• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Recent content by quenchy

  1. Q

    Modern Fantasy

    I realize that you're working with assumptions, liek for example the assumption that if you had magic back in the 1400s for example, the history of humanity would have flown in the exact same riverbed as it has here-now. For example, if I want to set up a windmill, should I build it on a...
  2. Q

    mysterious protagonist?

    Yes, you can do this with finesse but you can't create a large work, because as Taytortots said, your readers will lose the connection to the character. You need a level of storytelling mastery to emphasize on the qualities of the character to actually add her in your book - if you tell too much...
  3. Q

    Character Origins

    The name of the character usually gives up where she hails from, as I let rumors or even some common sense talk to slip into the conversations later in the story. I usually don't use "i'm a great warrior" or "he wears a blue robe with stars on it" descriptions for my characters. If he fights...
  4. Q

    Empire civil wars, fantasy war novels, ect

    You also could have different types of wars according to your setting - classical medieval fantasy or wide-spread low-magic setting like DnD's Eberron or something else? It could all be interesting if the reader comes accross one of these stories, but when you're writing a military plot in...
  5. Q

    Writers Block

    I'm going into writing block all the time, especially because I'm working on the same project for years. There's no way that you can end this severe condition - fighting it will result into more severe panic attacks (based on the fact that you can't figure out what to write and you're trying to...
  6. Q

    How much research is too much research?

    Well, even if the reader is holding a book, don't automatically assume that their attention span is great enough to go through all the lines you've inserted to be able to split the book in two or more tomes and make your publishers happy. After all, you're writing for the general audience out...
  7. Q

    Soap.

    My grandma still uses to make soap out of pig lard. It's pretty simple and straightforward - you just need fire, salt and a pot. It doesn't smell nice but it cleans well and can be used for all purposes - washing, dish washing and clothes washing. It's so primitive that it can be as ancient as...
  8. Q

    Lost story

    I've found it! I've got a PM from another forum. The story is written by a Bulgarian author - Krasnomir Karchunov - and it's truly worth the troubles! I'll try to find it in English so that I can share.
  9. Q

    How much research is too much research?

    "If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there." Anton Pavlovich Chekhov This is too much research - putting the pistol if it won't fire. To me it's pretty much like that - you want to state that the...
  10. Q

    Lost story

    Probably it's Vance-inspired, but I've scooped through as much of his works and I'm sure it's not his.
  11. Q

    Lost story

    I hope that you will be able to help me as I'm sure that you have read thousands of pages and the chance for someone among you to have came acrosss this story will be great. When I was a teenager I took a book from the City Library of Sofia. It was an antology with random sci-fi short stories...
  12. Q

    Bartering or currency?

    Hah, true that! Another alternative currency - the WH40K Orks use their teeth as currency. The bigger the Ork from which the tooth has been taken - the bigger the tooth and the greater its value. Ork teeth regrow limitlessly during their lifetimes, but an individual has only limited amount of...
  13. Q

    Monsters, and other things that inhabit your worlds

    how do you come up with choosing a monster? why a werewolf over a giant? and do they go together? what's the history behind greek monsters?...does it have to make sense? Simple. If I'm making a dark world filled with monstrous powers that prey upon the humans, my first choice would be the...
  14. Q

    Bartering or currency?

    I can argue about how bartering creates poverty in the economy of a given country. I will surely create stagnation and reduce the incentive for mobility of people and ideas, but it won't necessarily create poverty.As the experts from the World Bank state: "Poverty is pronounced deprivation in...
  15. Q

    Monsters, and other things that inhabit your worlds

    The Striga and the Strigoi (based on Slavic and Romanian mythology) A person can be born with two souls. She usually has no idea of this, and only Gypsy scrying can reveal his (if the scryer desires to tell the person the truth). This person who has two souls is called Striga (used for...
Top