TheCrystallineEntity
Istar
Why use swords when you can use herrings?
Why use swords when you can use herrings?
The obvious solution, imo, is to stretch your comfort zone a little, and write a medieval fantasy without swords. I'm sure it can be done.
My fantasy books are probably going to be impossible to categorize. Is it fantasy, but in space? Is it romance? Is it a story about families? Is it a story about stories? What about the slight horror elements?
The only thing my books aren't? Cowboy stories!
^I'm a crystal rainbow fairy star angel kitten. There's always at least one cat or cat-like being in every one of my stories, by the way. The horror elements are rather subtle, but there are definitely some creepy parts. For the dark force in Book II, I combined everything that scares me: androids [for her mannerisms], puppets [for her movements], masks [for her blank face], dolls [for her posture and floppy limbs], clocks [for her heartbeat, which the main character can hear], and so forth.
So, confession time. I like the Harry Potter series. I thought it was good, great even. But I keep seeing posts in various places about how Harry Potter is a way of life and I just don't get it. I mean yeah, it was engaging but it wasn't the best book series in the world. I just don't get that kind of adoration for the series.
Hmm...I guess it's just easy to get swallowed up in. I mean, once you've taken all the quizzes and figured out your house and your patronus and your wand...
Also, there is so much fanfic to get immersed in...
The books are just so popular, it's easy to find community as a fan.
I'm a HUFFLEPUFF by the way, and I'm overly patriotic about my house.
And if you saw the films before reading the books.It also can be a different experience depending on how old you were when you first read the books. I was ten when the first book came out, and I grew up alongside Harry and his friends, so they really have stuck with me even so many years later.
*fistbumps DOTA* Yaaas! Puff Pride!
And if you saw the films before reading the books.
I saw the films 1 through 8 and then read the first [and so far my only] Harry Potter...
It was so different to the films I came close to hating it, for not being like the film.
Then, like I had with LotR, I realised that they really weren't the same thing and so you HAD to treat them differently.
There's that, too. I had the same experience with LOTR -- I saw the movies first, and while I absolutely loved them and still do, I love the books so much more. They have room to expand on the world more than even a three-hour movie can. The Harry Potter movie adaptations are very flawed, IMO. They cut out so much stuff that it screwed with continuity, not just world-building. Given how the books got longer as the series went on, it might have worked better as a TV series instead, with every chapter or so being its own episode.
It also can be a different experience depending on how old you were when you first read the books. I was ten when the first book came out, and I grew up alongside Harry and his friends, so they really have stuck with me even so many years later.
*fistbumps DOTA* Yaaas! Puff Pride!
My fantasy books are probably going to be impossible to categorize. Is it fantasy, but in space? Is it romance? Is it a story about families? Is it a story about stories? What about the slight horror elements?
The only thing my books aren't? Cowboy stories!
^It starts in space, proceeds onto the newly formed fantasy planet, has lots of romance, mixes in some horror, and even a teensy bit of apocalyptic stuff.
I like the LotR movies just as much as the books, but like The Silmarillion even more. Would it sound like bragging if I mentioned that I sometimes read parts of The Silmarillion as a bedtime story? My favourite part is The Tale of Beren and Luthien.
I also like the Harry Potter books; Prisoner of Azkaban and The Half-Blood Prince are my favourites. I don't like the movies much.
I grew up with the books too. And I liked them then. But at the same time I never could get that into it. And it's a little frightening to me, as a writer, that people can get that into something. Because I tell you, if I got JKR famous and people asked obscure world building questions my answers would tend to be along the lines of "Dear reader what do you get when you cross an elephant with a rhino? An elephino. (Hell if I know.)"It also can be a different experience depending on how old you were when you first read the books. I was ten when the first book came out, and I grew up alongside Harry and his friends, so they really have stuck with me even so many years later.
*fistbumps DOTA* Yaaas! Puff Pride!