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Too Good To Be True and other plot devices
Sep. 9th, 2023 11:44 pmA frequent fantastical plot device is the production of something wonderful that will produce real and earth-shaking changes for the better -- only for it to be revealed that it has a secret flaw.
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super special
Apr. 28th, 2023 11:58 pmSupers are unique. Or at least belong to a small and probably interrelated group, who all have (more or less) the same origin.
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reflections on theme
Apr. 3rd, 2023 11:59 pmYou start with what you start.
But in some respects, if the muse puts forth a theme, it's the hardest thing to work with.
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But in some respects, if the muse puts forth a theme, it's the hardest thing to work with.
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deep thinks on magical development
Feb. 19th, 2023 03:48 pmI was pondering the world I was making and realized that since wizards make things that will generate monsters long after the wizard is gone. . .
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necromancers nattering
Jan. 11th, 2023 11:04 pmShould I put in a scene of the necromancers nattering about an important justification for certain events? Which also has philosophical implications. . . .
It's the point of view question.
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It's the point of view question.
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philosophic discussion
Sep. 27th, 2022 11:23 pmSo the characters are standing around arguing about justice and the rule of law and vigilantes especially when its officers of the law who are breaking the law. . . .
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villains and conflict
Oct. 13th, 2021 10:30 pmWhen writing superhero stories about an inner or philosophical conflict -- what is the best use of my powers? should powers serve the law to preserve order even at the price of accepting more injustices? -- you have to invent villains and conflict. Becuase what's a superhero without a villain or two to toss around?
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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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the DM vs the writer, on magic objects
Apr. 29th, 2020 10:56 pmNovels don't lend themselves as well to a plenitude of magical objects as a game does.
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let there be light
Mar. 19th, 2020 10:21 pmPondering whether there will be weather. And how much of it?
All very well to set up the dramatic scene with a thunderstorm threatening in the evening, but if the heroine and friends are to flee a mile down a road -- in the wild, with trees to either side -- with maybe a lantern --
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All very well to set up the dramatic scene with a thunderstorm threatening in the evening, but if the heroine and friends are to flee a mile down a road -- in the wild, with trees to either side -- with maybe a lantern --
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tell me a story
Apr. 22nd, 2019 10:56 pm I wasn't planning on this. But in no less than two novels, characters are going to sit down in lulls in the actions and gather 'round the fire -- literally in one case, in the other they can't get the fire wood -- and one of them is going to tell a story. . . .
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Anyone with the heretical gall to ask an ironist what he actually stands for ends up looking like a hysteric or a prig. And herein lies the oppressiveness of institutionalized irony, the too-successful rebel: the ability to interdict the question without attending to its content is tyranny.
David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace
Shortly before the story begins, the heroine's father became a noble.
I've yet to decide whether he was blindsided by an unexpected inheritance, or by the king's deciding to ennoble him. Blindsided is definite, he does not like the duties of the new role. . . .
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I've yet to decide whether he was blindsided by an unexpected inheritance, or by the king's deciding to ennoble him. Blindsided is definite, he does not like the duties of the new role. . . .
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chaotic evil vs. lawful evil
Jan. 6th, 2018 08:20 pmNot the D&D alignments, which are as messy and incoherent as the rest of the alignment system.
But -- is the evil in the world organized and unified, or not?
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But -- is the evil in the world organized and unified, or not?
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