Recent content by Incanus

I definitely used some planning to devise a plan for the plan of my novel. I spent a bunch of time in world-building mode (a long time ago, over ten years now), but it wasn't strictly necessary. Still, now that it is done, I'm glad I have it. I largely did it out of enjoyment and fascination...

If I owned any land with a hill on it, I'd probably get a bonfire going. Anyway, enjoy this overlooked holiday!

I don't think I understand the term well enough to answer. I guess someone will have to tell me if I have a goblin-coded character or not. A - there are no goblins in my world/setting (or any other pre-existing fantasy races) B - I have a human character who does not conform to social...

It's a bit like that. The two pantheons in question began on different continents, but when one group sailed to the new place, they brought the old gods with them (so to speak). Then after many centuries in the new world, most inhabitants of the region are aware of both, and can choose between...

I've approached this rather like Prince of Spires suggested. I have two old religions with a number of gods each (based loosely on real-world pantheons), and a newer religion specific to my world. It is more or less like the 'real' world--the gods don't interact with the world in any...

Genly makes good points here. I would add that no matter the genre or theme, learning the basic tools of writing fiction will go a long way toward getting where you want to go. How to present a character, point of view, pacing, exposition--getting good and familiar with these things will put...

I can see how that would be a problem. I have not been having this experience myself. I can't think of a single instance of my work being written off as a Tolkien copy. However, very few have read my first failed novel, and not many have read my short stories, so I have admittedly limited...

Clone may not be the best word here, as it is an exact copy. But if I did include a Dark Lord in my fantasy novel, I would fully expect to be compared to Tolkien, at least on that one idea. It might not be fair, but I find precious little in life to be fair anyway, and this one would be...

I would dearly love to find another book like LotR, but I've never seen one, though I've looked for decades. Something like Sword of Shannara hardly counts (I have read it) since it falls so utterly short. Views on originality are largely a matter of opinion. I don't consider unique=good...

I have no idea where this idea comes from, but certainly not me. I'm not really seeing any low-hanging fruit here. Sauron is a single element in a vast construction. The ring and the nature of evil in Middle-earth is anything but simple or easy.

I would say that fantasy fiction was always going to be popular with plenty of people. In another universe, it could easily have been someone besides Tolkien who lit the flame, perhaps earlier, perhaps later on. But in THIS universe, Tolkien is who did it. I doubt he himself would have made...

As a lifelong fan of Tolkien, I can't say I've ever encountered this attitude before. No Tolkien fan I know thinks like this. This sounds suspiciously like a Strawman argument. Maybe I'm just a fan, and not a fanboy?

pmmg--your story about the friend winning at WotF is pretty interesting. My reaction would likely be 180 degrees the other way. I would use that kind of win as credibility for submitting my novel somewhere worthy. For me, my novel is 'where it's at', and I'd work towards getting it into the...

A tad more about this scene—it is the opening of the story and there are two characters. Much of the scene comes through dialogue, but they also spend time doing something. An original concept central to the story is also introduced and depicted, so I think there is plenty going on. These little...

I'm pretty sure none of these instances are dialogue tags, or dialogue beats (I don't have the story with me at the moment). They generally appear in between the dialogue portions. They weren't really intended to be 'filler' actions. Most of them entered into the text as a way to replace some...