Recent content by skip.knox

Just to drop something into the other side of the scale, I don't recall ever having a bad experience on reddit. Like others here, it is not a community for me, it's just an occasional resource, but no visit has ever been upsetting to me. The same, for that matter, goes for other social media...

I would not condemn the entire platform just because one or two (or twenty or thirty) subreddits are atrocious. Sift. Find your people and leave the rest.

From the heights of 74, I must say 63 does not appear so very old. In one way, you're quite young, as you are entered upon a new phase of life. Retirement brings a host of new perspectives. Among these is this one: work is rewarding, but a job is a mere necessity.

> You visit Athens for the first time and feel like the Ancient Greeks stole your ideas So happens wife and I are headed for five days in Athens in May. I shall keep my eyes and ears open for story thieves. Always beware Greeks stealing plots.

>There's such a long tradition of only considering fiction to be 'legitimate' if there is a lot of navel gazing involved. Pundits and critics have such a tradition. I still don't buy it. There are plenty of 'legitimate' stories that are just stories well-told. I'll have a second helping of...

So, here's another example where the point being made has this underlying assumption that everyone will have the same understanding of the thing discussed. In this case, theme. The presenter gives her definition, a theme is *why* the plot matters. Here's the thing. As the author I may have a...

>The reason I am debating if Nano is even possible to do is because I tried and failed a similar challenge (only it was for making a game) Ah. The reason was not present in the OP. Hence the confusion. IMO, that experience provides no reason whatsoever to pass on Nano. Do it. Try it, anyway...

I did read it and still did not see what a game engine has to do with writing fiction.

It wasn't just the big screen. It was an experience. We have big screens now, but somehow the experience isn't the same. So, while there are movies I should like to have seen on the big screen, it would have to be back in The Day (choose your decade). If I could be in the decade, then here are a...

Lots of good suggestions here. I shall be helpful by trying to complicate things. <g> One, the line between what is major and what is a minor change can get awfully blurry. Is this change minor? Sure. OK, now I've made six more minor changes. Has it moved to major yet? I'm in the early stages...

>. I'll take what I think is useful and discard whatever seems unhelpful, even if it's otherwise. Both halves of that are worth considering. Learning is not merely about acquiring but also choosing what to discard. In that respect, I agree with others here: go ahead and study structures and...

I have tried the path. I try some sort of structured approach with every novel. None of them have helped. Some, like Save the Cat and its kindred (beat sheets fall within the category), I could never get much past just reading them. It felt incredibly constraining and essentially impossible to...

"Fight scene" is so general. Even narrowing to "the Middle Ages" leaves much unresolved. Is this one-on-one, or groups fighting? Are there knives? Swords? Are they all human? Any magic involved? You will want to sort out location and the instruments of the fight. Then there's what brought us...

My wife and I have taken to listening to audio books together. Recent and current are: Earth Abides, George Stewart A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula Le Guin I read both of these as a teen. It's been nice revisiting and sharing. Reading on my own (e-books, both) The Second World War, Winston...

If I were to write an animal fantasy, I would not have Mice and Elephants and Dogs. All would be lower case. That's my logic for writing a "human" fantasy, if you please. I have elves, dwarves, gnomes, ogres, orcs, trolls ... and humans. So far, that seems to work fine. But as you've observed...