Recent content by Nimue

Heh. This sounds very familiar, except the “made it to the end” bit. To be fair, I wrote 80k on that story—terrifyingly, that didn’t bring it anywhere near the halfway point of the planned plot. There’s a lot of value to that, and it’s understandable that you would become attached to the...

Oooo-kay, that’s a wall of text about letting go of an old story. Hope it resonates and all—and based on your last post, I think it might. But now what? Please work on your story before you start writing. Okay, couple of caveats, I suppose. Working on a story can take a lot of forms...

Oof, oof, ouch. Dragon, I haven’t got any qualifications to give advice here—haven’t published anything yet, and I’m still plodding away at a first/second/first complete draft. But I’ve been there, and I’m in a much better place than I was two or three years ago. I was also a “gifted” kid...

I feel like honestly, knowing what you need to describe and what you’re trying to say by describing it will get you most of the way there. It’s almost easier to focus on the how, the prose, because that’s all there on the surface. But you can always polish words later—it’s more difficult...

I think you almost need to write the initial meander--until you get to the stage where you don't, I suppose. I have an example from my writing of both this and a different answer to the "set the scene or sketch it?" question. I'm hesitant to post these snippets because they're all rough draft...

Yes, thank you Fifth—you’ve explained something I didn’t know how to get across besides rewriting the passage and gesticulating hopefully... It’s about focus and flow. And I think the culprit here is getting wrapped up in prose, tying yourself into knots for a cool sentence. I get caught in...

This is precisely my issue with talking about description in general. I hesitated about whether even to post what I did in this thread or in Laurence’s critique thread, because it intended as specific advice for his case. The first chapter of a novel, taking place on an alien planet, in a...

Phew. You could say any number of things about writing description--and what's tough is that it may or may not be useful depending on the writer and where they are with their process. For instance, right now I'm happy to write in a way that puts images and emotional connotation in a reader's...

Hah! Isn't that the end-goal of fantasy readers, to find a character that we could get away with naming a kid after? Corwin is a lovely name. :D Starting The Guns of Avalon today!

The funny thing is... I'm going to be completely honest with you here, Dem, and I hope this isn't unfair, but it's something that colored my response to this thread. In all of your critiques and advice-giving posts on this forum, I can't remember you ever saying something besides "cut XYZ words...

The example was Devor's, not mine - not sure if that's clear. Intensifying may not be the right word - modifying, certainly. Adding detail when there's no verb that brings it, and it's not worth spending a phrase on. I can add an example from my own writing (short story, somewhat presentable...

Well, it's "sat" for brevity when I introduce the concept, and "sat down" for emphasis at the end of the line. ;)

Helio, I'm writing medieval fantasy. Everything would sound hokey if I said it out loud I could argue about the merits of just saying "I sat" instead of detailing the decision to sit and the feeling of sitting and the result of sitting without actually saying you sat down but... It's like...

Recently tried Goodreads and had the worst run of recommendations - four very watery books, two trad pub and two indie. Interestingly, all of them came to a non-ending that was meant to get you to read the sequel. I'm always a little puzzled about how not ending the first book is supposed to...

Obligatory counter-point time... Huh. When I use an adverb, it's often because I'm trying to say something very specific, that there is no other word for. I know because I've tried to replace them, and haven't found it productive. Like any other intensifying tool, it needs to be used...