different story line with original ideas.

That is exactly what I have been working on. I'm up to nine "finished" chapters and have an outline and notes for the whole story.

I find the biggest challenge is reworking the chapters I consider done after I have written new material to include or change things to make the story flow smoother.

[Lila Bramble]

Ever notice how just about every fantasy includes a hero on some form of mystic quest? I know its not getting old, but is there any other way to make a half decent fantasy without this? All I can picture is a pretty bland and boring story..

[GaladrieloftheOlden]

There was a sequel to Gone With the Wind? Dude... smilies/wink.gif I'll read it when I'm done with the first one. Anyhow, back to the topic: Besides that, I want my story to stand out. So I am creating a story in which good will fail and evil prevail I think I'll do that too, now that you say it... but I don't think it's going to be an ME story. I'll wait till I have a weird dream, and I have those every 2 or 3 nights, and use somethin from there, I guess. Or maybe I should try watching tv. I never do normally, but for a story plot... hmmm...

~Menelien

[GaladrieloftheOlden]

Could someone tell me where they got their ideas for stories (other than pokemon smilies/wink.gif)? Because I can't think of a good one, and I couldn't use a dream as I just pulled an all-nighter so, accordingly, did not have any dreams. smilies/tongue.gif And, also wondering- do any of you use RPGs for inspiration for stories?

~Menelien

[the guy who be short]

for inspiration READ... then twist the ideas into something different but still simliar to put in your work. eg, using the silmarillion as a base, copying creation by singing, but having a weakling god. (you better not copy that cos if you do... smilies/mad.gif )

[littlemanpoet]

I use all kinds of source material as the basis for my story. The most prominent are the milieu to be found in Lewis, Tolkien, and Williams - but in my own way because I had ideas that they never did, having to do with Genesis 6, planetary influences, and ancient history. In other words, use whatever is in your background/mind to use. Never fear, it'll find its way into your story if it's a part of you already.

[Nimiriel]

smilies/rolleyes.gif Hmm.. Inspiration. Well, I get mine from almost anything. One of my novels is based on three characters I made with my friends for a tv series, and some scenes from "The Fast and the Furious"... another is based on this weird idea I had to make some characters life a hard time. One was inspired by something I suddenly "saw" while watching the texts to "Robin Hood". The list is endless. Something a person say to me, or a situation I watch on my way to school, everything can inspire me.

But it's my muse who helps me sort all the impressions out, and make them into something I can use for a story.

[the guy who be short]

dreams are no source of inspiration to me. let me tell you about my last one.

i go back in time using a time travelling TRACTOR, find a dinosaur and put it in one of those black bin bags. i put a FULLY GROWN ADULT T-REX in a BINBAG! then i come back to the future. that is no help at all.

[Mattius]

What are you talking about, that sounds like a Nobel Prize winner right there smilies/wink.gif

I seem to find inspiration from a varity of sources. Books are an obvious one and our own history is another. I am writing of a future/alternative medevil England during a Civil War between Revolutionaries and the King's Guards. The idea came to me after studying Russian history.

Other sources where I gain inspiration come from movies and music. I lie in bed with some emotional music on and picure what should happen to that music and it flows from there.

Matt

[ May 11, 2003: Message edited by: Mattius ]

[GaladrieloftheOlden]

Wow, different sources there. I think I'll try all. for inspiration READ... Well, I spend every moment of my life (except the time I spend on the Downs, which is considerable,) reading. I often find an idea for a story in a book, but when I write up the idea, it always turns out to be utter rubbish. I'd never thought of using history. That would probably make for an interesting story. Today I saw a ballet version of Romeo and Juliet, and I got an idea, but I forgot it by the time I got home, because I had been talking to my old math teacher's daughte on the train, and everything that had been in my head evaportated smilies/mad.gif dreams are no source of inspiration to me. let me tell you about my last one.
i go back in time using a time travelling TRACTOR, find a dinosaur and put it in one of those black bin bags. i put a FULLY GROWN ADULT T-REX in a BINBAG! then i come back to the future. that is no help at all.
Lol, almost all of my dreams are like that. But, a. I dream a lot, so sometimes I might have one almost normal dream in, say, 2 weeks, b. sometimes I get an idea from a dream and use it in some way, just chainging it. (Something sort of scared me- in the last month and a half, I've had my first 2 nightmares in years :eek smilies/smile.gif, and c. you could use that for some really wacked out little kids’ story smilies/biggrin.gif

~Menelien

[Mattius]

Click on the link in my sig! I have 2 reviews and they are both pretty good!

[Airerûthiel]

I don't know if anyone's asked this before, but do any of you guys out there have any recurring themes, plot threads, or character types in your books? I have five ideas planned as well as the book I'm writing, and of these five, three of them have a pair of twins as the main characters (and two of the sets of twins are non-identical, male and female).

Also, am I the only person who thinks that it's a real struggle to try and answer the questions in this thread, as in collectively (so to speak)? I've been debating compiling them all and putting them in a new thread, but I'm not sure how much time restricts me because of my book, schoolwork etc. Any opinions?

[littlemanpoet]

Please don't feel compelled to answer all the questions. You might want to check out the link in my sig. It just so happens that my protagonists are step-brothers, having no parentage in common except by adoption. The father's first wife died and married again, and thus the step-brothers. They think they are as unlike each other as two could get, but they have a lot more in common than they know. I have ideas for other stories, but I guess I'd have to say they're quite different from each other.

[Lyra Greenleaf]

Can someone please tell me the difference (if there is one) between fantasy and "fairy tales"? (The kind that don't necessarily involve fairies?)

[Nimiriel]

Airerûthiel: It would be a great idea to have all the questions in one place! If anyone has time to look them all up and put them in a new post or a whole new thread. It would make it a lot easier for people to start answering, and I would enjoy answering them all myself, just don't have the time to read through all the messenges.

[mark12_30]

Lyra, I'm not sure Tolkien would have thought that there is a difference. Other than a few random comments, I'm not really qualified to answer, but--

Have you read lmp's thread, It feels different near the Shire (http://forum.barrowdowns.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=002236)?

I wonder whether I would classify LOTR as an "epic fairy tale romance". Tolkien called it a "romance" in his letters (as in Epic romance?) while I think he thought of The Hobbit as a fairy tale. I should look it up. Do you have a copy of Tolkien's letters? And have you read "On Fairy Stories"?

[Morquesse]

Lyra, what you need to read is Tolkien's 'Essay on Fairy-Stories' that usually comes with the short-story 'Leaf by Niggle'. The essay discusses that very topic (along with others).

Hey LMP, are we allowed to continue to post on this very thread, this 22 page thread, or do we need to start 'AYWSF Part 2'? smilies/smile.gif

See you later!
~M

[Everdawn]

Well, im writing an alternate history of australia, its pretty complex, so i wont bother to explain it right now.. but still. I have imagination! hurrah for me!

[-Hallanárë-]

I'm writing a story called The Epic of Ma'ra'u. I've been working on it since last fall. It is divided up into four main parts. Plus a prequel i m writing and another my friend is writing. I have drawn up maps, made up an elven language of my own, drawn up a deep history for the world and much more. Plus i m also writing a follow up about the original main character's son who knows nothing about his father. my main story, so far, is full of lore, history, love, war and a the ultimate goal to unthrone the malvolent beast that has assume power in the east. if u wanna no more email me.

[Finwe]

Good for you Meela! Alternate histories are always the best! I'm currently working on a historical fic of Alexander the Great, but due to lack of research resources, it isn't in very good shape.

[Diamond18]

It would be a great idea to have all the questions in one place! If anyone has time to look them all up and put them in a new post or a whole new thread. It would make it a lot easier for people to start answering, and I would enjoy answering them all myself, just don't have the time to read through all the messenges.

Funny you should mention that. I've scanned the whole thing and extricated the questions (why? Oh... for my own diabolical purposes at FaerieWordweavers, join if you want to know smilies/tongue.gif). Imagine my surprise and delight when I got to the later pages and saw that Jay had quoted all the questions, so I could have just copied them from his posts. smilies/rolleyes.gif

At any rate, I have them on my word processor, but I'm going to be rearranging and rewording them. So! If this thread gets closed but someone still wants to continue it, get in touch with me and I'll give you the list (once I've finished it).

[the guy who be short]

Diamond, I think it would actually bebetter to go through the entire thread and create a list of everybodys answers rather than just mine. In fact, I think I may just do that.
By the way, check your PMs!
I think it really is time to start an AYWSF II.
This thread's been great, but I guess it has to be closed to save bandwidth. But, now that it comes to it, I dont feel like parting with it. After all, why should I? It's mine, my own, my preciousss.

Question: Does anybody else here enjoy writing cos they love destroying entire kingdoms, or is that just me? I mean, it is fun. smilies/evil.gif

[Nimiriel]

Jay: I think she ment copying the questions from your posts, not the answers... but anyway a list of all the answers would be interesting too.

If we start a AYWSF II we could start it with the list of questions from this thread. But of course most of you HAVE answered those... I don't know.

No matter what I'd like to have that list myself once it's finished.

[The_Hand]

In answer to the question: Are you writing serious fantasy:
Well I've been trying. I wrtie lots of stories that are detective, fantasy etc but I never seem to finish them! I just stop and forget about them. Not because I can't come up with an ending oh no far from it my friend... I don't know what it is. I've been writing this fantasy in a fantasy world about this girl but one day I just stopped writing and never went back. I started another story, not fantasy, soon I'll stop writing that as well. Does anyone have anything that would help me? I've never finished a story! I have about ten of them! All really good from my point of view. Many inspired by Tolkien and other writers.

[Diamond18]

Yes, I meant just the questions. Copying the answers would be... let's just say I don't want to be the one to do that. At any rate, I have the question list done. It's four pages long in my WP, and I my have de-Tolkienized it a little because I was doing it for FWW. So that might be a problem.

[Olorin]

I'm not writing serious fantasy, but a friend of mine is. She's been working on it for about a year in her spare time. She has a few chapters so far and it's REALLY GOOD. Not to be blasphemous, but I would say it's up there with Lord of the Rings.

[Finwe]

I finally finished half of my initial manuscript for my first book, but it still needs severe editing and revising. In the beginning, all my stories are great, then they hit a slump, then I somehow get a second wind and then they get better again.