Fantasy

Hi!

Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but I find my writing is greatly influenced by the success of my fellow NaNo-ites. This year, sadly, only three of my long time friends are returning to the fray along with me. I'm looking for some other fellow fantasy writers to add to my writing buddies list. We all share a common thread - the love of writing fantasy. I know we can keep track of each other's stats by looking each other up, but I think it would be fun to make some new friends too.

Whether your novel is high fantasy, steampunk, urban fantasy, dark fantasy, historical fantasy, or alternate history with some vague fantasy elements, it doesn't matter to me. Want to be writing buddies? Let me know and I'll happily add you to my list of people to send cheerleading/commiserating/minutely inspiring PM's to as we struggle along through the month of November.

(And before, if you like.)

Fantasy is such a far-reaching label that it simply can't cover all the possibilities. Here you'll find a comprehensive listing of those who aren't writing just fantasy!

NOUN: A subcategory within a particular genre: The academic mystery is a subgenre of the mystery novel.

To have your subgenre thread added to this list, please send me an email with a LINK to the thread. Requests that do not include a link will not be added.

• Contemporary
• Dark & Urban
• Espionage/Thriller/Mystery
• Fantasy Western
• Mythic Fiction
• Romantic
• Sci Fi/Fantasy
• Steampunk
• Sword & Sorcery

So, for my novel, originally, this guy named Edmond was traveling to Reykjavik, Iceland, because a woman lived there who had made a prophecy about him when he was born, and he wanted to find out what it was. He knew about the prophecy because he overheard his father talking about it, but he didn't dare ask, because his father is an evil dictator and really scary.

However, I edited my novel and changed it, and prophecies are no longer really prophecies. It's complicated, but basically, a seer predicts a "role"; the main one in question for this book is the Great Leader, someone who will unite the feuding rebel factions and lead them to overthrow the evil government (which is run by Edmond's father). So there's the role of Great Leader, but whoever wants to fill it, can. But it works as a prophecy because only a very special kind of person would want to do that in the first place, someone who has a huge grudge against the evil government, is a strong leader, and does things a little different from everybody else. Other than that, though, it can be anybody; people choose themselves, except it's unconscious, they don't know they're filing a role unless somebody tells them, and it's agreed that you're not supposed to do that.

Anyway, I hope that made sense, and sorry if it didn't. However, because of this, there can't be a prophecy about Edmond when he was born, because prophecies aren't made about specific people, and people choose themselves, so he would have to be old enough to do something prophecy-worthy. Which he doesn't do until he goes to Reykjavik. So why does he go to Reykjavik in the first place? He needs to see this woman, because she gives him important information, and she also has important information for my MC, who is traveling with him. But it's information he wouldn't know he needed until she told him.

My main character is a feamle shifter, the first born to a now extinct race. She is _supposed_ to fall for one of the other males born a shifter. Ok, let me give a little background. There are three shifters born in the new era(all shifters had died off). The first three to be born are wolf shifters; two are male, and one is female. Originally, I'd made one of the other males to be her love interest, because of the plot, but as I've developed the characters and written some, she's falling for a normal wolf that can't shift, hence, screwing up the plot. It feels wrong to write her with the other character, but it's better for my plot. As a side note: In the end, she spends most of her time as a wolf anyways, living with a pack. She doesn't like to be in human form. What do I do??

I am re-writing my novel this year, and there is something I am not happy with at the moment. I tried to get some help last year, but I asked at the wrong time, when everyone was celebrating finishing I think. :-)

My MC is a Werewolf, and in the final confrontation with the bad guy, he is disabled with a sonic generator device. The high frequency noise affects the MC because of his hearing. In an effort to resist it, he deliberately bursts his own eardrums.

What I don't know is whether:

1. Is it feasible to have a sound that disables wolves/dogs/werewolves only?
2. Would bursting your eardrums affect your sensitivity to the sound.

Believe it or not, there is little in the way of literature on this subject. Obviously no-one has thought through the implications of having Lycans among us. :-0

Alright, let me just jump straight into this. I have this story, it's all set in the same building, a stage, and centered around the theatrical troupe that performs there. Not standard plays, but productions conveyed through dance and wordless motion. And music, they do have an orchestra. WELL. I have a character that was meant to serve as a best friend for my FMC, and I did mean for them to be close, but after writing a few scenes with them they seem to be falling for each other. This best friend is also female.

The main is sort of naive, but very, very ambitious, and the best friend is a little bit older and understands the sort of 'stage politics' that the FMC is sort of oblivious to. She'll go behind the female main and clean up certain things she's done, or go behind her back and make sure certain problems don't come back on her.

My issue with this is more along the lines of I don't want it to seem like I'm including the obligatory gay couple in my fiction. The whole thing was really an accident, but now I'm concerned with it all seeming too...contrived.

What do you think? From the type of story and what you know of the characters, does it seem too soap box or do you think I'll be okay?

Please help!

I am starting to plan my 2009 NaNo. This will be my first Nano, in fact it will be my first book, so I very much value the opinion of all you gnarled veteran fantasy writers.

One of the central plot lines is going to be a power struggle between the newly crowned Teeenage Monarch thrust into position by the untimely death of her father and the ruthless old / middle-aged head of the church / temple (a kind of Papal figure).

My perceived problem is that having a central, well subscribed to faith as a central part of the plot, sits (or might sit) at odds with the presence of Magic (of which there will be several colleges).

Is this a problem others have had to wrestle with, or am I making too much of this? My thoughts thus far is that Magic is effectively Science (but taken further than the laws of our world's physics would allow). I would very much appreciate advice of how others have incorporated this into their setting / plot.

I'm pretty sure that it'd be alright to write a novel based around the D&D world (or, more accurately, my homebrew world that I wrote for D&D). But I want to make certain: Would this be alright?
Thanks for the help in advance.

Ok, this may sound strange.

I do some daily writing exercises from Teacher's Corner http://www.theteacherscorner.net/daily-writing-prompts/index.htm and CMMayo http://www.cmmayo.com/d5mwe.html to warm me up and keep me ticking over with my writing muscles.... and today's prompt was to write some jokes.

Mine were terrible but it got me thinking: writing the jokes and/or proverbs of your world is a really good and fast way to establish culture and build up setting, without a lot of work.

You know, 'The only good dwarf is a dead dwarf,' etc. Goblin jokes always about bodily functions. (I'm thinking Artemis Fowl here, sorry). But it would work for lots of cultures or groups. It could lead to conflict - jokes not funny to elves, some races with no humour, etc - and just as overheard speech, can quickly add to a scene without the need for much backstory.

Writing proverbs gives you instant history without needing to explain it in any detail.

Just a thought! I will be writing some proverbs and sayings for my new nano-world just to see where it leads me.

Hope it's useful. The prompts are good anyway if your brain is in need of a kickstart.

-Hope

Over the last few days, I've been thinking of various ways in which an army/soldier/warrior could be trained as well as the drills they'd be made to go through. Although I've got a few ideas, I'd appreciate if you guys could share your knowledge on this. Are there any sites dedicated to this stuff - something like ancient warfare?

There is one I'm particularly interested in, something that involved tying of (weighted) wristbands and leg bands to increase the dexterity of the warrior - in particular for swordsmen maybe? I'd like to find out this method's actual name as well as any negative affects.