Anyone do any fantasy writing?

[Lief Erikson]

This is kind of funny . You know, this thread was moved here because it was off topic, yet at the same time an almost duplicate thread is still going on in General Messages with a different title.

Originally posted by Aralyn
Yes I love to write fantasy. i have submitted several stories but do not yet have one published. Mostly fanfic.

What are some of the basic plots of some of your stories? Have you been writing long?

[Tessar]

Do I write fantasy?

I'm trying too...

[Lalaith_Elf]

Originally posted by galadriel
You're very welcome!
HP... that doesn't stand for a certain popular series of the fantastic persuasion....
Sheesh. I'm starstruck.

hmmmmmmm let me think, well i don't think i was in a movie about hp sauce..... although that might have been interesting!!!!! LOL

[Entlover]

It's great to be in the company of so many aspiring writers!

I've just created a website called www.talesoffantasy.com.
It has several stories and I plan to add the first chapter of my book The Ring of the Dark Elves soon. It's a retelling of the Ring of the Nibelungs.

I'd love to have input from mooters on my stories.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Unfortunately, I didn't even have time to read all of the Golden Helm (first I started). But what I did have time to read was very, very well-written indeed!

[Mystic Warrior]

I love doing Lord of the Rings and Harry POtter fantasy. Plus I love to just make up stuff. But I hate Non Fiction. I love to believe in something that isn't real.I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU.? bUT ANYWAY i LOVE AND DO WRITE A WHOLE LOT OF fANTASY. i WANT TO BECOME AN AUTHOR.

[Entlover]

Thank you for the kind comments, Gwaimir.

I looked at Gwaimir's Weavers of Legend website and it looks cool.
So here are all these writers (whose stuff it would be exciting to read) - why don't you guys publish something on Gwaimir's website? It's just sitting there waiting for new fiction. I hate to admit it but I enjoy reading further adventures of our heroes from Middle Earth -- as long as they're not out of character.

Of course none of us are Tolkien - but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

[galadriel]

Okay. I lied. I really am a fantasy author now.

I'm doing a novel-writing project for school, as I may have mentioned - I don't have to write the whole thing, but it does need to be plotted out - and, lo and behold, I'm writing the tale of Sleeping Beauty's wake... in modernday England. It's really just a thinly-veiled commentary on the bleakness of industrialism... but I'm starting to really get into it.

If I really feel insane, I may go ahead and write the whole thing over the summer.

And no, I really don't know what I'm getting myself into.

[Lief Erikson]

I read The Golden Helm and enjoyed it a lot . The main character was very clever to do what he did . . . and all before supper time!

Now I'm going to give a few comments on the story, covered to avoid giving spoilers to others who might want to read the book .

I really think that those characters ought to keep the helmet; it's so easy for them to do immense good with it. Of course, it's easy for immense evil to be done with it too- that's easy to imagine. They'd have to be very careful who the bearer is. The conclusion is peaceful and draws all everything together very nicely. To tell the truth, I'm not used to such pleasant endings coming without violence! Was it the wolf that came up with the plan to accomplish the mission, or the main character? I can't really remember at this point; I read the story a couple days ago but wasn't able to post about it until today. The main character was very intelligent and good at being careful what magic he used, and figuring out what purposes it could be put to. I actually expected events to guide him more than happened; it actually turned out that he guided events. I was also glad that the mermaid lived. I like how you described the bad guy. Cold, ruthless on the outside, but then on the inside it shows the inner pain that most people don't think about, but which I believe is there in most horrible people. That's one of the things I strive for in my books, to make the bad characters have reasons for being bad. I don't like to just throw them in, automatically bad, but I prefer to make them have good reasons for being what they are so that they seem human. His upbringing is a good reason and I'm glad it was shown. Some things the story lacked, I thought, was much character development for the main character, and also there wasn't any strong bad guy. This isn't always a problem, but it made the story, though extremely happy, not extraordinarily suspensful. I liked your writing style, and you're good at writing. Have you written many stories so far?

[Aralyn]

what are some of the basic plots of your stories? have you been writing long?

Only about two years. Since I discovered I LOVE it and my Mom can't say, "You can't write cause your in trouble!"

My plots vary. I like strong female characters and I try to do plots no one has done. I always give my Characters a flaw cause I read too many goody girl perfect people stories. My fave plot is where two ordinary kids try to stop terrorists. And no one believes they can do it or even believes its happening.

[Aralyn]

Thanx Gwaimair. i Love this site.

[Entlover]

Thank you for the detailed comments, Lief Erickson.

Your books? Where and what have you written?

i appreciate the constructive criticism; it's very useful. Yes, I have a hard time with evildoers because I can't really see why anybody would want to do bad stuff, when creative stuff is more fun --- bad guys must have a certain level of immaturity. But then you get very smart criminals like -- several political figures spring to mind, but I don't want to get into that here. I wonder what makes them tick.

My favorite story on the site (and the shortest) is Sandwich.

Free-fiction is publishing a collection of my stories, someday.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

For smart villians, don't forget Moriarity.

[Lief Erikson]

I've written a series of Star Trek stories, each of which is on average slightly over thirty pages long. That was quite a while ago. Since then I've written one novel which was 105 pages long and a sequel to it which was 150 pages long. These were fantasy books, but they were mere preparation for my great work, which is the Erinosad Trilogy. Erinosad is the name of the fantasy world in this trilogy. The one of those that I'm working on now is called The Uirlon Cord, which is so far about 350 pages long, but my calculations so far show that it'll likely end up around 580 or 600 pages. It's book 2 of the trilogy. I haven't written book 1 yet.

Then, I've also written a few short stories of various time periods and subjects.

Originally posted by Entlover
i appreciate the constructive criticism; it's very useful. Yes, I have a hard time with evildoers because I can't really see why anybody would want to do bad stuff, when creative stuff is more fun --- bad guys must have a certain level of immaturity. But then you get very smart criminals like -- several political figures spring to mind, but I don't want to get into that here. I wonder what makes them tick.

They primarily don't care that what they're doing is evil. They might not think that what they're doing is evil, or they think it's justified by the cause they're fighting for, or they've been brought up to be bad (As your villain was) . . . there are a bunch of possible reasons.

In my book, The Uirlon Cord, one of the villains is bad because of a desire for revenge, when good guys accidentally killed someone who was close to him. It made him furious at the good guys, and because of this he seeks to destroy them. It makes him think that his evil is justified because of what they did.

Two other of the villains are actually worse than him, but they have more excuse. They know that what they do is evil and don't attempt to justify it in their minds. But they were brought up that way. Original impressions from youth and being brought up to believe something can have strong impact upon an individual's life course.

Another of the villains also became a villain because he was deceived, tricked into thinking that the good guys had done a wicked deed against him that in actuality they hadn't.

Originally posted by Entlover
My favorite story on the site (and the shortest) is Sandwich.

Free-fiction is publishing a collection of my stories, someday.

That's great! How large is your collection, so far?

[Lief Erikson]

Originally posted by Tessar
Do I write fantasy?

I'm trying too...

You're doing great so far, as you know . Are you still doing primarily RPGs, or are you doing short stories or books yet?

[Galenavar]

*shyly raises hand*

I've written some fantasy. I've written a short 'novel' taking place in a tavern with all sorts of fantasy folks that hang out in it. It's called Cat's- The only place for Non-Normals (normals also welcome). That's what the title is right now, basically because that's the name of the tavern. The bartender's a half-elf and some of the usuals are a wizard, a werewolf, and a vampire to name a few.

I've also done some short stories. In fact, I have just finished one called "Otherworld Lullaby". It's an urban fantasy and I'm working on the next one in it's series right now.

My boyfriend has also written a fantasy novel that he is trying to raise money to get published. He has a hundred bucks to go, though. I don't know if I'm going to try to publish mine yet.

[Lief Erikson]

What kind of a book is yours? I mean, is it the classic kind of fantasy with heroes trying to accomplish a quest against some sort of a dark evil, or what? If you could sum up the plot in a few sentences, what would it be? Though you can give a longer description, if you like .

[Galenavar]

Well, this is the basic plot of the first one. There's this tavern in this town in the southern US, modern day times. The regulars are not normal. The half-elf bartender and her friends, consisting of a vampire, a good wizard, a werewolf, a girl with split personalities, and a man with incredible luck, fight this evil wizard from the good wizard's past to save him. That's the basic plot, but there's a lot of little sub-plots in there as well.

The urban fantasy is about this girl who is lulled to sleep each night by a melody played outside her window. She runs away from home and meets all sorts of Faerie types in the city.

That's a basic rundown.

[Laurus Nobilis]

I have a hard time with evildoers because I can't really see why anybody would want to do bad stuff, when creative stuff is more fun --- bad guys must have a certain level of immaturity.

I have problems with those characters, too. My villains turn out horribly flat. I know they're supposed to have a motivation, even if it's not explicitly said in the story, but what on Earth could motivate someone to turn into a Dark Wizard and try to take over the world???

Does anyone know how to handle fantasy villains?

[galadriel]

Originally posted by Laurus Nobilis
I have problems with those characters, too. My villains turn out horribly flat. I know they're supposed to have a motivation, even if it's not explicitly said in the story, but what on Earth could motivate someone to turn into a Dark Wizard and try to take over the world???

Does anyone know how to handle fantasy villains?

I admittedly haven't written many villians, but I've read/watched enough bad ones (and goods ones) that I have an opinion on the matter.

I guess a good place to look is Tolkien: Morgoth wanted to destroy creation to spite Eru (God). Sauron wanted to control everything to (ostensibly) make it better - kind of like Hitler.

I think the most important thing about a villian's motive is that the villian didn't start out evil. For instance, Sauron started out as an altruist. Then he decided that being a dictator was the only way of achieving that goal. Soon enough, he started to liked efficiency (and, of course, being the boss) more than making the world a better place. Before you know it, you have a power-hungry villian.