Gah! Not been around much in the last couple of days... my eldest picked up a nasty virus that filled her poor little mouth with ulcers, and she was refusing to eat or drink anything. We were worried she would end up in hospital, but this morning she got up and ate 5 (count 'em!) bowls of...
So many of these are very familiar - isn't it funny how you latch on to one thing, but don't really notice until later? My characters also raise one eyebrow a lot. Why? Because I can't, and I want to be able to do it. Sad, isn't it?!
The problem with identifying these issues is that yep...
I think the scary thing about these crutches is how insidious they are - the only reason I noticed them is because I stuck my novel in a drawer (literally) for 6 months and then took it out to revise it with my 'right! Evil Editor Bitch is HERE!' head on, and I was quite frankly appalled at how...
"She stood up and stepped forward, something, quite possibly panic, or maybe terror, coursing through her. She stepped again and glanced to the sky, glancing up at the stars, whilst glancing and looking. That feeling, panic or terror, coursed through her, and she stepped back this time, and...
My yardstick is 'it has to earn its keep'. If it is in some way moving the story along, either in terms of plot or characterisation (and tentatively in setting, although that can be a grey area fraught with danger), then it's all good for me. If, however, it just becomes a list of...
Hello, Moderator type person - forgive me, for I have sinned! Seriously - I think I've really screwed up... I've posted something waaaaaaay too long in Showcase, but can't seem to delete it and post up something rather more sensible in size. I am really, really sorry... *sheepish look*. Can you...
I pretty much agree with everything you've said here - which should give you a clue as to how picky non-fantasy people can be (or at least the ones I have met!). For example, I described the moment an archaeologist found the entrance to a tomb as "His heart thudding hard in his chest, he ran a...
I'm an English teacher, and OH GOD, this is so true. As much as I admire the likes of Dickens' use of language, the books themselves have absolutely no relevance to the lives of kids today, and whilst there is a part of me that thinks 'yeah? So what? Things can't always be relevant', there is an...
I would dearly love to do NaNo this year (I've never done it 'properly', but have written a novel in 7 weeks after setting myself a 10,000 word a week goal, so I know I can do it), but having 2 small children (one clingy toddler and a 12 week old baby) means I really just don't think I'm going...
I've always written here and there since I was little (my first book was a factual book called 'All You Ever Wanted to Know About Cheetahs', and my Dad wrote 'Tidy Up Your Room!!' on the back of it in purple marker. I think I was about 7 or 8. I still have it somewhere...), and co-wrote loads of...
Again - thank you for all your replies, I really, really do appreciate it!
If no one minds, I might post the main scenes with these creatures up in the appropriate forum (if people will forgive the fact that they are first drafts and therefore a bit rough around the edges and potentially...
Thank for all the suggestions, peeps - I appreciate it! In my world, my tentatively-named 'Lycanthropes' (it is just a place-holder name, really) are huge, humanoid wolves - they are not humans at all (considering what I need them to do, I don't want them to be human - they need to strike fear...
I have considered sending a sample off to WotC for years, but never plucked up the courage. I am just not really sure what they want with a 10,000 word writing sample: at first, I thought about sending them a snippet of one of my fanfics, but then thought 'no - they might not like me messing...
Good luck!!
R.A. Salvatore lost it a few years ago in my opinion - I used to really enjoy his stuff, but as time went on, his characters became more and more ridiculous until they became caricatures of themselves. Just look at poor Drizzt!
As I have said in another thread, the problem with...