Call me unimaginative, but here's three things that'd improve my life substantially.
1) The time, effort and inspiration to commit myself properly to my writing, rather than just sitting around and thinking about writing. It doesn't even need to be good writing and it definitely doesn't need to...
I've always found entire new chronological systems to be a bit too unwieldly to dump upon unsuspecting readers without me feeling slightly guilty about it. However, I do like snazzing up what we're already familiar with - it can add a subtle sort of flavour and authenticity to the world...
This sounds interesting. Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany didn't go so far as to literally deify their respective dictators. Try North Korea's Eternal President. Kim Jong-Il is only technically head of the country's armed forces and communist party - the office of president is perpetually held by...
Okay, I've just done the test linked in the first post. Forget what I said earlier.
"You type 638 characters per minute
You have 118 correct words and
you have 1 wrong words"
WEEEE ARE THE CHAAMPIIIOOOONS MY FRIIIEEENNNNDS
I use WikidPad for this purpose. Great software, I'd recommend it. I find using a wiki to stash my planning much more preferable than using a word document, or God forbid, paper, and an offline wiki more preferable than an online one. Works for me.
Right-winger: "GORRAM GOVERNMENT"
Left-winger: "GORRAM BANKS"
Economist: "GORRAM EVERYONE"
[/thread]
. . . *clears throat*
As for the effects of the Recession on my everyday life, I can't find a job, so I'm relying entirely on savings to put me through college. My family are all working more...
Ah, limyaael. I remember when I first tried my hand at seriously writing fantasy when I was thirteen. I made the mistake of following her word as gospel before I'd even read half the books she ritualistically hates on. She literally has a Ph.D in science fiction/fantasy, mind you, so even if she...
Apart from the obvious (SF/horror), lots and lots of history and political philosophy. I also have a certain fondness for well-written detective stories. :D
The book I'm working on right now takes place in a setting that's almost Early Modern in terms of technology and culture, in a kingdom that some time ago went through a bloody civil war and revolution driven by the innate conflict between the nobility and the merchant classes and justified by...
"Many years after a bloody war, a species whose thoughts are almost completely alien to those of humans reemerge, seeking peace with their old enemies and recognition as their equals. And they want one of humanity's greatest "war heroes" to be tried in their courts for war crimes."
There's my...
I'm very big on outlining and planning, so I usually spend some of my free time in October doing that. :D I also try and get a good idea of who my characters are, and I try to tailor the plot to make them work (i.e. "what sort of chain of events will best reveal to the reader who this person...
Dyspraxia be damned, I can manage ninety words a minute when I'm really trying. When I'm not, I can hit about seventy if I know exactly what I'm going to say and fifty if I have to stop and think.
I started Lies just this morning (after finishing Abercrombie's trilogy last night, funnily enough) and I must say, I'm gobbling it up. Excellent stuff. The setting reminds me of what a less wildly imaginative China Mieville would write were he a mafia hitman on the side.