Anyone do any fantasy writing?

[TheWhiteRider]

Originally posted by Laurus Nobilis
A bit of both.

He belongs to a race I made up that has very close contact with nature. He understands the "languages" of all animals and plants, so he sees there's life in everything- and that's why he decides not to kill anything.

that reminds me of the Shadow War trilogy. The main character is very close to nature, and the difference between her and her nemisis is that she asked the forces of nature to help her, instead of commanding them.

[TheWhiteRider]

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!

[Agalayth]

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.)

[Silverstripe]

Originally posted by Lief Erikson
Yep . Just a matter, then, of how much effort you're willing to expend upon that. I personally have found it well worth the effort, because I enjoy making up my magical system .

Yesterday while my younger brothers and sister were watching Star Wars, I lay on my bed in the back bedroom and made a battle strategy. It couldn't be just any old battle strategy though, because I had to eliminate the support sources for my queen. I had to accomplish several various things, and I may have to add a few scenes into the book. Not that I mind though, because they'd be exciting scenes, not boring-but-necessary ones.

Making that map was interesting, but I still have another thing to work out. I have to make a reason for a queen and her army to march out to a volatile country. She supports neither of the factions that are warring in that faction, but the primary reason would be chasing another queen and her army there. I need to think hard on that issue, still.

That was my most recent development. What improvements has everyone made of late to their plots, books or stories?

Or should I bother with asking yet? I haven't given up on that Writer's Forum, even though I can't see the progress. I'm getting impatient, not knowing if anything is going on.

Hmmm ... when I'm writing, I actually seem to spend most of my time coming up with a world's history, and that's when I decide

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.

[Lief Erikson]

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 .

[Silverstripe]

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.

[Lief Erikson]

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.

[Willow Oran]

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.

[Lief Erikson]

About how many points of view, and are you going to be having to write from each of those characters' perspectives?

[Entlover]

Originally posted by Willow Oran
Do any of you have tips for writing believable battle scenes? .

Battles are one of the hardest things to write. When I did one recently I first reread some of JRR's battle scenes to get in the mindset.
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.

[Lief Erikson]

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.

[Willow Oran]

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.

[Lief Erikson]

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?

[Willow Oran]

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.

[Lief Erikson]

Good . Glad to be of service.

[Laurus Nobilis]

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.

[Lief Erikson]

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.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Originally posted by Laurus Nobilis
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.

Hmm...it's a great game, and it's quite historical from what I've seen...might actually be a good idea...

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.

[Lief Erikson]

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?

[Gwaimir Windgem]

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.