04-07-2003, 05:57 PM | #221 | |
Elven Warrior
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: On top of a white horse named Shadowfax.
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Quote:
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"Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle, and quick to anger." ~Gildor "Begun, the Clone War has..." ~Yoda "I can't see, as I'm facing your pitiful lies, don't have the strength, to carry your heavy load of lies." ~H.I.M. |
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04-07-2003, 06:03 PM | #222 |
Elven Warrior
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: On top of a white horse named Shadowfax.
Posts: 114
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I have written a short stories for school just last year, which is about four and a half pages typed. I am now writing a short story on my own which is inspired by, and contains some races from, lord of the rings, but contains no actual caracters. Havent gotten a chance to read all of the other's stories, but I will tonight!
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"Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle, and quick to anger." ~Gildor "Begun, the Clone War has..." ~Yoda "I can't see, as I'm facing your pitiful lies, don't have the strength, to carry your heavy load of lies." ~H.I.M. |
04-07-2003, 07:29 PM | #223 |
Elven Warrior
Join Date: Apr 2003
Posts: 215
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I like to write fantasy stories, but I haven't in a while. I have many ideas and have brainstormed countless times. I just never get around to the actual writing. I've also thought of many names for characters, one of which is the name I chose for this forum, Agalayth. (He's a High Elf who goes bad basically.)
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Chickens at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Chickens in motion tend to cross the road. |
04-10-2003, 10:55 AM | #224 | |
Empress of the Writewraiths
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Running around somewhere inside my head. So what are YOU doing here?!
Posts: 1,546
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Quote:
1) Does this world have magic? 2) WHO, exactly, has magic? 3) How long has the magic been there? because, of course, it will be important to the history to decide these things. And once I start working on the magical system, I have to answer other questions. 1) What can the magical characters absolutely NOT do? 2) What can the magical characters USUALLY not do? 3) What can most of the magical characters not do? 4) What can only be done under certain circumstances? By certain races? 5) What can usually, but not always, be done? 6) What can the magical characters almost ALWAYS do? and then, of course, after I've established what's possible and what isn't... there is, of course, "what is necessary to be magical or use/perform magic." So far, in all my worlds that have had magic, it's been innate. But the REQUIREMENTS for magic, as well as what can/cannot be done, are very different in each world, just as the histories are very different. |
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04-11-2003, 01:30 AM | #225 |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Fountain Valley, CA
Posts: 6,343
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Yes, those are good questions. When I do mine in that kind of depth, I'll probably simply ask myself what the characters certainly can do. My kind of magic is technical on the surface level, but it does go a lot deeper than that. On a level that isn't very often glimpsed in my book, there is a spirit realm that is very active. That is also related to the magic.
Silverstripe, have you made many magical worlds or histories? It sounds like you've got your system down . |
04-11-2003, 01:37 AM | #226 |
Empress of the Writewraiths
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Running around somewhere inside my head. So what are YOU doing here?!
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My problem is that I do create the history and magical systems for a lot of worlds, but then I have trouble writing the actual story (the "history textbook" effect). Or I do start writing the story, but don't usually finish it. Right now I'm trying to work on just one project, though I'm basically having to do two. I've actually finished a few stories, though.
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04-11-2003, 03:43 AM | #227 |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Fountain Valley, CA
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Perhaps then you just need a style switch . Rather than doing first, second or third person, why don't you godmode ? Be the narrator, and narrate events in people's lives. The first book of the Earthsea trilogy is my favorite because of the narrative style; great things can be done that way. The Silmarillion is the same, and that's another book I really love . Main characters are definitely possible to establish in that kind of a writing, and that sounds like it's the way you're aimed.
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04-18-2003, 12:40 AM | #228 |
Deus Ex Machina
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Seattle
Posts: 1,951
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Do any of you have tips for writing believable battle scenes? I'm working on a novel lenght fiction piece and one of the key points is a battle. I have the set up and the events for the scene planned out but I'm a bit stuck on how to write it because the key events happen from several different points of view and because I'm not sure how to write a battle without the scene becoming cliched or over dramatic.
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"5. Plain Rings with RUNES on the inside. Avoid these like the PLAGUE.-Diana Wynne Jones Tough Guide To FantasyLand ...it's not much of a show if somebody doesn't suffer, and preferably at length. Suffering is beautiful in any case, and so is anguish; but as for loathing, and bitterness... I don't think they belong on the stage at all. - Isabella, I Gelosi |
04-18-2003, 01:48 AM | #229 |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Fountain Valley, CA
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About how many points of view, and are you going to be having to write from each of those characters' perspectives?
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04-18-2003, 01:56 AM | #230 | |
Elven Warrior
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 463
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Quote:
I did it all from the point of view of the hero, sort of looking over his shoulder, because I didn't want to skip around. He had to see some things out of the corner of his eye -- some things were just indicated, since he couldn't be everywhere. CS Lewis says if you just describe what you want to tell, and don't worry about being original, you will be original 9 times out of 10. |
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04-18-2003, 11:13 AM | #231 |
Elf Lord
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Location: Fountain Valley, CA
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I always do my battles from the perspective of one of the army leaders. The top general of one of the sides is the most common perspective for me, because that way I have active control of the battle. I can direct it and keep the audience aware of the different troop movements, and of what caused what. I tend to look at the battles from more of a strategic perspective, though I do also write some of the the grunt fighting. Sometimes the top general or his party gets involved in the fighting, and that's usually where the first hand fighting takes place.
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04-18-2003, 06:19 PM | #232 |
Deus Ex Machina
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Seattle
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There are at least four points of view, there are several things happening that the reader needs to be aware of. The actual setting of the battle stretches out for about three miles and it's an ambush in the middle of a forest so it'll be impossible for one character to see everything that happens and the points of views belong mostly to characters who will be getting killed off in a following battle scene. Bit of a nasty set up to write but it's the one that works best for the plot.
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"5. Plain Rings with RUNES on the inside. Avoid these like the PLAGUE.-Diana Wynne Jones Tough Guide To FantasyLand ...it's not much of a show if somebody doesn't suffer, and preferably at length. Suffering is beautiful in any case, and so is anguish; but as for loathing, and bitterness... I don't think they belong on the stage at all. - Isabella, I Gelosi |
04-18-2003, 07:04 PM | #233 |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Fountain Valley, CA
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And you aren't telling the story from a narrative point of view, correct? Well, that is tough. You could have messengers or people from other parts of the battle tell what's going on to them, or the main characters (Who are still alive) could just find out what happened in the battle afterwards. That would add the feeling of confusion into the battle, with the normal troops not being sure what's going on.
I have two forest battle scenes in my book, one of them an ambush and the other not. In both of them, I wrote from the perspective of the commanders. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote from an overall perspective. Sort of a bird's eye view of the battlefield, telling what was going on, and then zeroing in on specific scenes. He wrote the battle from overall narrative and then switched on and off from certain people's perspectives. In my battles, I tend to go only from the perspectives of different characters; I never do narrative like that in my book. That's why I have to go from the generals' perspectives, because they are always well informed on what's happening in the battle. If you're only going from the perspectives of different characters, then it's important for them to become informed of what's going on. I think narrative writing is the only other alternative. If you only have fighters in the battle, no narrating and no informed people, then I have no advice to give you. In the ambush in the forest that happened in my book, that was only part of the battle. I really enjoy going from my general's perspective, and then having messengers constantly relaying orders from him and messages to him from the battlefield. So even though he can hardly see anything that's going on, he's always aware. I had to think on the practical side as I was considering that. How could a general in fantasy time period know where all of his units are and what's happening with them? |
04-20-2003, 01:30 AM | #234 |
Deus Ex Machina
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Seattle
Posts: 1,951
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It's definitely not just fighters, half the people involved are civilians as they were in the process of moving to a more defensible city. The ideas with the messangers or having the surviving characters find out about what happened afterwards are good ones. Thanks for the advice, it's helped a lot.
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"5. Plain Rings with RUNES on the inside. Avoid these like the PLAGUE.-Diana Wynne Jones Tough Guide To FantasyLand ...it's not much of a show if somebody doesn't suffer, and preferably at length. Suffering is beautiful in any case, and so is anguish; but as for loathing, and bitterness... I don't think they belong on the stage at all. - Isabella, I Gelosi |
04-20-2003, 01:39 AM | #235 |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Fountain Valley, CA
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Good . Glad to be of service.
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04-20-2003, 03:17 PM | #236 |
Enting
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Battles are awfully hard to write!
I know it's amateurish, but... I usually get ideas for battle strategies from playing Age of Empires II.
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"...So the essential Quest started at once. But I met a lot of things on the way that astonished me. Tom Bombadil I knew already; but I had never been to Bree. Strider sitting in the corner at the inn was a shock, and I had no more idea who he was than had Frodo. The Mines of Moria had been a mere name; and of Lothlórien no word had reached my mortal ears till I came there. Far away I knew there were the Horse-lords on the confines of an ancient Kingdom of Men, but Fangorn Forest was an unforeseen adventure." ~ J. R. R. Tolkien |
04-20-2003, 03:28 PM | #237 |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Fountain Valley, CA
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I've played enough games with my brothers and sisters in which I have to invent strategies that I don't often have too much trouble with them.
One of the people who's reading Part 1 of my unpublished novel, The Uirlon Cord, has offered me the constructive criticism that I tend to get too technical with the battle scenes. Of course, the part of it that he's reading at the moment was stuff that I wrote about two years ago, so I don't know if that difficulty is still a problem with me or not. |
04-20-2003, 03:54 PM | #238 | |
Dread Mothy Lord and Halfwitted Apprentice Loremaster
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Location: Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, CA
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I've only done one battle scene, and I just threw it together. That is, if "battle scene" includes small-scale fights, like around 10-12 people...Fortunately (I mean UNfortunately) it's no longer with us.
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Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis. Nulla talem silva profert, fronde, flore, germine. Dulce lignum, dulce clavo, dulce pondus sustinens. 'With a melon?' - Eric Idle |
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04-20-2003, 05:18 PM | #239 |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Fountain Valley, CA
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I tend to count those more as skirmishes, or fights. They are definitely fight scenes, but I think of a battle as a bigger affair than that.
Is that computer game a PC game, or Windows? |
04-20-2003, 05:36 PM | #240 |
Dread Mothy Lord and Halfwitted Apprentice Loremaster
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In my first book/series, I plan for there to be one or two of those. But not much otherwise that I can think of...I haven't done any of those yet.
On second thought, I did once, a VERY long time ago, in the VERY early version of The Return (aka Lawbringers, Return of the Scrolls, third book in the Scrolls of Law Trilogy). Gosh, that sucked... But I don't remember how I did it. Um...I'm not sure, but I think Windows runs on PC's... Anywho, I play(ed) it on a PC with the Windows operating system.
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Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis. Nulla talem silva profert, fronde, flore, germine. Dulce lignum, dulce clavo, dulce pondus sustinens. 'With a melon?' - Eric Idle Last edited by Gwaimir Windgem : 04-20-2003 at 05:38 PM. |
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