Recent content by Prince of Spires

I write epic fantasy, not historical, but I think the same approach to research applies. It all starts with the story. I need to know roughly what story I want to tell. No specifics, just a broad idea. This will determine some of the stuff I need to know. Like time period, general location...

I love this community. Drop a rumour, get an education. Thanks Malik and Mad Swede :)

I think most people have a fear of sharing their writing to a greater or lesser degree. I know I certainly do. I deal with it by ignoring that fear for a moment, simply jumping off the cliff and then freaking out. So take what you want to share, hit that share button or send button or post...

Isn't one of the theories surrounding the Viking ulfberht swords that the iron used in them was mined from a region in India which had a relatively high proportion of carbon in it, making it a natural steel (or closer to it than usual at least)? Japanese iron is the exact opposite. The reason...

Parodies are sort of their own separate thing in copyright law. They can be fair use, even if they copy a lot of the original. Which is why you can have a book like "Barry Trotter and the Unauthorized Parody". Though not all parodies are fair use. So if you go that route, do your research.

Chances are, your idea has been done before. Almost all of them have. Nothing wrong with that. Just write your idea and call it a day. One thing to keep in mind is that if I look at my personal writing at least, my stories never end up exactly like I imagine. I think I'll write story X, but...

The best thing about that whole exchange is Mad Swede's incredibly poetic line, hidden at the bottom of the last screenshot: But soft, what light at yonder windows breaks. No idea what it means, but I love it. That in itself isn't too surprising though. People might just want to read and...

We Humanity are. However, I personally don't. I only have so many hours in a day or week to spend watching stuff. I have no time to follow all 238 different Marvel series on Disney+ and no desire to view them if they're not good enough. If the Rings of Power series on Amazon would have been...

I think the best place to start is to separate plot (the story you're actually telling) from setting (how the world looks). Then, think of both. Take notes of everything you come up with, but don't be afraid to change stuff as you go along. Some big questions to consider are: What story do you...

Wonderfull hiking and skiing in that region. And great food as well. And the whole region is a mx of Austrian and Italian. Well worth the visit.

I do feel a bit ignored by all the bots. Only one of them tried to get money or a manuscript from me. (And that one was slayed before I had a chance to report it...). What if bots think I'm not good enough. :O I'm wondering if I should now post more to attract some attention. I want to feel...

While I do think Disney management is viewing AI as part of the future for generating their content, I think there's a simpler and more direct reason for this deal. And that's money and lawsuits. By signing this deal, Disney can now prove in court that giving AI access to their content is a way...

This reminds me of learning maths at school. When I was in high school (end of the 90's), I could only use a calculator in math classes to do actual calculations, and pretty much only when they were too hard to do in my head. When my niece and nephew who are something like 5-10 years younger...

Personal experience, you best learn how to code (or do anything really) by just having a project where you need to code and just start coding. I can see how AI can help there in the same way that people just go to Stackoverflow and copy code they find there. Except AI is easier to ask why...

I personally think it matters very little. If it bothers you, it's easy to just skip naming months. They come up surprisingly little in everyday conversation, and if it's necessary you can just reference either a season or go with a generic descriptor like harvest month. But as long as you're...