Recent content by Tirjasdyn

I agree that observation and relaxation is essential so please understand that what I say next is meant with love and support. Maybe you need to get out more. Visit places, take a walk, take a class. Go to a museum, see some art, drink some wine at a tasting. Go to a coffee shop and...

How medieval is this? Nuts and dried fruit may be an option. It's easier to carry lighter food. Hard tack is just water and flour cooked, no leavening, maybe salt added. Water is more of an issue with walking than eating. Will they hunt and fish? Fishing can be more successful than hunting...

Something to keep in mind which no one mentions...what type of wilderness will they be surviving in? The guy in Into the Wild died because he trained to survive in the Badlands and tried to apply that to the Alaskan Mountains. Will it be desert? Mountains? Mountainous desert? Tropical? Etc...

Frankly, I think that simple research is all that's need on most points but many screen plays / movies / TV shows fail at that. Sure spending hours research one subject can procrastination but it is completely unacceptable not to check some basic facts. Ohio doesn't border Colorado. The entire...

Urg. My first reaction is that these people claiming these things are not widely read at all. I can name six authors who did those same things, many before Sanderson every picked up a pen but lately it seems everyone ignores the time between Lord of the Rings and the last ten years.

I think that exposition and action working together is the best way to go but it can also be done extremely wrong. GoT was already used as an example, such as the Tywin butchering scene but in that same series they have done horribly. Having women having sex in the background while people talk...

The judges aren't necessarily Scientologists. It is a very legit contest. I've submitted a few times. Received honorable mention once.

I can recommend this person for editing: Kathleen Dale | Colorado Freelance Fiction Editor As for paying basically typesetters and layout artists or a company does all...I don't know...I kind of feel squichy about that.

There is no preferred way...just do whatever works for your story. Some of the tongue and cheek fantasy authors like Prachett and Anthony use puns and close-enough names. Others just work world history in as they see fit.

Consider how much fanfic is getting published with a few name changes....

Loss of productivity is one thing but writing is something that gets rusty with age. Give yourself permission to write crap and write something. A few words each day. But if writing isn't important to you then don't write. And question what your doing.

I'd say do the line edit. Bad typos, even a few can ruin a story especially a bad one. Take the time and do the edit.

I create a folder for it on my computer with a text file for notes. I dump anything in that folder that I come up with until I'm ready for an outline.

I like this. I'm adding it to my process. I'm in the middle of submitting my first novel and I've had to write a one page synopsis, a three page, a two page, a half page and a 1500 character one as well. Seems like every place has its own version of a synopsis that they want.

There is no such thing as standard chapter length. I have a fantasy books where chapters are only a page or two, and books with only one or two chapters spread over an entire book. Current trends are towards shorter chapters. I find this in newer books. I say don't worry about it. Write what...