Recent content by KC Trae Becker

I love this suggestion! Letting the characters reveal stuff in a writing exercise like this is my favorite way to learn about the world. But I never thought of doing something like this to discover aspects of the religions. Thanks for the suggestion.

If Native Americans had taken Lief Erickson's expedition hostage and returned to Greenland in large numbers they could have been in a good position to invade Europe if they had had a high degree of natural immunity to the Bubonic plague. European numbers were at a critically low point in the...

When I was a teenager, on several occasions different watches I was wearing reset to 12:00 or died. Once I noticed a reset had happened several yards past a certain spot along a trail that I frequented. That spot felt magical to me because it passed between two trees that were usually large for...

Chiming in late, but this topic is a juicy one. I found my way to Tolkien in middle school. As an introverted Tom-boy, previously all my books had male protags w/ animal companions. I loved the Hobbit and devoured it like candy. I didn't really notice the total absence of females. After...

Though the fluctuations would seem small to us, experience is relative and so the fluctuations would likely take on a greater value for them. So I imagine these differences of seasons and years would be noticed and used to mark time. rather than a random number count, especially if the...

I hear your concern elemtilas, you have a valid point, but my experience with reading YA Fantasy is that the fae have been used in a huge variety of ways by a plethora of authors. Among some readers your warning would be accurate, but among many others the waters are so muddied already few would...

In all my years of researching fae, I have never crossed the idea that fairies are small and faeries are human-size. It's an idea that can work well (in a printed story, less well for audio-book), but it is either your own idea or the idea of just a few people. It is not a widely accepted fact...

Greek myths and plays act like fate is a mysterious force that works around what ever you do so that you still reach the fated end. Eg. Odeipus Rex Norse myths act like the future events of Ragnarok are unchangeable. Most common people are fated to live and die doing what their parents...

I looked it up. I can assign a special shortcut key or use the on-screen keyboard, etc. I'll figure out something. Thanks for your help.

Thanks. I ended up copying and pasting from the character map on my last laptop. And used find and replace to put it into the many necessary words. This laptop doesn't have a number pad either and the character map was buried. I found it with the search box. Is there a code to use if you...

Thanks everyone for responding to this thread. I agree, rules for writing are mostly stupid. I do like to know what are common objections to different writing devices so that when I decide to use them I can use them well. People who feel their opinions and "rules" are set in stone are funny...

I've dabbled. I'm fine with vocabulary, but grammar rules are a bigger challenge. I have several languages in various levels of development. My (AE)lfar language (A and E should be conjoined but I don't know how to type that) is based on Proto-Indo-European, Old Norse and Old Celtic. It has a...

So you object to doorways that lead exactly where someone is going, like teleportation vs. a portal to another dimension like say Narnia?

I just discovered an older article on breaking unspoken rules for writing SF/Fantasy stories. 10 Writing "Rules" We Wish More Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Would Break I found it an interesting article and would love to hear it discussed here. Any opinions about it are welcome...

A creation myth is a good start and this is an intriguing one. It would benefit from a prophet of some type that helps with the day-to-day living.