Recent content by MapHatter

Some exceptionally insightful and constructive replies guys, thank you ever so much. I'm not quite sure I was expecting anything to be quite so concise. Lots of stuff that I think I already knew, really, but it always helps to hear other people say it.

We've all come up against The Wall, I'm sure, and for each of us no doubt it's different. For me, it's getting past feeling the need to consider what sells, or what's hot, or what the audience expects/needs from a book. I wrote an 800 page novel some time ago. It's currently in the 3rd draft. I...

The term 'author' doesn't refer specifically to the practice of writing, anyway. It has, for sure, become almost synonymous with the industry, but in reality, it merely means 'an originator of a plan or idea', 'the writings produced by a particular author.' Nowhere does it say anything about...

There is plenty of fiction out there in which the originality does act as a mark of quality. I'm inclined to think of things like the Name of the Wind. It might not be the most original story in the world, but it's told in a suitably unique manner, in such a way that any tropes and clichés...

Does anybody else listen to classical music? I'm your typical lower middle/upper lower class guy. I don't know if Classical lends me airs and graces or mere delusions of importance, but I find it an incredibly soothing and motivational range of music. Mozart and Chopin, especially. I'll also...

Helloo everybody, thanks for the warmth. :) And Joe... thanks for whatever all that was. :D I'll be in and out of the forum as I often get distracted doing other things, and very rarely is writing one of those things!. Alas, I shall see you good people around the website, I imagine. Magicat...

I will treasure this page, thank you. There's also a great book called 'the Emotional Thesaurus' by Angela Ackerman, which is a very similar concept. The Amazon 'look inside' preview doesn't elaborate much, but the negligible kindle edition cost is well worth the investment. Each page presents...

The Mythical Archive is an absolutely fantastic resource that I intend to exploit relentlessly for the foreseeable, and unforeseeable future! Thank you very kindly!

It's a dangerous thing to think of things as 'tropes', or 'clichés', since it forces you to limit your imagination. There are elements that appear throughout fantasy, to the point that they maybe come across as contrived, or unoriginal. 'The orphan' comes to mind, or 'the chosen one', or 'the...

I love this post. I've often thought the subject I was researching was bizarre, and, honestly, not something I ever expected to learn about. It's highly amusing seeing some of the other insanely random stuff some people have been forced to read up on. I've recently been watching Downton Abbey as...

Personally, I have to agree with Skip.knox. He/she/they make some good points. I wouldn't have been familiar with the term, and I'd have read it as you intended it to be read. But I do think you need to be careful, to an extent. You can't merely repurpose words like 'restaurant', or other common...

...a.k.a Scotland. Hi folks, I've been looking for/striving to find a decent, warm community for fiction and fantasy writers/worldbuilders and was quite happy to stumble upon this site. Looking at the forums, it seems there are a whole bunch of places that might be useful to a budding...