Recent content by Bandicoot

I like to imagine how my MC would respond to certain situations, both minor and major. What moves her and what leaves her cold? What does she want out of life and how much is she willing to do to get it? My current MC wants to explore and discover new plants, but doing that would entail...

I recently beta read a short story for a CP. Fascinating plot; but the characters were flat. Therefore the story didn't work for me. The plot is about what happens to the character, the character's journey. If you don't care about the character (love or hate, like or dislike) then even the best...

Cartograph - an illustrated map; not sure if it's archaic though. Don't see it being used much.

I've had a few stories published under a pen name. I opted for a pen name because like some of you I value my privacy. It's great to see that there are many others who use pen names, for whatever reason.

Romance in fantasy is fine, if it's an integral part of the story. But fantasy can stand on its own sans romance. The Earthsea series is a good example. There is a bit of romance implied in the second one, but it's just a small part of the story, and not the story. While writing is an art...

I agree with some of the comments. Create a very different god. And a different Genesis. Play around with belief system, making changes as and when necessary. That way you can have your monotheism, without making it too much like this or that religion. You can make the god female, male-female...

I agree both are important. Even in fantasy, if the characters are not compelling, if they don't engage you, you can lose interest in the plot. If the character is uninteresting, if we don't care about the character, would we keep on reading? Sure, we want to know where the plot is headed, the...

The advantage of fantasy or science fiction is you can pretty much create your own world, so long as it's consistent internally. Someday I want to write of a world where people are of the different colors of the rainbow - a kind of tribal system based on the color scheme. Good luck with the...

Hi, Do you have to make her evil? Can't she just be sheltering them because she knows there is peril ahead. She wants to tell them, but is scared of scaring them away, right into danger. She is conflicted. She must warn them, but she doesn't know how. Don't go with evil witches. Subvert the trope.

I use a pen name for my fiction writing, because my day job is writing non-fiction. Makes life so much easier. I also need a different mindset when I write fiction (which is mostly fantasy) so I kind of cease being me and become my doppelganger.

What was the girl before she began to crystalise? Was she an ordinary girl? Does the cat belong to her or to the wizard? The three concepts are interesting. But everything would depend on how you weave them together, make them relate to each other. Here is my suggestion. An ordinary girl...

Hi Mike, When you set up that forum, count me in.

Thanks for the welcome. Trying to find my feet still.

Hi, I'm new, both to the forum and to creative writing (comparatively). I' currently struggling with a novel and a short story. I tend towards worlds where witches and dragons are the good guys and the villain is invariably a human. Bandicoot