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the eyes have it
Oct. 23rd, 2021 11:06 pmWhen writing description in a story, always remember the point of view.
And when NOT writing description in a story, always remember the point of view.
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And when NOT writing description in a story, always remember the point of view.
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metaphysics and the series
Oct. 1st, 2020 11:40 pmThere are many good reasons for shoving the fictional metaphysics of your world off-stage, but one of them is that your story may turn into a series.
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the DM vs the writer, monsters
Sep. 23rd, 2020 10:59 pmWas contemplating a book full of monsters and stats. . . .
You don't want to use the omnium-gatherum in a novel. Lacks unity. OTOH, you often don't want to use them in a game. Many discussions recommend paring them down hard.
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You don't want to use the omnium-gatherum in a novel. Lacks unity. OTOH, you often don't want to use them in a game. Many discussions recommend paring them down hard.
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effects and side effects
Jun. 21st, 2019 10:01 pm There are drugs. If you have superpowers, you can use them to control your superpowers. One will block them, the other will negate it or even boost you past your normal state.
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whether there will be weather
Jun. 4th, 2019 10:36 pm One of the things fairy tales leave out in their sparseness is weather. Unless you need a storm to cause shipwreck or a merchant to be lost, or a wind to blow a ship home, or other plot device, there is no weather.
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not the needed spell
Mar. 17th, 2019 11:59 pmOne advantage a novelist has over a DM is that the Gamelit characters that need to prepare spells can do so -- if necessary, retroactively -- to give them the right spells.
One disadvantage is that the novelist can thereby give them all the right spells. Players will not blunder into a situation unprepared or inadequately prepared. Which is where the drama lies.
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One disadvantage is that the novelist can thereby give them all the right spells. Players will not blunder into a situation unprepared or inadequately prepared. Which is where the drama lies.
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ah, plot bunnies
Feb. 25th, 2019 10:11 pmSo poking around in history led to the notion of a story.
Now, world-building in general can be hard to turn into a story, but this was history, and even about a war, with a central character. (A reflection on GameLit world-building, so some structure there.)
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Now, world-building in general can be hard to turn into a story, but this was history, and even about a war, with a central character. (A reflection on GameLit world-building, so some structure there.)
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points of view
Dec. 29th, 2018 03:21 pmOne thing that fairy tales do not worry about is time. Since they follow a single character -- and switch when another is taken out of the plot -- and the rare exceptions often do not meet again, and seldom are depending on the exact timing, it is rarely important. If the hero's wife had to have given birth while he's gone -- well, tramping over thrice nine kingdoms does take a minute or two.
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wars and rumors of war
Dec. 28th, 2018 04:01 pm Someone would have heard. . .
Fairy tales generally report the news when the main character stumbles on it: a hero can walk right up to a town before hearing that they have to sacrifice a maiden to the dragon every year, and this year the lot has fallen on the princess.
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Fairy tales generally report the news when the main character stumbles on it: a hero can walk right up to a town before hearing that they have to sacrifice a maiden to the dragon every year, and this year the lot has fallen on the princess.
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reasons of fairy tale state
Jul. 28th, 2018 05:00 pmRead a claim that actually Hans's twist was foreshadowed in Frozen, even though most people would not pick it up.
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Was reading an essay -- "The Dungeon as Underworld" -- complaining about realism in dungeons.
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the horror, the horror
Aug. 25th, 2017 10:46 pmWas philosophically contemplating how hard it would be to convey to most readers how horrible some things were in past years. So that they could really enter into the dread of and danger for the characters. (And get some realism in it.)
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reflections on epic
Jul. 30th, 2016 09:12 pmIn one respect, Amber is much more epic than Lord of the Rings. It involves scads upon scads of worlds, and their fate.
It doesn't feel like it.
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It doesn't feel like it.
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world-building and supers
Apr. 24th, 2016 07:26 pmlooking at The Grimnoir Chronicles -- and superhero world-building.
Ah, an explanation of why superpowers appeared when they did! A combination sort of fantasy/superhero/SF sort of reason. I note that this reason was not only integral to the plot, it was the driving force behind it. The complications of world-building is that sometimes it has to drive the story.
Also liked the very realistic treatment of people's reactions. On one hand, the fear of the powers, on the other hand the freedom of the Actives. . . though no one pointed out that if they can control people who can throw around tanks and the like, what can they do to Normals?
Ah, an explanation of why superpowers appeared when they did! A combination sort of fantasy/superhero/SF sort of reason. I note that this reason was not only integral to the plot, it was the driving force behind it. The complications of world-building is that sometimes it has to drive the story.
Also liked the very realistic treatment of people's reactions. On one hand, the fear of the powers, on the other hand the freedom of the Actives. . . though no one pointed out that if they can control people who can throw around tanks and the like, what can they do to Normals?
A completely unreal world
Feb. 21st, 2016 01:41 amIt is necessary to create constraints, in order to invent freely. In poetry the constraint can be imposed by meter, foot, rhyme, by what has been called the "verse according to the ear." In fiction, the surrounding world provides the constraint. This has nothing to do with realism (even if it explains also realism). A completely unreal world can be constructed, in which asses fly and princesses are restored to life by a kiss; but that world, purely possible and unrealistic, must exist according to structures defined at the outset (we have to know whether it is a world where a princess can be restored to life only by the kiss of a prince, or also by that of a witch, and whether the princess's kiss transforms only frogs into princes or also, for example, armadillos).
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco
