Recent content by Marscaleb

Writing the date as a number like that reminds me of the stardate in Star Trek.

I'm starting to wonder why it isn't more common to just have footnotes in fantasy works. Why reference an index when you could just have a footnote on the few pages that reference a particular thing? I can't think of any time I've ever seen this in a fiction novel, but it sounds less obtrusive...

I'm debating about using real months in my fantasy story, or using made-up fantasy month names. In fact, I'm considering using a new calendar system, not just replacing the month names. On one hand, it makes the world more fantastical to have more original elements. But on the other hand, it...

I have a scene where someone needs to state a city's population, but I have no frame of reference how big a population of X is at any given year. I can look up real-world cities in various parts of Europe and see modern populations, but I don't know what they would have been like in 1900. I...

I appreciate these comments and I've been trying to work these into my story, but I still am struggling to make it really work. Maybe I should take a different approach to this. What's an interesting limitation I could put on this ability? I already was thinking to have it insert a tiny bit of...

In my story, I have a character who is in a position of authority, (a general,) and is also growing into a father-figure for the main character. I have had this idea in the back of my mind that he might have a secret magic power to influence people's emotions. Thusfar in what I've written, it...

Because police don't go into your homes and look to see if you are violating laws; that would be a blatant violation of constitutional rights. This isn't a 2025 mindset, this is a 1789 mindset. Police drive around in cars looking for people violating traffic laws on public roads, they actually...

Wow, vans driving around to see if anyone was watching TV without paying for it? I guarantee you that would NEVER had flown in the US. I kinda like the idea of paying to have my TV with no commercials (especially since we just got cable and then had to pay and still get commercials) but the...

I've heard of this before, but it was always described to me as a tax. Brits don't have commercials, but they pay a TV tax. I've never heard it called a license before; how does that even work? A tax makes sense because everyone pays it, but a license is something you have to apply for and pay...

A similar (and more reasonable) example I once saw was regarding travel laws, not flight itself. In BNA there are anthro-people, and some are based on migratory birds. The character in this particular episode was an albatross, I think. And it is in their nature to just fly everywhere like...

I personally see it as something that can go either way; it's a matter of terms and definitions, not a matter of "what is normal." You can think of it in terms of how language evolves. The concept of magic has been around longer than English, and it could very well be the same is true for the...

Considering how people keep digging up this thread, it would seem a lot of people are interested in it. It's worth pointing out that many times in my writing I have penned some idea or some event, only to later realize it "isn't reasonable", and as I pursue what IS reasonable I suddenly find...

The exactings of "how" may not need to be understood, but there are things I think the reader should know: 1) The limitations. In today's world there are thousands of smart-alec's who can point out massive problems and loopholes with magic systems. If a wizard can just summon limitless water...

Okay, I trimmed out too much context. I was thinking I should focus on the worldbuilding side rather than the story, but I trimmed out too much context. The character in question is learning the local language; when the other characters speak of "magic" they are using a word she doesn't...

I should probably rephrase the question I left in my post; I really don't have the context in here to "answer questions." I mean, I am left with the question of "does this lead to more questions?" and I do wonder if this selection does that, but I also know that the full context of the story is...