Recent content by Jon_Chong

Count me in and may the world tremble at our feet. 1. I will finish something. 2. I will get it published by 2014. 3. Even if this isn't realistic, I will still try. 4. I'm tired of failing. 5. Changing this one as I plan on submitting my manuscript to uh... a lot of people. And...

Oh. That's a bit tricky. If it is description that is not attached to any character, then it's normally fine. For example, a pretty girl walks into the room. If you're describing her from the POV of the gladiator and you break out words like ephemeral and transcendent beauty, you had best be...

You're the author. The freedom is all yours. Now, if you want people to read your work and like it? That's an entirely different ballgame. Personally, I dislike overly wordy characters as I am an extremely wordy person myself. I speak a lot. In most conversations I tend to speak the most...

Here's a few things to jump start the brain storming. This will helps us tailor some cool ideas to better fit your needs. 1.) What's the attitude/morale of the the two forces? Morale is more often than not the deciding factor in engagements, not flashy techniques and strategems. Well, morale...

I'm not seeing how this city would function. Say the infrastructure is in place and there everything is hunky dory... why would wayfarers build a city? And if the primary source of income is the hiring of wayfarers, we come to the question of why would these city states hire these men and women...

Two questions. 1.) How does Conall maintain power? 2.) Why has the vampire population increased? And as an addendum, how does question 2 influence question 1?

I love fantasy because you can come up with things like floating islands and gods walking the earth and no one would bat an eye. The real question is why. Why are there floating islands? How are there floating islands? Having a cool idea is half the battle, justifying it is another. That said...

Sinitar, I would like to add on what you said. A poorly developed magic system does limit your choices, but not quite in the way you're thinking. I feel that if you do not set some ground rules on how magic works, every time you use magic it has the potential to come out as a deus ex machina...

I believe everyone thinks as the write. Some might 'free write' but that in and of itself is a form of thinking, just not conscious decision making. The real question I feel is not do you think when you write, but what do you think of when you write? Do these questions change shape and form when...

Fawkes coming to help Harry is fine - he's a kid facing off a giant snake with a sword. last I checked he did not know how to use a sword - but the circumstances leading up to the aid was a little too neat in my mind. Granted, it has been years and I don't have the books with me so my opinion...

It is true that authors are getting too tied up in definitions and it often stifles out creativity, but it bears to be cognizant of the pitfalls of writing lest we fall into it. Secondly, both circumstances - Fawkes helping Harry and Fluer turning into a hulking juggernaut of doom - are actually...

I love em both and do em in equal amounts. I plot as I pants and pants as I plots. Though these days I spend more time plotting and making sure I have all the nuances down. And then I start pantsing. Mmmm... pantsing

The issue here really isn't with Deus Ex Machina. Authors these days do away with deus ex machina nowadays because it is not relevant to our lives. No, the issue that Sanderson's first law has is with vague and undefined magic that allows authors to pull crap out of their asses without due...

Posting the scene in question would definitely help because right now I'm getting a lot of vague signals that makes it hard to comment. As to the original question, "How to make things interesting" uhm... I'm not sure to be honest. A lot of that hinges on what you mean by interesting and...

I don't think the MC is a religious fanatic, just that this was the way she was brought up and she does not know much else. Least ways, that's how I see it. The holy script is her guidebook to life and it's not so much that she's out to convert people, it's just how she sees the world and her...