04-16-2013, 07:34 AM | #16 |
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Thanks for your tips. I've also found this website:
http://www.danielarenson.com/FantasyWritingTips.aspx He has quite some useful stuff to say. (And I like those book covers of his ) Another fantasy author to add to my TBR list... someday... To be honest, I don't expect this to be more than "standard fantasy", but I don't think my story will be any more epic or literary than that. No matter. I'll just have to try this. |
04-16-2013, 07:54 AM | #17 |
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My advice is: sit down make an outline and start writing. Do not worry about the length. Nowadays you are not bound by what publishers consider "the right" number of pages.
You can publish it as a Kindle Short, or make a huge volume series like this guy did. |
04-16-2013, 08:12 AM | #18 |
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Heh. If I see the novels George R. R. Martin writes, having to split one book up into 2 pieces and still having them turn out at 800 pages (with him saying: "And I needed to cut the story short, as I saw no end in sight"), it seems everything goes nowadays.
And of course, it's always bigger than expected... I need some horses, because I've got some serious distance to cover. Damn. I don't know anything about horses, let alone medieval ones. I must watch out that I don't write any unrealistic stuff. Fantasy is fantasy, but a normal horse apparently can't travel at 25 mph for 8 hours on a stretch, despite what the movies say. Ah well, I've learned some stuff about horses yesterday anyway, without even going to the library, thanks to the internet Last edited by Katsunami; 04-16-2013 at 08:21 AM. |
04-16-2013, 09:13 AM | #19 | |
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04-16-2013, 09:39 AM | #20 | ||
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Quote:
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04-16-2013, 10:06 AM | #21 | |
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As I'm basing my characters off ^(some) Dungeons&Dragons classes, they might actually get to use some (A)D&D-like potions and stuff. Maybe I should have SpeedFreak Oaths for my horses, or a "Temporarily Become a Purple Pegasus" potion to mix into the water Pity if that potion runs out when you're 500 feet up in th air...
Nah; if all else fails, I could always use a Deus Ex Machina and suddenly have a horse sprout a Turbo Boost function if it's too slow to be on time for a needed invent No, mustn't do that. I hate Deus Ex Machina. It's a cheap bail-out. But I like this one: Quote:
Last edited by Katsunami; 04-16-2013 at 10:12 AM. |
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04-16-2013, 01:16 PM | #22 | |
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Speaking of dialog attributions, In John Scalzi's "Redshirts" he uses "he said" and "she said" WAY too much, I think. When two people are talking to each other alone at a table, after the first attribution or two, the "close quotes-new paragraph" is MORE than enough cue as to who is speaking, thank you very much! (That being said "Redshirts" is a great read, thank you Mr. Scalzi! ) |
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04-16-2013, 01:41 PM | #23 | ||
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Agree with above post. I don't like it when authors use "he said" / "she said" or variants thereof in a longer discussion. It's more than enough to indicate who is the first and second speaker. After that, the dialog can just switch back and forth:
(Text translated from Dutch to English, from a book I recently finished.) Quote:
Quote:
Last edited by Katsunami; 04-16-2013 at 01:45 PM. |
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04-16-2013, 01:57 PM | #24 |
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04-16-2013, 02:17 PM | #25 |
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04-16-2013, 03:28 PM | #26 | |
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Hm, OK. I've looked into a few books, and I've also seen this:
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04-16-2013, 03:31 PM | #27 | |
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Why? Good question. It does seem rather non-intuitive to me. But I've been reading and writing American English for about 40 years now, and that's always been the correct way, so anything else looks immediately wrong. Do I recall correctly that it's different in British English*? ApK * As claimed here: http://www.scribophile.com/academy/c...ion-mark-usage p.s. Just flipped through some "search inside" pages on amazon.co.uk. I checked Jane Austen, J.K. Rowling and whomever was on the current bestseller list, and while some use single quotes around dialog and others used double, they all put the comma INSIDE the quotes. Last edited by ApK; 04-16-2013 at 03:53 PM. |
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04-16-2013, 03:53 PM | #28 | ||
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I think I'll just stick to the American style then, as I'm used to that the most with regard to reading. |
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04-16-2013, 03:57 PM | #29 | |
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But even if it's acceptable, if some places tolerate it either way, and some places see outside as wrong, you might as well put it inside and be safe everywhere. Also, see my added postscript above. |
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04-16-2013, 05:02 PM | #30 |
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"So, I get this," said a new poster in the thread.
"But what about a question?" asked someone else. "Yeah, does the question mark go in the quotes, or do you use a comma and toss it out at the end," asked the first poster? |
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