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Saxony Tarn · 05-21-2002, 03:51 PM

Ah, Thinhyan' don't get me started on research!

(BTW, found your fanfics, may take me awhile to hack my way through them)

It's always been important for me to be able to feel that i know what i'm talking about (be it at work or when writing) thus i've got boxes of old college class notes, magazine series, old books and other such reference material for just such occasions when i need a little solid-foundation material to lay brickwork for fantasy. The key to good fantasy, after all, is making it so reality-based that your reader can believe that it could be real.

Give you an example, i wrote a story in college about a petroleum geologist trying to sell a marginally profitable oil well to an investor (in a "fantasy" world with modern technology, it should be said) and i had my class texts from a geology class open on my lap, so Matthias knew what he was talking about. No slick marketing hype, just hard facts, which is what this investor wanted to know. And with that (and other reasons that didn't immediately concern him, but the other party's long term investment plans) he sold the well. But if i hadn't had the data to back it up, it wouldn't have come off at all believable.

This is where these threads are worth more than gold -- i'm getting the benefit of others' research and saving myself a lot of brain effort.

s.t.
|_|) <-- have another pint!

No takers on my gender-role-smasher question, huh... okay, guess i'll pick that gauntlet back up, tuck it in my belt, and save it for later (like, when Eowyn makes her debut)

05-21-2002, 03:51 PM	#194
Saxony Tarn Wight Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: a western shore Posts: 132	Ah, Thinhyan' don't get me started on research! (BTW, found your fanfics, may take me awhile to hack my way through them) It's always been important for me to be able to feel that i know what i'm talking about (be it at work or when writing) thus i've got boxes of old college class notes, magazine series, old books and other such reference material for just such occasions when i need a little solid-foundation material to lay brickwork for fantasy. The key to good fantasy, after all, is making it so reality-based that your reader can believe that it could be real. Give you an example, i wrote a story in college about a petroleum geologist trying to sell a marginally profitable oil well to an investor (in a "fantasy" world with modern technology, it should be said) and i had my class texts from a geology class open on my lap, so Matthias knew what he was talking about. No slick marketing hype, just hard facts, which is what this investor wanted to know. And with that (and other reasons that didn't immediately concern him, but the other party's long term investment plans) he sold the well. But if i hadn't had the data to back it up, it wouldn't have come off at all believable. This is where these threads are worth more than gold -- i'm getting the benefit of others' research and saving myself a lot of brain effort. s.t. \|_\|) <-- have another pint! No takers on my gender-role-smasher question, huh... okay, guess i'll pick that gauntlet back up, tuck it in my belt, and save it for later (like, when Eowyn makes her debut) __________________ <-- who, me? Take the Ring? Betray the Fellowship?? Nah -- couldn't be ME, i'm too cute...