Recent content by Prince of Spires

Personal opinion, but I doubt you'd see a lot of swordmen with scars. Simple reason is, you'd be dead after one or two. Swords (and other weapons) are deadly things. They only give you a scar if you're lucky. Otherwise, they'd either outright kill you (if you're lucky) or main you in such a way...

Another thing to keep in mind is that you probably ran into the one scenario where AI does a decent job. As a glorified auto-complete engine, AI is very good at quickly taking a sentence or an idea and expanding on it. So as such, an AI is ideally designed to take a small story idea and within...

It's definitely different for me. I get to a point where I can't think of anything to make it better, only different, it's as good as I can make it at that time, and I'm completely sick and tired of working on it. So I have absolutely no problem with letting it go. I think this is very much a...

I think the important thing is this bit: many people will understand the reference if it's used in the right context and it's obvious from the context what it means. It's basically a human superpower. We're great at inferring the meaning of stuff from what's happening around it. It's after...

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the intent.

In the end, it doesn't matter how old your world is. Anything over 1.000-ish years old is the same from a story perspective. You can't tell that whole story anyway, so for a reader 10.000 is the same as 100.000 and 1.000.000 and 1.000.000.000.000.000. It's along time ago, and stuff happened, but...

Thanks. I try. :) It's my belief that if you put in the effort, people wont be able to tell the difference between trad-published and indie-published works. No one looks at the publisher when they buy a book, so you just have to look the part (in all aspects). So that's what I aim for at least.

Every writer is different. What works for one, may not work for another. Find what works for you and ignore the rest. Treat any advice that tells you that writers must do X as a suggestion to try it, but no more. I'm not sure I found anyone stating it like that. But at least Sanderson goes into...

I like Diana's version the best so far. That said, it's a bit on the short side. Average blurbs run something like 200-250 words, this one is 87. So it can double without feeling short. There are 2 things missing for me. The first is the why. I get that being a slave isn't the most fun in...

Just write in whichever way gets the complete story down on paper. Once you've finished, check where things stand and see if you began in the right place. Plenty of writers rewrite their opening after they've finished simply because only then they know where they actually need to start. But...

One other thing worth mentioning is that you don't have to fully develop everything in your world to be able to write the story. You just have to make the reader believe that you have developed everything. You can have your 12 character, but you actually only know something about 3 of them...

Harry Potter actually is this. A character who knows nothing of the wizarding world and constantly has everything explained to him (for 7 whole book, the kid doesn't learn anything)... It's an easy way to explain stuff to the reader in a way that feels natural.

Nice! Congrats on getting to the finishline! There is value in writing fast. A project is a lot more fixed in your head if you write it in one or two months instead of dragging it out over a year. I think in On Writing, Stephen King advocates for writing a draft within 3 months for this very...

In general I very much agree with A. E. Lowan . It's one thing to know you have the law on your side, but actually ending up in court against a much richer opponent and getting that confirmed are 2 very different things. And one you generally can't afford. However, in this instance, like I...

It just depends on what story you want to tell. So only you can decide it. As an example, in Jules Vernes Around the World in Eighty Days, the BBEG is simply a ticking clock. Yes, there are minor villains along the way. But it's really only the ticking clock that pushes the plot forward. On...