Fantasy

Most of the other genres already have one, so we should have one too!

Have your characters go on a huge quest for a magical object
BP the quest is a sub plot, not the main plot
TBP if the object turns out to be useless because all it does is make cheese
QBP it it is actually useful because it makes cheese
Cookies if the object really helps save the day by making cheese

So that we don't clutter up the forum with dozens of writing buddy requests, here's a single, consolidated thread to post your requests!

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, and which main genre it is for (there is more than one thread like this.). Requests that do not include a link will not be added.

• Arthurian Fantasy
• Contemporary Fantasy
• Fantasy Mystery/Thriller/Spy-fi
• Historical Fantasy
• Urban Fantasy
• Steampunk
• Sword and Planet
• Sword and Sorcery
• Young Adult Fantasy
• The New Weird

How does one get past the prejudices of the reader in the modern world versus the truth of the historical world that fantasy is often built in?

I'm not saying one should write for say leftist Christians who will scoff at magic, or ultra-feminists, but how does one write past the average reader of fantasy who may not know much about history and doesn't know it yet, but they have cultural hang ups in their own culture?

For example:

Age of marriage in Agricultural world may be something like 10 years old (though they might not consummate until the girl is older). In Industrial, we'd call that pedophilia. How about age 16 with a 40 year old, which also happened. The original King Arthur story had Guinevere at 16 and he was somewhere in his 40's. She loved him, but cheated on him. If the woman doesn't do the whole rant and overturning of the system, won't people object?

Attitudes towards feminism. For example, in Northern India some women don't like the "women's right movement" and will block it. If one writes from their POV, that's called anti-feminist. If one writes about how the removing of the burke is really a restriction of women's movements, or a woman who stays in the palace supporting her husband, wouldn't people have a knee jerk reaction to that and drop the book? (I have a post feminist attitude towards women...)

Attitudes towards beauty. (I tried to get around this one too, but I'm not so convinced I did it well). Today's standard is the skinny woman, often on fantasy covers as scantily clad with big breasts, going around defeating men. The reality is that in the majority of the cultures, being chubby was a good thing and the compulsion was to make women fatter because the babies would be healthier with more fat.

Polygyny was a fact for many countries. How does one get past this without people going into feminist rants about how it degrades women. (From studying it, I think it degrades men more...)

Hey, all
I see so many requests in the forums I thought I'd post some links to really useful websites for food, brewing, travel information, etc.
Here are timelines, recipes, cookbooks, equipment, historical menus from homes, hotels, camping and military etc, garden, agriculture, medical and herb information and more.
Many of these have great illustrations too! (for those who like visuals)

http://www.foodtimeline.org/ This one has chronology on the left, links to online books, recipes, research projects, pictures, etc. on the right.

This site will get you almost anything you want, just browse through the links to other websites- it's organized by subject, area and period. Renfrow is very well-known as a researcher, author and re-creator of historical food and drink using historical methods and ingredients.
The sites include facsimiles of original documents scanned in, transcriptions, translations and modern redactions.
(I personally recommend Cariadoc's Miscellany for excellent, accurate modernized versions of ancient recipes, accurate information on Arab historical food and customs, and for travel, arms and armor, while florilegium.org has discussions on everything medieval you can think of)
She also has essays on building ancient ovens, beekeeping, kitchens and equipment and tools...with PICTURES.
clicky!
http://www.thousandeggs.com/cookbooks.html
http://www.thousandeggs.com/links.html
http://www.thousandeggs.com/links.html#Miscellaneous

A rec from Renfrow- go, look at the recipe index- the old illustrations turn into modern recreations! You can see Victorian desserts and ornamental pies, lambs on a chain spit roasting in a fireplace...this ones fun.
http://www.historicfood.com/portal.htm
http://www.historicfood.com/RecipesIndex.htm

So, I'm having my characters do various tasks for a shop owner to get some items. The task they're doing right now, is making a potion, but they don't know what it does, and at the end someone's going to test it.
Thing is, I dunno what to make it do.
I was thinking of having it change the person into the opposite gender for a while (to piss off the character who I'd have test it), but I'm not sure. I'm looking more for appearance changes/transforming potions, but anything is fine.
So what are some things I could have this potion do?

Vampyre Princess leaves a world of royalty and solace in search of a haunting dream that leads her to a new world of un speakable enslavement of all women.
is the synopsis feel free to take a look at my page for an excerpt of the first few pages.

I would love comments or tips to the trade as this will be my first novel to get a full review by anyone other than me.

Hi guys

Wondered if I could get some brainstorming help, I've got a scene where a group of characters who are training in martial arts-type fighting skills (with some magic involved) in a Temple go to their ceremony after a year's training to get awards... think like the grading system in Martial Arts, where you have your grading to prove your proficiency and skills and then get awarded your belt and new grade after if you make it through. The thing is, I don't want to give them belts or anything too similar to Eastern martial arts as I'm trying to keep the culture distinct in it's own right, but... my minds gone blank!

So aside from belts or medals, what can I give them to show their new grade/rank?! All ideas welcome! I was thinking of developing a named ranking system too (a name for the first grade/rank, another name for the second etc) but never got quite that far when I was planning this nano!

Thanks in advance!

So, I'm writing fantasy (uh, obviously), and it's set to a world where people keep dragons as domestic animals. And then there's this organisation OAD (organization against dragon-keeping), which is the villain. The problem is that, well, they're doing it because the dragons aren't treated that well...

Oh, did I forget to mention? They're the bad guys. Yeah, I'm kind of implying protecting animal-rights is evil. *facepalm*

Do you have any unfortunate implications in your novel?

In my story there really aren't any adults. My two MC are 15 and 19 and i'm tyring to decide if they will sleep together. I originally thought no, because they start off really hating each other. And though by the end of the novel they're best friends, they each have their own love interests they will and up with. But my characterization is changing a bit and now i don't think they'll hate each other quite so much.

My question: do you think they would have sex, based purely on the fact that they have crazy hormones and no reason really not to except that they don't know each other very well? (they have no concept of the consequnces of sex - they don't realize it leads to pregnancy etc, they just know it feels good and it's what their hormones are driving them to do.)

Any opinions would be helpful