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Well met, Mythic Scribes

Merlin34

Acolyte
I've been lurking for the past couple days since I first found this site, and I figured I'd finally set up an account and join the forum. Little bit about me, I'm an 18 year-old boy (man?) from the Midwest region of the USA, and I've been writing ever since I knew how to hold a pencil and form words. Fantasy is by far my favorite genre to write and to read, and I've recently begun an overhaul of my main WIP that I've been theorizing and redrafting for over five years now, in the hope of eliminating some cliche elements and making the plot smarter and more cohesive. I know I'm still learning, and I know damn well my Achilles heel in writing, but that's why we're all here, eh?
 

Guru Coyote

Archmage
That is, exactly, why we are all there!
Welcome in, ask questions (or answer some) and have fun refining your craft.
All critters here are friendly and helpful, so you will fit right in.
 

Weaver

Sage
Fantasy is by far my favorite genre to write and to read, and I've recently begun an overhaul of my main WIP that I've been theorizing and redrafting for over five years now, in the hope of eliminating some cliche elements and making the plot smarter and more cohesive.

*admires your ability to punctuate that sentence correctly*

Hi. Right now, I'd feel weird calling anyone Merlin, but... Hello anyway. (You're not a computer-programming geek, are you? Please say no. The great god Murphy, Lord of Strange Coincidence and S#!t Happens, has decreed that all sorts of obscure fiction-related funniness will happen to me this week. Thwart him -- thwart him, I say, and be a normal young man who has never, ever created an AI or gone off to college in an alternate universe.)

Yeah. Coyote said all the critters here are friendly and helpful; he didn't say they were all sane. :)
 
Well welcome to the Scribes Merlin, make yourself comfy. Yes, my own original draft has a lot of cliches, which is perhaps what led me here. Anyway, plenty of ideas and inspiration wafting around, so enjoy yourself.
 

Weaver

Sage
Something that no one seems to talk about: What is meant by "cliche," anyway? If the problem is that your beta reader said, 'Magic in a fantasy story is so cliche' -- get a new beta reader immediately. If the problem is that your characters look like they stepped right off someone's D&D character sheet (or out of a Forgotten Realms novel), it's a real problem.

*walks away muttering about lithographs*
 

Merlin34

Acolyte
So.... New guy, what is this WiP you've been redrafting?

It's the story of a 13 year-old boy from modern Earth who, along with his sister, discovers and wanders through a portal into an alternate universe. Talking lizards, secret government agencies, limnic eruptions, and evil corporations ensue.

And no, I'm a biology geek.
 

Weaver

Sage
Oh, good -- we haven't frightened him away. :)

"limnic" -- Is that "limnetic" as in "relating to open water," or is it an adjective form of "limned" as in "drawn or painted on a surface"? I've been on Twitter, so my vocabbulary is a bit... diminished at the moment. #hatescharacterlimits #shouldreallyeatsometimetoday

Always like a good story that has both talking lizards AND secret government agencies.
 
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