Anyone do any fantasy writing? - Page 5

Blodeuedd · 03-05-2003, 09:28 AM

Have been working on this fantasy series for like over 5 years now and well its coming along. So much happens and just hope I can finish the books one day. Aye, just as I dont turn out like Jordan and writes book after book. Ok just one more, I p¨romise

Gwaimir Windgem · 03-05-2003, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by TariCalmcacil
A good tip, from one who had to learn it the VERY HARD way, and still hasn't fixed it, is to SAVE YOUR WORK IN MORE THEN ONE PLACE! Really! Really do it! I lost about 30 pages of work that way (Lost a floppy. Only had it on floppy) >_< Not too smart.

Yeah, tell me about it! I once lost an enormous amount of work on various projects (like over 200 pages, I think), because a floppy of mine got 'lost' (if you want to know the story, PM me or ask over messenger, but it's too long to go into here)!

Fortunately, I managed to recover most of a book I'd been writing. Unfortunately, I lost an enormous amount of work dealing with my world, a few hobbies, ideas for other books, and a little bit that had been written of one book, and a good deal of another

***Earniel*** · 03-05-2003, 06:04 PM

Ouch, that sounds bad.

I don't even have a copy on a floppy. I'd beter go and change that.

TariCalmcacil · 03-05-2003, 07:30 PM

Its more likely to get destroyed if the only place you have it is on a floppy. It's bad.

Yeah. Save your stuff in several places. Several folders even! Can I stress this enough?

-Tari

Galenavar · 03-05-2003, 11:16 PM

I once had a story saved on a floppy. I printed out a copy, then realized all the changes I needed to make. Unfortunately, my computer broke down, so I had to use a different one. Unfortunately, that computer wouldn't read the floppy. So, I had to retype the entire story from the copy I printed and add changes as I went along. It was a total pain in the backside.

Lief Erikson · 03-06-2003, 01:48 AM

How long of a story was it?

I have my book saved on two computers, and I update the one I'm not writing in . . . every one or two months

. I really should do it more

. I expect all of us have lost emails, PMs or posts through computer freeze ups, glitches or simple mistakes. One of the woes of computers

.

The Ringbearer · 03-06-2003, 03:49 AM

I prefer to keep all my notes n' stuff in one of my 5-6 notebooks. *hugs notebook* My friends.....But I need to go back and redo my whole storyline, and I don't want to tear out those pages or anything, but I also don't want to get confused and use old notes.
I'm working on a fanfic of one of Frodo's nightmares after the Ring was destroyed, but before the Gray Havens right now. I keep that in my notebook too.

***Earniel*** · 03-06-2003, 05:49 AM

Computers are easy because you can make many changes in your text without making all those blots and mess you have when you amend a text on paper. But sometimes I find it easier to write on paper. I'ts messier, but it's more tangable. I have various stories in various stages of completion either on computer or on paper or on both. Anyone who would want to reconstruct those stories when I'm dead, is in for a job from hell.

Finrod Felagund · 03-06-2003, 12:57 PM

Well currently I'm writing my own take on the Arhturian Legends, an otriginal series which vaguely ties in at the end with the Arthurian series, and one novel with my little brother based on the Legend of Zelda video game series.

Galenavar · 03-07-2003, 11:07 PM

Quote:

How long of a story was it?

It was only 30-some pages.

Quote:

I prefer to keep all my notes n' stuff in one of my 5-6 notebooks

You know, that's what I should do, but unfortunately I'm not that organized. I have a couple of folders, but when I get an idea for my stories, I just write it down somewhere as fast as I can... and those ideas don't always make it back to the folder.

Quote:

But sometimes I find it easier to write on paper. I'ts messier, but it's more tangable. I have various stories in various stages of completion either on computer or on paper or on both. Anyone who would want to reconstruct those stories when I'm dead, is in for a job from hell.

Right there with ya'!

I do the exact same thing.

Lief Erikson · 03-08-2003, 12:57 AM

I have a bunch of ideas written on paper in a box in one of the cabinets of what used to be my desk. When I did The Uirlon Cord's plot, it was originally likely to be about 100 pages, but now it looks to me as if it'll end up more around the 600 page number. I have The Uirlon Cord's plot saved in original form, but you know what, it was a really good plot even from the start. I don't have many changes in what I have there, though I have huge changes in terms of adding things in.

Entlover · 03-08-2003, 07:20 PM

I've changed my signature. What do you think?

Computers are great for writing with. Much easier to change things, try different sentence structure. Wow, if Tolkien had had a word processor, I wonder whether he'd have written even more.
Longhand is so time consuming.

TariCalmcacil · 03-08-2003, 11:00 PM

Writing is a great pasttime. Yeah, its sad that its so time consuming. Plots and character development are very important and sometimes the problem is you start a story and you have a plot in your mind, so you write down, say, the first chapter, but then 6 months later you start the second... and you don't know what to do for a plot.

Yeah, I am going to have a helluva lotta fun rip-tearing through some of my fic's. All help appreciated. =D

I have some Si-Fi stories in my head, and stories from school; nothing that I am too particularly proud of.

Most of my stories are in dire need of editing. *Sigh* Just another thing to do, huh?

Gwaimir Windgem · 03-09-2003, 12:37 AM

I remember several years ago I used to get on and just write every day. I wouldn't think about it, or look it over. Just write. Then one day I pulled it up and started reading it. And that went out the window.

The Moral: Wot? Since when does every story have to have a moral?!?!? O, all right..

I can't write worth squat without being careful about it.

Takes planning etc. for me. Anyway, that one would have needed radical revisions, on account of changes made to my world.

Lief Erikson · 03-09-2003, 04:17 AM

With The Uirlon Cord, I didn't have all the history made up beforehand either. I had some of the earliest creation done and some of the more recent events. The fifteen years before The Uirlon Cord takes place I had quite a bit written to. Now I have all that history done, but I really should have started on it earlier.

Most of the changes in a written work of mine take place in the plot creation stage. That's where I come up with ideas, turn them over and throw them out. Very few are actually kept; generally actually none of them are. Usually the plot idea comes in a sort of a flash; I just write it out and it comes as I write it. Focusing upon what's logical to have happen generally helps me quite a bit in terms of plot creation. Just looking for what would make sense for them to do is really helpful, and then if you want something else to happen you can throw in a circumstance- possibly a circumstance that opens up another plot thread. Looking at what's logical for people to do in situations like this really is helpful.

Unfortunately, though I believe that I can come up with very good plots (Says this extremely modestly

), I think that this might lead to something of a weakness in my writing. Sometimes my plot just seems to me a bit too plot driven and it doesn't always seem to me that I'm focused enough on the characters and their development. I hope that that's not the case and that the characters are all good, but I'm less confident of them then I am of my plots by quite a bit.

Entlover, I like your signature

. Computers definitely do help things also; it has been a few years since I wrote a story by hand. And that was out of necessity- I couldn't be on the computer.

Lief Erikson · 03-09-2003, 04:20 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by TariCalmcacil
Writing is a great pasttime. Yeah, its sad that its so time consuming. Plots and character development are very important and sometimes the problem is you start a story and you have a plot in your mind, so you write down, say, the first chapter, but then 6 months later you start the second... and you don't know what to do for a plot.

It would make things a lot easier, I'd imagine, if you wrote down your plot somewhere.

I have one question for you, though. How can it be time consuming to write when you write only a chapter every six months?

TariCalmcacil · 03-09-2003, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Lief Erikson
It would make things a lot easier, I'd imagine, if you wrote down your plot somewhere.

I have one question for you, though. How can it be time consuming to write when you write only a chapter every six months?

*laughs* Yes, it would make things a lot easier if I wrote my plot down somewhere.

The stories still need to be edited, beta'd (I also have a tendency to rewrite portions or forget stupid things, I'm only human) and depending on where I am putting them once they are finished (usually my website) so they need to be coded appropreately.

Even if I don't write a chapter, writing is time-consuming. There's a lot to be done, stories to be typed, edited, coded. Sometimes I even beta.

I guess what you want me to say is "Its not really time-consuming its just that I'm not too smart---or maybe its procrastination-- and it takes me forever"

-Tari

Silverstripe · 03-09-2003, 10:47 AM

I usually write the history of my worlds before I do anything else. The problem with that is, I tend to get carried away, and get so caught up in the history I forget to write the original story, or wind up writing it as part of the history, which makes it too dry (it sounds like a textbook!)

Lief Erikson · 03-10-2003, 02:09 AM

History is the backbone of any story or RPG in the fantasy realm, I think. Most stories center upon their history and I love to work mine out

.

(Sighs) Tari, I purposely tried to make that post as tactful as I could- I didn't want to be misinterpreted. I don't want you to say yuou're not smart or you're proctrastinating or contradict yourself; I was just curious about your meaning and offering a possible way to improve.

Gwaimir Windgem · 03-10-2003, 02:20 AM

I completely agree. History before all else!

03-05-2003, 06:04 PM	#83
*Earniel* The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: N?n in Eilph (Belgium) Posts: 14,363	Ouch, that sounds bad. I don't even have a copy on a floppy. I'd beter go and change that. __________________ We are not things.

03-05-2003, 07:30 PM	#84
TariCalmcacil Hobbit Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: a bedroom, a house, a street, a town, a state, a country, a continent, a hemisphere, a earth, a solar system, a unvierse Posts: 21	Its more likely to get destroyed if the only place you have it is on a floppy. It's bad. Yeah. Save your stuff in several places. Several folders even! Can I stress this enough? -Tari __________________ Life's something that just plays us all for fools. First we think one thing, then we think twice. Love is the feeling when you look in his eye, and know with a tear that you are going to get by. Once upon a time, I was born then I died. Thats the whole story. It's the end.

03-05-2003, 11:16 PM	#85
Galenavar Elven Warrior Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: WI Posts: 129	I once had a story saved on a floppy. I printed out a copy, then realized all the changes I needed to make. Unfortunately, my computer broke down, so I had to use a different one. Unfortunately, that computer wouldn't read the floppy. So, I had to retype the entire story from the copy I printed and add changes as I went along. It was a total pain in the backside. __________________ Galenavar Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo If there's no magic, there's no meaning.

03-06-2003, 03:49 AM	#87
The Ringbearer Elven Warrior Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Crickhollow in the summer, and Rivendell in the winter Posts: 397	I prefer to keep all my notes n' stuff in one of my 5-6 notebooks. hugs notebook My friends.....But I need to go back and redo my whole storyline, and I don't want to tear out those pages or anything, but I also don't want to get confused and use old notes. I'm working on a fanfic of one of Frodo's nightmares after the Ring was destroyed, but before the Gray Havens right now. I keep that in my notebook too. __________________ 'Go away, and never come back!!' '......what?' 'But you're a part of this world! Aren't you?' Frodo lives!

03-06-2003, 05:49 AM	#88
*Earniel* The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: N?n in Eilph (Belgium) Posts: 14,363	Computers are easy because you can make many changes in your text without making all those blots and mess you have when you amend a text on paper. But sometimes I find it easier to write on paper. I'ts messier, but it's more tangable. I have various stories in various stages of completion either on computer or on paper or on both. Anyone who would want to reconstruct those stories when I'm dead, is in for a job from hell. __________________ We are not things.

03-05-2003, 09:28 AM	#81
Blodeuedd Sapling Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Mirkwood Posts: 3	Have been working on this fantasy series for like over 5 years now and well its coming along. So much happens and just hope I can finish the books one day. Aye, just as I dont turn out like Jordan and writes book after book. Ok just one more, I p¨romise

03-06-2003, 01:48 AM	#86
Lief Erikson Elf Lord Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Fountain Valley, CA Posts: 6,343	How long of a story was it? I have my book saved on two computers, and I update the one I'm not writing in . . . every one or two months . I really should do it more . I expect all of us have lost emails, PMs or posts through computer freeze ups, glitches or simple mistakes. One of the woes of computers .

03-06-2003, 12:57 PM	#89
Finrod Felagund King of Nargothrond Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Canada! eh? Posts: 2,002	Well currently I'm writing my own take on the Arhturian Legends, an otriginal series which vaguely ties in at the end with the Arthurian series, and one novel with my little brother based on the Legend of Zelda video game series. __________________ "THE EAGLES ARE COMING, THE EAGLES ARE COMING......AND A MOTH!!!!!"

03-08-2003, 12:57 AM	#91
Lief Erikson Elf Lord Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Fountain Valley, CA Posts: 6,343	I have a bunch of ideas written on paper in a box in one of the cabinets of what used to be my desk. When I did The Uirlon Cord's plot, it was originally likely to be about 100 pages, but now it looks to me as if it'll end up more around the 600 page number. I have The Uirlon Cord's plot saved in original form, but you know what, it was a really good plot even from the start. I don't have many changes in what I have there, though I have huge changes in terms of adding things in.

03-08-2003, 07:20 PM	#92
Entlover Elven Warrior Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 463	I've changed my signature. What do you think? Computers are great for writing with. Much easier to change things, try different sentence structure. Wow, if Tolkien had had a word processor, I wonder whether he'd have written even more. Longhand is so time consuming.

03-08-2003, 11:00 PM	#93
TariCalmcacil Hobbit Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: a bedroom, a house, a street, a town, a state, a country, a continent, a hemisphere, a earth, a solar system, a unvierse Posts: 21	Writing is a great pasttime. Yeah, its sad that its so time consuming. Plots and character development are very important and sometimes the problem is you start a story and you have a plot in your mind, so you write down, say, the first chapter, but then 6 months later you start the second... and you don't know what to do for a plot. Yeah, I am going to have a helluva lotta fun rip-tearing through some of my fic's. All help appreciated. =D I have some Si-Fi stories in my head, and stories from school; nothing that I am too particularly proud of. Most of my stories are in dire need of editing. Sigh Just another thing to do, huh? __________________ Life's something that just plays us all for fools. First we think one thing, then we think twice. Love is the feeling when you look in his eye, and know with a tear that you are going to get by. Once upon a time, I was born then I died. Thats the whole story. It's the end.

03-09-2003, 12:37 AM	#94
Gwaimir Windgem Dread Mothy Lord and Halfwitted Apprentice Loremaster Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, CA Posts: 10,820	I remember several years ago I used to get on and just write every day. I wouldn't think about it, or look it over. Just write. Then one day I pulled it up and started reading it. And that went out the window. The Moral: Wot? Since when does every story have to have a moral?!?!? O, all right.. I can't write worth squat without being careful about it. Takes planning etc. for me. Anyway, that one would have needed radical revisions, on account of changes made to my world. __________________ Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis. Nulla talem silva profert, fronde, flore, germine. Dulce lignum, dulce clavo, dulce pondus sustinens. 'With a melon?' - Eric Idle

03-09-2003, 04:17 AM	#95
Lief Erikson Elf Lord Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Fountain Valley, CA Posts: 6,343	With The Uirlon Cord, I didn't have all the history made up beforehand either. I had some of the earliest creation done and some of the more recent events. The fifteen years before The Uirlon Cord takes place I had quite a bit written to. Now I have all that history done, but I really should have started on it earlier. Most of the changes in a written work of mine take place in the plot creation stage. That's where I come up with ideas, turn them over and throw them out. Very few are actually kept; generally actually none of them are. Usually the plot idea comes in a sort of a flash; I just write it out and it comes as I write it. Focusing upon what's logical to have happen generally helps me quite a bit in terms of plot creation. Just looking for what would make sense for them to do is really helpful, and then if you want something else to happen you can throw in a circumstance- possibly a circumstance that opens up another plot thread. Looking at what's logical for people to do in situations like this really is helpful. Unfortunately, though I believe that I can come up with very good plots (Says this extremely modestly ), I think that this might lead to something of a weakness in my writing. Sometimes my plot just seems to me a bit too plot driven and it doesn't always seem to me that I'm focused enough on the characters and their development. I hope that that's not the case and that the characters are all good, but I'm less confident of them then I am of my plots by quite a bit. Entlover, I like your signature . Computers definitely do help things also; it has been a few years since I wrote a story by hand. And that was out of necessity- I couldn't be on the computer.

03-09-2003, 10:47 AM	#98
Silverstripe Empress of the Writewraiths Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Running around somewhere inside my head. So what are YOU doing here?! Posts: 1,546	I usually write the history of my worlds before I do anything else. The problem with that is, I tend to get carried away, and get so caught up in the history I forget to write the original story, or wind up writing it as part of the history, which makes it too dry (it sounds like a textbook!)

03-10-2003, 02:09 AM	#99
Lief Erikson Elf Lord Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Fountain Valley, CA Posts: 6,343	History is the backbone of any story or RPG in the fantasy realm, I think. Most stories center upon their history and I love to work mine out . (Sighs) Tari, I purposely tried to make that post as tactful as I could- I didn't want to be misinterpreted. I don't want you to say yuou're not smart or you're proctrastinating or contradict yourself; I was just curious about your meaning and offering a possible way to improve.

03-10-2003, 02:20 AM	#100
Gwaimir Windgem Dread Mothy Lord and Halfwitted Apprentice Loremaster Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, CA Posts: 10,820	I completely agree. History before all else! __________________ Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis. Nulla talem silva profert, fronde, flore, germine. Dulce lignum, dulce clavo, dulce pondus sustinens. 'With a melon?' - Eric Idle

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