Writing Advice

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

Well, I solved my dragon size problem, the programmer way:[Gargantuan file linked]Thank goodness for modding tools with premade, scalable art!This seems pretty good for my purposes. My dragons will have better posture than Skyrim's (plus they have forelimbs in addition to wings), which kind of hunch over, so if this dragon straightens up a bit, he'll be able to look that guy right in the eye and be really intimidating, like I want. At the same time, if he folds his wings, he could squeeze through that doorway without too much difficulty, and he's not so big that he'd be completely unrelatable as a person.RE: Space travel:In my universe I have a really simple solution to relativity: I just made the speed of light infinite. Boom. No need for time travel, no need for special faster-than-light drives, I can just make my ships move at the speed of plot. Of course, I'm never going to actually explain my solution in-story; not only would it needlessly complicate things, but it wouldn't make sense to explain it, because the characters would have no concept of relativity.

Edited March 27, 2012 by Makaru
Filesize over limit.

[WriterofReapers]

Of course, I'm never going to actually explain my solution in-story; not only would it needlessly complicate things, but it wouldn't make sense to explain it, because the characters would have no concept of relativity.

This is similar to what I'm planning on doing with my story. How do you explain super powers in a way that makes sense scientifically? There are very few ways (if any), and even fewer that wouldn't likely push away less explanation-obsessed readers. Any explanations I have as to where the powers came from will stay trapped within my noggin.Or should I not do that? Do you guys think explaining how people across the world started developing powers around a decade prior to the start of the story is necessary to the plot? I know it can differ from story to story, but in general which do you prefer? Edited March 25, 2012 by Despair

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

This is similar to what I'm planning on doing with my story. How do you explain super powers in a way that makes sense scientifically? There are very few ways (if any), and even fewer that wouldn't likely push away less explanation-obsessed readers. Any explanations I have as to where the powers came from will stay trapped within my noggin.Or should I not do that? Do you guys think explaining how people across the world started developing powers around a decade prior to the start of the story is necessary to the plot? I know it can differ from story to story, but in general which do you prefer?

This is the story with the stuck-up sun god, right? A story like that needs no explanations - it needs to stay in the realm of the absurd. Besides, superpowers are a generally accepted suspension of disbelief - it's easy enough to think "ok, this story has superheroes" and keep reading.Wait - it's only a decade before your story starts? Hmmm... might want to get into that a bit, then. If it's something new to your world (as opposed to something like the Incredibles, where there have basically always been superheroes), then I think some explanation is in order. Although, if it were my story, I would consider expanding the timeline of these powers rather than try to explain where they came from. If you do choose to give an explanation, I'd make it something kind of silly that doesn't fully explain it. Edited March 25, 2012 by Jedi Knight Krazy

[WriterofReapers]

No, that would Beardy Spoon's story. I've never actually gone into detail on what I'm writing, partly because it's posted on a site with forums/comments, and partly because I just can't explain it very well.Hmm, the Incredibles example actually just made me remember something that would help. However, I guess I made a mistake when I was asking my question. Just ignore the "around a decade" part; it isn't necessary for what I'm trying to ask.Seriously, why did I put that in there...?

[BenLuke]

^ to amuse anyone familiar with DC and Marvel's constantly sliding timeline?

[Jean Valjean]

I'm not against soft sci-fi. Superman is awesome, in spite of how often he breaks my Willing Suspension of Disbelief. Although I've decided that once I have a feel I'll stick with it, and continuity rules.And I've also set up a set of complex rules of my universe already. If an aspect of realism gets in the way, I tend to go down the path that it takes me and attempt to use it to the benefit of the story. So typically I have a legitimate subplot that doesn't take on the form of a Wandering Wayward Tribe.Aaaanyway, a few notes I've taken:On Craytus

Starting with Craytus. I finally drew a decent picture of him, although it will be a while before I share it on these forums because I'm going to wait until BZPower's birthday so I can post it on my blog. Though I've decided that it looks really cool and I'm going with it. The picture itself is even good enough to be of bookcover quality, so I'll definitely keep it saved for later in case I can actually illustrate my own books.Too bad Craytus gets beheaded by the end of the first book. For the rest of the series, he's depicted as having replaced his old head with the Eye of Quarr, which is equally demonic, just in a different way. Thing is, Craytus has been around for a long, long time, and all the while he's had the same helmet for a head, so it's definitely become characteristic of him. Though the audience doesn't necessarily know that, so during the main body of the series the Eye of Quarr seems to be more characteristic of him. But I still think of him as wearing the black helmet.Since I last posted the plot synopsis of the second book in the series (which was universally lauded on these forums), I changed the plot almost completely, save for the general setting and the characters involved. The focus allows for a more natural continuation of Part I, because the MacGuffin is Craytus' helmet. One of the freedom fighters from the first book brought the helmet to Alantra, only to find out that it has been cursed. At the risk of running a Lord of the Rings plot, the helmet inspires evil and causes widespread corruption.So what do they do? What any sane person would: throw it into space. Only for whatever reason (those have to be worked out yet), it doesn't work, or there are unintended consequences.So later on they discover Michael, who turns out to have been alive, but for reasons they don't understand is in another dimension (I've gone over the in-universe explanation for this before). Since he's strangely connected to Craytus, they main group of characters go to find him in the dimension of Waswardas, and are forced to bring the helmet along with them.There are several problems, however. A hooded nuadine hid on board. He then stole the IDTD from Monosmith and left, stranding them there in Waswardas on the archipelago planet of Neaphi. The helmet ends up causing a conflict based on the American Civil War (as there is a civil rights issue and a division among friends) and World War II (due to similar tactics and technology). Although it's really a war in its own right. There were even moments where Monosmith, being lawful good and adhering to a strict code of honor, has to deal with defeat under acceptable terms and also understand how the alien culture views victory. Brutus and Michael, former friends, must fight against each other as they have chosen different sides in the cursed war, as Michael drifts in and out of insanity induced by his encounter with Quarr in the previous book.There is a light amidst the darkness as some of the characters discover three ancient knights who looked over parts of the Pillars of Phox island chain. They wore white, gray, and black sets of armor. These aid the characters of Nixi and Monosmith in particular, whereas Monosmith also had the advantage of the glowing silver sword he had used to behead Craytus, and it saved his life many times in the battlefield.In spite of these good things that sound really impressive in a story, they can't really save the world. Even worse, the hooded nuadine returns, and the cult that had belonged to Craytus was with him. These dark beings wreaked havoc, the Hooded One slew all three knights as they each sought to take him on at once, recognizing him as their immortal enemy.At this point, the characters who witnessed this know that they are in trouble, because they're dealing with a Hero Killer.It leads to a pivotal plot point when the Hooded One also retrieves Craytus' helmet and uses it (possibly in a ritual that also incorporates the other helmets) to conduct a great curse on his staff. Before it had looked essentially something like an empty benching bar in a weight room, but with glowing blue shock energy sizzling on each end, but then the energy turned red. He took this staff and held it at the heads of the similar staffs wielded by the cult followers, and they each in turn sprouted a blue light, similar to that of the technological weapon, except this time the glow was magical, not of science.Monosmith had been able to take on people with these staffs before, considering that his staff was magical and theirs were technological, but now he found that he couldn't magically slice threw them, and the staffs had abilities that I would compare to the Rahkshis Panrahk and Guurahk. So yeah, series business.And then there's finally "The Reveal". It turns out that the Hooded One was Craytus all along, just with a new head. Whether or not that should be a surprise or not is something I sometimes debate on, since it isn't that difficult to guess. Although depending on how I represented it, I guess that I could cause people to second-guess themselves on this hunch.But anyway, the plot moves on. I still don't know the conclusion to Part II, but it does make for an interesting backdrop for the rest of the series, since Levenzwaards would no longer be the common magical weapon of choice and the fights aren't too similar to Jedi vs Sith. But I still establish a culture where there are people (almost exclusively Aardses) who wield Levenzwaards who fight evil, with the occasional dramatic encounter with their staff-wielding evil counterparts. Except every once and a while a good guy goes bad and they still wield a Levenzwaard, like Master Legious and Clear Water.These weapons mark a pretty easy way to identify two opposing factions of lawful good and chaotic evil. I like the concept and how it looks as far as how it turns out in my head, but unfortunately this space opera sounds kind of dumb when I write it down on these forums.

On Master Legious

Just a general note: I've already established him to be an architect who made a castle larger than the Mall of America on a floating island, decorated to a tee with fine art and carvings, geometrically perfect, and centered around a grand hall that's also one giant pipe organ. Being as cultured as he is, he naturally knows how to play this and compose his own music, usually highly mathematical. That sounds villainous at first glance, but on the other hand, I've recently figured that he's also known on Aarde as being its Great Detective.I thought about it and it does make for an interesting twist on that particular trope. Normally the detective is young, but he's over 9000 and sports a shining silver beard. And he looks like an angel. And he plays a pipe organ instead of a violin...although he can play that too. But you mix culture with excellent deduction skills and you pretty much get some variation of the Great Detective. I might as well play on this in Part III when he's introduced.I would also imagine that Nixi will have a nightmare of Quarr, which he should wake her up from. Perhaps it was because she was around him, since when she was rescued from Quarr she saw across time and space, and one of the things she saw was Master Legious.Thanks to him and Monosmith, by the way, in many parts of the universe fine wine is replaced with fine apple cider. If someone wants to look really re"fined" at formal gatherings or down-to earth at bars, apple cider's the name of the game. But basically, where there there are apples, there is culture.Except in the evil empires alcohol is still used. Higher minds such as Master, however, still drink cider.I also imagine him as being the type of fellow who would organize mentally handicapped individuals to give them an opportunity express themselves. Today I saw a group of really old people who had to deal with that sort of struggle brought up to sing for a church, and they were applauded. I think that Master Legious would be the type who would genuinely perceive this as talented expression, even though it's not "masterful" (which is a more technical form of talent), and be able to appreciate it.

On the 53 million years:

The first thing that comes to my mind is that there will be quite a legendary struggle between the wielders of the Levenzwaards and the wielders of the Craytus Staffs (which isn't their actual name). It has this certain appealing space opera feel to it. And I like that the villains are wielding blue weapons instead of red or green. Blue is almost exclusively a hero's color.Although perhaps I run the risk of setting blue up as an Apprentice color, seeing as Craytus and Master Legious wield red while Clear Water, like the cult of Craytus, wields blue.Another thing that comes to my mind is that I should establish a clear running cast of immortal characters to add consistency to the world, among them being Silver Bird, Lucy, Jack, Craytus, and Master Legious. Although actually, only Master Legious and Jack are truly immortal among these.I've decided that I want Clear Water to remain a young character both in body and mind by the time the series picks up again at the end of the 53 million years, but at the same time I want her present throughout the time span, so what happens is that Jack places a curse on her a year or so in that puts her into a deep sleep. I imagine that this would happens after she witnesses her crush, Hero, die, perhaps even at her own hands. While sometimes she's contacted by shared dreams, her mind doesn't really age over that time and she doesn't really have 53 million years worth of knowledge and experience. When she wakes up, it's like normally waking up, except she knows that it was a very long time.Otherwise, many midquels will follow Silver Bird finding legendary mortals, and he's really the only Aardse other than Master Legious and Clear Water to live throughout the entire 53 million year time period. Any person of exceptional capability is sent to the pocket dimension on Aarde there time is exceptionally slow, so that when Aarde reemerges in IDES Part IX, the Defenders will have quite a army at ready. And hopefully a ton of spaceships as well.Too bad they get whipped out all too fast after their dramatic resurgance, and Silver Bird dies. Still, it sets up a world filled with quite a few awesome people in one spot.Meanwhile, there is also a curse filling the universe. Its origins go back to something I called The Virus, which I have finally brought back in its full capacity and further developed to understand its full effects. The Virus is a curse of mystic origins, literally spread by Death, and it has the effect of blinding people to the Truth. It doesn't necessarily make them evil, but it does make it a hundred times easier to convert them to wickedness. Which makes Death pleased. And it makes a universe where you could plausibly have entire evil societies plausible. And it essentially elevates Master Legious to the level of Pope of the multiverse. And even Craytus has a very good following.I don't want to create rules for how that is spread, since I really want to give it a ghost story feel, although I suppose that I might have to figure out a means of contraction that feels consistent but doesn't necessarily lend itself into a visible pattern.I've often wondered how the heroes avoid being possessed by The Virus, although I think I'm beginning to come up with explanations. I also imagine that there might be a means of exorcism.But with what I said before, it allows for the idea of giant armies who literally have crossed the line of fighting for evil, which was an original concept I had for the series.Still, I also want there to be neutral parts of the universe and regular societies where people think more or less how we do about everyday life, although perhaps along the lines of different cultural mores. After all, otherwise I couldn't have some of those everyday slice of life moments set in the future, and I couldn't incorporate awesome ideas such as ALPHA, the ringworld that's 2000 lightyears in circumference, among other things.A friend and I were talking this over today, and we also figured that the film Forrest Gump has demonstrated that using modern technology (and this films was in the 90's), it would be extremely easy after a hundred years to completely simulate real people in a manner similar to the film The Running Man (the one based on the Stephen King novel starring Schwarzenegger). So basically, after a while the validity of any document that would otherwise constitute for proof in our society would be brought into question far enough in the future.Human society also forgets its origins over time. And so do the inmuns, pyronicans, Caithites, and several others, including the Kitiliks and multiple Neaphite species. That actually leads into the next spoiler.

On Quarr

He's destroyed in Part I. Except he's not. And his new body becomes a giant inferno one trillion times as luminous as Quasar 3C 273. Which pretty much makes him brighter than everything else in the universe combined.Plus, he sends out a psychic wave that travels faster than the speed of light. In order to avoid getting their minds being raped for all of eternity, all sentient species are evacuated from the Earth dimension, including the indigenous inmuns, pyronicans, Caithites, and so forth. Only, it seems that Quarr is quite merciful of his own race, however, and the nuadine become the sole inhabitants of our dimension.It also plays into a few huge plot points that dramatically affect the narrative of the whole story beyond just creating a forbidden world.The connection between the name Quarr and the word Quasar was completely unintentional, by the way.

On Femininity:

I still imagine that Master Legious influenced it profoundly. He looks fondly on gymnastics as an ideal sport for both genders, which he himself actively participates in. Yet at the same time he warns against human females practicing too hard lest they loose too much fat, since he strongly believes in traditional female proportions, which don't fit the same ideal that media represents.Seriously, the proportions expected of females as of the 20th century have been those of pre-adolescent boys (with the exception of a few extremities), which is wrong. Don't ask me why the modeling business began to skew the natural order of things. From cave drawings to Leonardo, art throughout the centuries has generally got the healthy proportions right.Now, I've already mentioned a universe of women with short hair, sometimes even women who are completely bald (I've noticed that this is almost exclusively a science fiction thing), and I just thought it would be interesting if there was a scene with the character Mary Maria fighting a male character with long hair and defeating him when she grabs on to his ponytail. I wouldn't deliberately set up for the contrast, though. It would be more of something that some readers, looking back, might realize the irony, but generally I want that irony to go underneath the radar. If I can do that, then perhaps I'd be successful in immersing the reader in a world where both sexes generally cut their hair short, or at least among humans. Because I seriously don't want to portray women with short hair as odd or conspicuous.But a brief detail like that tempts me.I don't know quite how I feel about dresses. It definitely varies from culture to culture, though, and when I'll can I'll depict men wearing some sort of equivalent, though universally I'll avoid writing about short dresses.I've decided that Mary Maria will wear in the second have of the series as part of her casual wear what appears to be a wedding dress. High color covering her neck, long sleeves, even a pair of lace and silk gloves. Looks rather impractical, but she could still kick butt in it if she was ambushed. And all stains disappear and tears fix themselves. I figured it's some sort of magic clothing. As random as it all sounds, I figured I wanted to still stick with certain traditional cultural ideas of what makes for femininity. I don't want to come off as saying that all girls have to be tomboys and abandon femininity altogether. Rather, I think that there are certain things that culture doesn't let us question that prevents us from truly understanding what femininity is, and I think that short hair truly is beautiful.Plus hopeful I can encourage more conservative dress codes. Why is it that outfits nowadays show so much skin? Especially female formal attire. I thought that part of dressing up meant covering up.End rant.

And there are various other details in my notes, although too many of them revolve around a rather important cosmic mystery, so I won't comment on them. Maybe it doesn't make a different anyway, though, considering nobody's going to read this.Your Honor,Tyrannsoaurus Kraggh Edited April 10, 2012 by Tyrannosaurus Kraggh

[Headless Onua]

yay! this thread's moved again! and how![why do all my best rants come at 0404? >.>]anyhoo, in response to the latest post, I've heard writing tips of my own, and can agree that they are true. in cases like creating your own world, the secret is worldbuild, worldbuild, worldbuild.which it seems you're doing, which is good.now, I did skim that post [i skim everything though, and somehow remember it, and so that's the same as me reading it], and it looks like you're showing us parts of various aspects of your world, particularly in that last box.now, correct me if I'm wrong, but assuming that it's about how the world works, and not the elements of a plot that you're talking about, I might give a few pointers.if this post about worldbuilding is irrelevant, just let me know so I can shut up. once I start, I go on for hours.If there are non-humans, even if they have close resemblance to such, be sure to explain who they are, how they behave, and a bit about their biology.Sure, they'll look and act human some of the time... at first glane anyways.for example, take this image, which depicts Katara,(Which, I learned a year after the fact, was also the name of a main protagonist in the popular TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender) a Serenghe. at first glance, she appears to be human, but then within a couple seconds, you notice that she has wpointed ears, and then you look up and notice she also has wings. if the picture could move, you would also eventually discover that she has retractable claws, sharp teeth, and stands at about 3 feet in height.so things like biology are a good thing to weave into the story, even if you just have humans with special abilities or something simple like that. [simple isn't boring. I'm not bashing anything here.]For example, here's a little bit about Serenghe, the people of my series.

Serenghe come in two varieites--males and females. Male Serenghe tend to have slightly larger shoulders and stature than females, and also sometimes have a little facial hair. Female Serenghe tend to have slightly larger hips, are slightly more agile, and have a pair of breasts which are used for nourishing their young.Like humans, Serenghe give live births, the pregnancy period lasting around 4-5 months, and often times spawning 1-2 children at a time, though multiple births, such as triplets and quadruplets are not uncommon.genetically, Serenghe hair colors, eye colors, wing colors, and even skin colors, appear to have a streak of random in them, as it is fully possiubly for two green-haired Serenghe to give birth to a child with black hair.On a more general basis, Serenghe lack any body hair, except on their heads, as well as eyebrows, eyelashes, and some facial hair on male Serenghe.Serenghe have at least 6 senses. apart from the 5 basics, they also have a motion sesnse, which, if honed properly, can give them the ability to detect heat and motion in a 360-degree radius around them.They also possess the innate ability to manipulate one or more "elements", because of another bodily system they have inside of them, caled The Chi System.that's just a few of the things about these creatures that I'll put here.

it doesn't do them justice, but it's a basic idea of who they are.and then of course, once people learn that characters control the elements, they would want to know how it works.elemental manipulation, known as "forming" [for its ability to be "formed" from chi energy from the hands, feet, wings, eyes, or mouth; or for being "formed" through manipulation of existing substance] involves being able to control Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Light, Darkness, or all 6. Therea are different ways each one works, but if someone has the power of Earthforming, they could "Create" rocks from their chi points. similarly, if say, someone who is a Waterformer, is attacked by water, she or he could absorb it into their body.this applies to any elements that are within a Serenghe's forming range. however, they also preserve the Law of Conservation of Mass. They don't actually "create" or "destroy" it. they simply convert it between chi energy and elemental energy. that is how absorption and shooting work.and of course, there are lots of other things. How do your people (any race{s}) behave? What is their culture? how to they dress (or look; not eveyone wears clothes). how do they socialize/interact? do they have religion/gods? if so, what roles if any, do they play in the citizens' lives? Do they have a language? it's simple little worldbuilding things like that that can help you build an intersting story that the reader will hopefully then be able to submerge him/herself in, and "become one with your world."as long as you can engage readers to take a liking of your world, it won't matter how crapsack it becomes. sometimes a good conflict makes an awesome stor--a truly good conflict makes an EXCELLENT story. what am I saying?so ye. endrant.=Nephi=

[Protohuman]

I have a couple of ideas for stories...PolyvitaA person commonly switches lives. He/she literally has more than one lives which alternate through his/her conciousness. Sometimes he would be some construction worker in New York helping knock down a building or something, next she would be a clever scientist in France helping come up with a cure for some disease. But at some point he will become a murderous psychopath! So there's gonna be some trouble there. Basically he/she's mind, will, abilities and pretty much everything will change as it switches from person to person. I haven't decided how this will happen, but it's gonna have cool sci-fi stuff like an experiment gone wrong or something.The name is Latin for "Multipule Lives".Camille's FortuneThe story of the young life of a girl who has had a troubled past, but still gets through life like a boss! Basically he parents went missing or died or something when she was a baby, so she grew up in a care home. When she was 12 she was taken into foster care, but they treated her like chewing gum under the table; very bad! After two years in that home, she managed to escape; running through the streets she asked passers by for help, saying that her foster family would kill her if they found her. But nobody believed her, until she came across a Chinese family who took her in. As she started to grow up with the family, they showed her their traditions and she became facinated. She started to look up Chinese, Korean and Japanese culture and loved it; she became a fan of anime and manga, and started to learn their languages. She also taught them to play the piano (which she had been playing since she was 5). By the time she was 16 she could speak almost fluent Mandarin and a considerable amount of Japanese. She got a part time job teaching Chinese kids English. When she reached 21, she decided to depart to China to seek her fortune, so she bid her farewells to the family and she was off to start her new life!This story was semi-based on an IRL friend of mine who I really admire. The real person lives on her own at 21, and knows a lot of Asian languages, loves anime and manga, disowned by her parents, and plays piano. It's apparent she's had a hard life, but she's still pretty awesome! And she really is departing to China next year. So I kinda wrote this story...

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

PolyvitaA person commonly switches lives. He/she literally has more than one lives which alternate through his/her conciousness. Sometimes he would be some construction worker in New York helping knock down a building or something, next she would be a clever scientist in France helping come up with a cure for some disease. But at some point he will become a murderous psychopath! So there's gonna be some trouble there. Basically he/she's mind, will, abilities and pretty much everything will change as it switches from person to person. I haven't decided how this will happen, but it's gonna have cool sci-fi stuff like an experiment gone wrong or something.The name is Latin for "Multipule Lives".

It's an interesting concept, but if everything changes when they switch to a different person, then what's special? I'm assuming he (for lack of a better pronoun) retains his memories from person to person? Even then, your "character" isn't even really a person - just a set of memories that hops from person to person. If I were to write this story, I'd adapt it into one of these ways:1. The character retains his personality and memory between different people as "he" suddenly drops into their life. However, he gains their short-term memory, so it actually takes him a moment to remember he's not actually them, and the transition, as observed by other people, is virtually undetectable.2. There is no character. The... experiment? caused essentially a stack of memories to hop from person to person, growing each time. Eventually the stack of memories gains a personality of its own, which stays with the... victim? even after the... parasite? has moved on. Edited March 29, 2012 by Jedi Knight Krazy

[Kaleidoscope Tekulo]

I like the idea of Polyvita, but I'd be interested in that scenario as such:The experiment is an entity of sorts (Kinda like the "soul" of a person) whose memories fade from person to person while retaining something gained from the previous lives (personalities, instincts, habits, etc all linger). Kinda like a snowball effect. It doesn't sound very stable, and everything buzzing in a single person might just cause the experiment to collapse in a sort of way.Though, I'm not sure where you're going with that story, but I think it might be interesting (also, if memory does vanish, then wouldn't it be interesting for a character to learn he/she was a murderer at one point?). There are actually a lot of ways you could utilize that kind of setting. The concept sounds interesting.

Edited March 29, 2012 by Tekulo: Toa of Gales

[Jean Valjean]

Bits of the Polyvita concept remind me of Doctor Who, Quantum Leap, and Buddhism rolled into some sort of hybrid. I'd suggest that you look at those concepts and ask yourself how it's alike and/or how it's different.Regarding what someone said earlier about human-appearing aliens, one of my pet peeves is an alien that looks completely human and yet has superpowers or other things that don't make sense within the context of the simple humanoid anatomy. It's far too convenient for me, and it seems like a week plot point. Of course, sometimes I do it with magic species such as the Aardses, but otherwise I go into more normal differences, such as diets, immune systems, and subtle differences in the internal anatomy when it matters.I also dislike using someone's species as a cheap excuse as to why they are immune to various diseases. I always try to figure out which species a disease will affect and which it won't.Your Honor,Tyrannosaurus Kraggh

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

Regarding what someone said earlier about human-appearing aliens, one of my pet peeves is an alien that looks completely human and yet has superpowers or other things that don't make sense within the context of the simple humanoid anatomy. It's far too convenient for me, and it seems like a week plot point. Of course, sometimes I do it with magic species such as the Aardses, but otherwise I go into more normal differences, such as diets, immune systems, and subtle differences in the internal anatomy when it matters.

I actually lampshade this a tiny bit in Eons - one major backstory component is that elves are curious about humans because they're so similar in anatomy, but yet much weaker. That's why the elves messed around so much on Tellur (human home planet - anybody see what I did there?) and not on the dwarves' home planet, Sedigo, or any of the other planets.Speaking of Sedigo, I still don't know what Sedigoans look like... anybody got ideas? Sedigo is actually two equally-sized planets that orbit each other, but share a ring. Because of this, the seasons are extreme and more effected by the relative position of the other planet than the sun - in the winter, the other planet blocks the sun during the day. (In fact, "winter" and "eclipse" are the same word in Sedigoan) In the summer, the other planet is in the sky at night and reflects the sun's light. I also see both planets as mostly forested, but I'm open to revising that.

[Protohuman]

I have a sci-fi story with aliens that look like humans, but it's explained:Most citezens in the sort of galactic goverment thing have an implant in their brain that makes everyone else look the same species as the user. So if the human protagonist were to travel to a planet full of big red slug things, assuming they're sentient and intellegent, they will all appear human to his perception.EDIT:On a different topic, this is more like personal news that you probably won't care about, but yesterday I sat down and counted all of my characters in all of my universe.There was over 100! I just find it very satisfying to sit down and take down lists of my own work. I've also done my top 10 heroes, top 10 villains, top 10 sidekicks and top 10 moments. I recommend trying it, just taking down lists like that of your own stories, it's really fun!

Edited March 30, 2012 by Protohuman

[SolitaryHyena]

Hmm, all i can say is that i get my ideas from listening to music, like make a little music video of a scene of what would happen in the story, then when writing you add on to that scene. Thats what i do.

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

Most citezens in the sort of galactic goverment thing have an implant in their brain that makes everyone else look the same species as the user. So if the human protagonist were to travel to a planet full of big red slug things, assuming they're sentient and intellegent, they will all appear human to his perception.

Hmm, that seems like you're asking for problems. What happens when you try for a handshake with a big red slug thing, forgetting that he doesn't have hands? Worse, what if he goes along with it? Does his "hand" feel slimy? Actually, if big red slug things don't have hands, and you look like a big red slug thing to him, what does he see when you reach out your hand for a handshake?It kind of seems like a cop-out to avoid designing aliens. I could see using translator-magic to avoid inventing languages, but there's no reason not to consider what each species actually looks like and how that affects their culture, and other races' interactions with them.

[BenLuke]

Yeah. I agree with Crazy. I'd rather read a story about humans interacting with gain slug people then about human interacting with humans-that-just-happen-to-be slug people underneath some perception warping tech.Unless this is genuinely necessary to your book's plot, of course. If it is, then you can at least thing of other ways people could exploit the technology. For instance, a criminal using hacking the perception thingy so that everyone sees him as someone else.

Edited March 31, 2012 by BenLuke-116

[Headless Onua]

Sedigo is actually two equally-sized planets that orbit each other, but share a ring. Because of this, the seasons are extreme and more effected by the relative position of the other planet than the sun - in the winter, the other planet blocks the sun during the day. (In fact, "winter" and "eclipse" are the same word in Sedigoan) In the summer, the other planet is in the sky at night and reflects the sun's light. I also see both planets as mostly forested, but I'm open to revising that.

well, it sounds like parts of New Mexico to me. it's extremely hot in the summer, and extremely cold in the winter.if that's the case, you won't find much in the ways of forest, simply because most forest plants (I'm not sure about animals, but I assume them as well) wouldn't be able to withstand such harsh conditions.granted, I'm only talking about 0F in the winter and 110F in the summer, but you make it sound almost more extreme than that.nothing inherently wrong with that of course, and you might go mentioning that the species are exceptionall resilient to nature's effects, such as heat or cold. it's your world, not mine, so you get to make the rules. just my thoughts on the situation.as for the inhabitants, create and design them to fit in with their environment.the creatures in my books, the Serenghe, are humanoid creatures who possess human-level intelligence, but also have a few more attributes and abilities that make them seem a bit more "one with nature" so to speak. And so while they are the smartest creatures on their homeworld of Mencu, and are still consierably fast, they aer not the fastest creatures out there, and are certainly not the strongest or the largest. it's not a day-to-day struggle for survival, but there seems to be a certain understanding between the Serenghe and the fauna of their world, if that makes sense.so TL;DR--just make them fit in with the climate and environment of the world you're putting them on.=Nephi=

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Extremely variable climates tend to lend themselves toward r-strategists - that is, relatively short-lived species that reproduce in large quantities, put little effort into parental care, and mature early.With plants, this means the difference between desert wildflowers and oak trees - though there are long-lived plants that live in extreme environments, they tend to be few and tough as nails.With the environment described, the best the residents could hope for is a desert like that in the American southwest. If the light reflected by the other planet at night in the summer is significant enough, however, that side of the planet wouldn't cool much at night, causing very strong air circulation cells to develop to compensate for the pressure difference between the day and night side of the planet.Also, does the whole planet experience summer and winter at the same time? If so, it would make for a very harsh environment - like an annual alternation between the Sahara and Antarctica.

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

Thanks for the advice on Sedigo - keep in mind that realism is not a high priority for me - really, my only constraint is that everything is at least consistent. Honestly, by extreme seasons, I was thinking more along the lines of light level than temperature. But I guess there's not really much of a way to separate the two, is there? Unless the planet has an alternate source of heat during the winter, and somehow releases heat during the summer...? That might just be pushing the idea too far. Does the whole planet experience summer and winter at the same time...? Let me think... yeah, the planets turn about the same speed as the Earth (er, I mean Tellur), but orbit each other on about a two-month cycle. Actually, maybe that's how I can regulate the temperature - shorten the seasons. What would a planet like that be like?

[Legolover-361]

A non seqitur for you all to wonder at:Who here writes poetry? I've noticed that well-known authors such as C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, Richard Adams, and even not-quite-as-classic authors such as Christopher Paolini include snippets of poetry (sometimes in the guise of songs) throughout their books; while I don't plan on placing any emphasis on poetry in my writing, I'd still like to know if anyone has any poetry-related advice to provide -- not to mention I want to write songs someday atop everything else I dream of doing.

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

@JKK: The problem with that is that the axial tilt of the Earth is what gives our planet different seasons in the north and south, and that's a big part of what regulates our climate. Further, shortening the seasons would require increasing the speed at which the planets orbit each other, and would not do very much to stabilize the climate.Lastly, the tidal forces at work in this sort of binary planetary system would not be limited to affecting any oceans that might exist - it is quite likely that tidal earthquakes and volcanic eruptions would occur.@Legolover: I do occasionally attempt to write songs (I am by no means inclined to share them), though I have never really tried to write them for the purpose of inclusion in a story.

[Headless Onua]

I've definitely tought of writing some poetry, but I'm still at odds beccause I'm building a language, and I'm not sure if I want the rhyme to be in English or in Zaderic (the language in question). whatever the case, I certainly entertain the idea, and have played with both ideas before.=Nephi=

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

@JKK: The problem with that is that the axial tilt of the Earth is what gives our planet different seasons in the north and south, and that's a big part of what regulates our climate.

That's true on Sedigo as well, but it's not a noticeable effect on the environment compared to the massive eclipses.

Further, shortening the seasons would require increasing the speed at which the planets orbit each other, and would not do very much to stabilize the climate.Lastly, the tidal forces at work in this sort of binary planetary system would not be limited to affecting any oceans that might exist - it is quite likely that tidal earthquakes and volcanic eruptions would occur.

Right - so the planets orbit each other on about a two-month cycle. So you've basically got one month of winter and one month of summer. Combined with normal seasons, some winters are colder and some summers are hotter.Actually, come to think of it, Sedigo is probably pretty cold. It'll lose a lot of heat during the winter when it gets virtually no light, but the reflected light during the summer won't really be enough too compensate unless I give the planet a heavy greenhouse effect. I like the idea of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions - combined with a fluctuating environment, it gives the planet an unstable feel, which matches its role in the story.

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Part of this depends on how far the planetary pair is away from the sun they orbit. If they're at the same distance as Earth, then yes, since they're spending half of their time in darkness (and they presumably have a day/night cycle as well, which would skew things further towards the dark side), they'd either be rather cold or have a very thick atmosphere.

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

Hmmm, ok, I can probably stabilize the temperature by making the planet fairly humid. There's still going to be a fair bit of temperature variation, but it won't be unlivably extreme. Oooooooorrrrrr... I mean, we have two planets here. One could be humid and tropical, while the other is a desert, frozen half the year, scorched the other.Yeah, I like that. Back to the inhabitants... let's say they started on the desert planet* and some of them moved to the tropical planet once space travel became possible. (It wouldn't take long - with another planet dominating the sky half the time, someone's bound to try and get to it) That would lead to some division between the two groups - the desert natives would resent the other group for leaving their homeland, and the migrators would resent the natives for resisting progress. That fits with the backstory - Sedigo is known for civil wars. It wouldn't be all easy for the migrators, though... if they're used to a desert climate, it's going to take some time to adapt to a more humid planet.*You may complain about the Star Wars style planet-wide climates, but when I'm dealing with worldbuilding on a galactic scale, I need to make some sacrifices in realism in order to keep each planet distinct - especially because I'm not going too far into the sci-fi side when designing alien locations and races.

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

I don't see how the climates of the planets would be that different, unless they're very different in size. A big part of what determines the thickness of a planet's atmosphere is its mass, and while there are other factors, it wouldn't be enough to give one of them an atmosphere thick enough to trap the heat (think Venus) while leaving the other one in the fridge and the fire.

[BenLuke]

*You may complain about the Star Wars style planet-wide climates, but when I'm dealing with worldbuilding on a galactic scale, I need to make some sacrifices in realism in order to keep each planet distinct - especially because I'm not going too far into the sci-fi side when designing alien locations and races.

Desert planets, at least, make a little sense. A planet with little water on the surface and planets and/or other organisms that change carbon dioxide into oxygen doesn't stretch scientific plausibility that much.

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

Meh... forget physics! Desert planet orbits tropical planet! It's my universe anyways.With that settled, I think I'm going to work on the outline for the murder mystery. (Thanks to whoever posted the link that a murder mystery should be everyone's first story)

[BenLuke]

*Bows* That would be I. Writing Excuses has some great advise, especially if you're writing science fiction or fantasy. Unfortunately, I don't believe I can link to their homepage, as I' m pretty sure their site has forums.

[Jean Valjean]

Regarding what someone said earlier about human-appearing aliens, one of my pet peeves is an alien that looks completely human and yet has superpowers or other things that don't make sense within the context of the simple humanoid anatomy. It's far too convenient for me, and it seems like a week plot point. Of course, sometimes I do it with magic species such as the Aardses, but otherwise I go into more normal differences, such as diets, immune systems, and subtle differences in the internal anatomy when it matters.

I actually lampshade this a tiny bit in Eons - one major backstory component is that elves are curious about humans because they're so similar in anatomy, but yet much weaker. That's why the elves messed around so much on Tellur (human home planet - anybody see what I did there?) and not on the dwarves' home planet, Sedigo, or any of the other planets.

I wouldn't call that lampshading the trope so much as playing it dead strait.By the way, I've been trying to figure this one out for a while, but it must be an obscure reference or something because I don't see what you did there. Could you explain?Your Honor,Tyrannosaurus Kraggh

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

I wouldn't call that lampshading the trope so much as playing it dead strait.By the way, I've been trying to figure this one out for a while, but it must be an obscure reference or something because I don't see what you did there. Could you explain?Your Honor,Tyrannosaurus Kraggh

Excellent, if you don't see what I did there, it's exactly what I need.Basically, a few days ago the "Word of the Day" widget on my phone came up with "tellurian", which I thought sounded pretty cool. The definition was (adj) "of or characteristic of the earth or its inhabitants; terrestrial." and (noun) "an inhabitant of the earth." It's related to the word "telluric" as well. Long story short: Tellur is the Latin word for Earth. So I'm using that as the name for my Earth-but-not-quite planet because it sounds cool.Sidebar, curiosity of mine: we humans called our planet "Earth" - how come all the sci-fi aliens come up with cooler names for their planets? What about their culture is always different that they wouldn't adapt their word for "ground" to their planet name once they found out the world was round? Edited April 6, 2012 by Jedi Knight Krazy

[Headless Onua]

I think the matter of "coolness" varies simply by opinion. I think we're just so used to English that ir bores us now, and other languages that we don't know tend to amuse us more because they're different. the more different they are (such as Oriental languages and the likes) the more they tend to get used in works of fiction.but, I might just be wrong, and even those few who don't speak English might not think it's cool, because it's kind of a laugh when you put all those rules and pronunciations together. just a thought.but for anyone creating a language, or just creating a large amount of terms, you'll want some type of consistency with it. just like in any language, some letters are used more than others, and no two languages have the same order of frequencies.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_frequencyas one who is building a language of my own, thhis is one of the many things I think about. But, in this grand scheme of things, I might just be rambling off on an unrelated tangent here.=Nephi=

[Jean Valjean]

@JKK: What do you mean "Earth" isn't cool? I say that it's as cool as bowties. But really, I always thought that the English word for our planet is pretty nifty for being named after a Germanic term for solid ground. It sounds so homely and inviting, and I have a thing for standard, basic names. Which is why I love names like Jack, Sam, Anne, Mary, Adam, and Eve. In fact, I might even draw a comparison to Adam and Earth; they both mean the same thing. They both have that "down to the basics" feel that really puts them in the center of things.Actually, the way Earth was named has inspired me in the way I name many inhabited planets so as to give a hint at the worldview of the people who originated there. Within the dimension of Waswardas, there were three major planets with indigenous species.The first would be Gantha, whose name bears the same meaning as Earth's. It would make sense, considering that it's almost entirely land except for an ocean just around the equator.Kitilika was named after the Kitiliks, but their name is actually a combination of the words "Kit" (roughly translating as "Kitilik woman") and Ilik (roughly translating as "Kitilik man"). Their planet name translates generally as "place of men and women", and their species is named after the two halves that make it up.Neaphi is an archipelago planet with 53 indigenous sentient species, and its name comes from the old Phoxi language (historically, this would be like Greek), meaning "ocean". Again, it makes sense.Tajiir was a bit different, considering that there are thousands of micro-countries across its surface and only three large nations that could be counted as superpowers. To make matters worse, each and every family has its own household language. They would actually call their planet so many different things that there's no consensus on what they called themselves until they and the Kitiliks made contact. The Kitiliks called the planet Tajiir for simplicity, after the people from there. The Tajiir could generally agree on that term since "Tajiir" was almost their equivalent to a scientific name, sort of how we call ourselves Homo sapiens.The Waswardas dimension itself was named after the first interdimensional communication ever, in which the first words spoken were by Nixie Zweifel, asking "What was that?" in German. The Kitiliks stuck with it, since they were pretty proud that their dimension was the first to ever see travel by IDTD (from their perspective, although you could say that Earth's dimension was the first). The phrase Waswardas was, to them, like the famous quote from Niel Armstrong.Elsewhere, the planet of Aarde was plainly named after the Dutch word for Earth, since I like the language and I thought that the name had a particular ring to it. Only years later did I discover that J.R.R. Tolkien had done the same thing. And to think, Aarde was completely inspired by the Lord of the Rings movies.The home planet of the Second Empire doesn't really have a name, but that's in keeping with the tradition I've set for their worldview. They hardly see themselves as a species, but rather as a people at the center of the universe. Actually, their planet literally is at the center of their universe, so there's quite a bit of validity to that thought. Anyhow, instead of ever applying a lowly species name to themselves, they have always been called "Members of the Second Empire", and their homeworld has been called multiple things, including "Homeworld of the Second Empire", "Capital of the Second Empire", as well as the "Center of the Universe". I personally like the last one.The planet of Bexen, which orbits a dwarf star outside of the main galaxy of the Second Empire, is probably named after a Bexenese word for "ice". Considering that the entire surface is snow and the Bexenese in underground tunnels dug out of the ice underneath the snow, it all makes sense. Ice is pretty much their world, and it's a pretty apt description of their planet.The twin planets of Cadey and Kroy, which are on the exact opposite sides of the same orbital plane, both come from words that mean "home". There's no plot significance to this, although it's important to the narrative considering that Cadey is the one place in the universe that Monosmith ends up considering as such.Cadey was later named Amakor, for obvious reasons if you read the story.The planet of Willshower was named at a distance by the people of Kroy. I don't know why, but I suppose it sounded wistful and dreamy. I was in fifth grade when I named it. But in any case, it's not the same as inhabited planets, since it's essentially like Venus and Mars and other planets within our solar system, which we have named from a distance and after certain personalities. I guess the name "Willshower" has some personality itself. Actually, now that I've considered its present purpose within the story, the name is exceptionally fitting.There are, or course, colony planets with no indigenous people, in which case I follow different naming conventions. Planets created y the early human empire were often named after figures in mythology and religion, in which case you'd get planets with names like Amun Ra, Atlas, Jagganath, Quetzalcoatl, Yinglong, Zarathustra, and Zeus. There are also planets named after people, in which case one can find Terra Washington, Terra Vich (someone called Vichsburg named it after himself), Terra Zweifel (which was later renamed and destroyed), Terra Saladin, and so forth, often named either in honor of someone that the planet helped symbolize or after a currently living person who just wanted a planet named after himself or herself. And occasionally, planets would also just be given named in Latin, again preceded with a Terra.Then there's places like Thaddaea, which was named by Emperor Kraggh after Brutus Thaddaeas Nobody. Places like these follow the pattern of the city Monrovia, where a name is taken and edited just so that it ends with the letter "a". It works.But following the pattern that you mentioned, there are some planets with indigenous species that I can't fully explain. The planet Godo was created and randomly named by Master Legious. Jaggerkeitler doesn't have a story yet, although that's it's name after the 53 million year time skip. When it was discovered before that I'm guessing it probably had a different name. Umbreor was inhabited once upon a time, although it's introduced into the story during the second half of the story that takes place 53 million years into the future, and it's been abandoned for so long that its original name has been forgotten, and so has the catastrophe that caused everyone to leave. The planet of Alantra, in spite of being the home planet of the inmuns for millions of years, doesn't necessarily have any meaning anymore, but perhaps that's due to them not teaching their history. It was mainly me coming up with a pretty name that had the same charm as the word "Atlantis". There's also the planet of Caith, which I just pulled out of nowhere mainly because it sounded homely, just like Earth. There's also the planet of Pyronica, although that's what English-speakers called it, since it was the color of fire, because otherwise it was impossible to communicate in the Pyronican language, in which every word was at least six syllables and as hard to pronounce as Klingon. And finally, the Nok Ja inhabit the moon of Mühr orbiting around the planet of Ŋug Zer, and I have no idea what those mean. But then, the Nok Ja are known for their orange and blue morality and for being plain weird. Plus, they originally came from another planet that was destroyed and came to Mühr via generation ship, so I suppose they wouldn't have named it after someting like ground.Of course, with the exception of Aarde, I don't think any of these sound as cool as Earth. Earth is cool.-@Headless: No, it's definitely not unrelated, since I think a lot of us are interested in con-langs here. I'm planning on inventing the nuadine language as a project once I'm off to college. Doing that in only one or two years seems a bit extreme, but I have the patience to read through the entire dictionary (I read through a few hundred pages once and a while to keep myself entertained anyway), and the system I plan on using is a set of 125 symbols that each represents a syllable in their language. I guess that's a little inspired by Japanese, but the main idea was that I could just repeat a lot of stuff and not have to worry if the words had the sounds that you could expect from the language.Of course, it wasn't that simple. I'm also going to have to include a set of another 125 symbols dedicated to prefixes and suffixes, and another set of 125 dedicated to their mathematics. A full 100 of those will be dedicated to single-digit numbers, since nuadine count in base 100.Speaking of which, that leads into the discussion of language and worldview. For starters, apparently the nuadine see numbers differently than we do, since each and every number before 100 seems to have its own identity, and to them telling the difference between 88 and 93 is as easy to tell as the difference between 6 and 7. In general, a language will have more words for things that they value than for things that they don't. So every once and a while I'm going to have to throw in multiple translations for one word, or decide that certain variations of words in English won't translate. Then I'll also have to decide which things on Earth simply wouldn't exist in their culture. Plus, every once and a while, I'll have to think of things in their culture that we wouldn't have words for on Earth, such as certain mindsets and traditions unique to them and space terminologies that we wouldn't use merely one word for. The thing is, though, I'll definitely be creating more words than not, considering that the language is old and there are nearly two million possible 1-3 syllable words in the standard alphabet alone, not including what you can do with the prefixes and suffixes and the math. It will definitely be a larger language than English. The expanded language will definitely take more than two ears to complete.The most difficult part, really, will be applying the syllables at random and avoiding unnecessary repeats. Presumably I'll do this on a computer and I'll have some program that helps me pick syllables at random without choosing combination that have already been used.One thing's for sure is that I'm going to have a lot of Eskimo words for snow. That is, if you read the Wikipedia article, I won't have a whole lot of root words. Part of that's because it's just going to be difficult for me to keep track of everything, and when it comes to the difference between snowfall and snowdrifts, I'm likely to just invent a new word at random.Your Honor,Tyrannosaurus Kraggh

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

*slides in before topic dies*I've recently realized how fun it is to do worldbuilding with other people, especially in early phases. I was trying to come up with a video game idea with friends, and one of us suddenly said "What if we do an Old West meets Tolkein Fantasy world?" We all paused and agreed it would be an awesome idea. Now we've got concept art of floating islands connected by railroad bridges, 3-4 major races, each with backstory and driving motivation, and at least two major environments that wouldn't even appear until a sequel to the game.What other kind of crazy world ideas have you developed with friends?

[BenLuke]

"What if we do an Old West meets Tolkein Fantasy world?"

That is a really awesome idea, 'Fantasy Western' is a genre mix we don't see often enough, in my opinion.Anyway, I haven't really done this, as few of my friends are very writer-y people. Seems like a fun thing to do, though. I've read similar things done over the internet and such, usually centered around a wiki of similar site. We could do that here, I bet if we could come up with some interesting stuff together.Plus, it might motivate my to actually write something, instead of just thinking a lot about it. Edited May 5, 2012 by BenLuke-116

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

When I do worldbuilding projects with other people, the results are generally quite bizarre. The planning behind the world that involves Death, a rather unpleasant sun god, and stuff like that, was the result of several peoples' input on what started as a fairly small idea.

[Jean Valjean]

Curses, JKK. I hoping this topic would die and I could resurrect another one in my name!I've talked about my ideas with a nerd friend of mine, and he's given me input that's helped me iron out a few details to satisfy my hard sci-fi likings, but the worlds are completely my own. Besides, his science fiction revolves around the types of narratives that Beardy Spoon's do, which are bizarre no matter what way you look at it. I guess it's just that everything he writes is infused with his brand of humor. I happen to share it, although I prefer the more subtle route, the type of humor that doesn't really affect the narrative but finds its way into the story nevertheless. I'd compare it more to the type of humor one would find in Star Trek XI.Anyway, in response to what Protohuman said about hierarchies, I actually tend to write those quite often out of my Neoplatonic way of thinking. Now as it happens, I consider every character a hero in their own right, so there's no one I consider sidekicks, so I'll forgo that particular list:Protagonists1. Silver Bird2. Dreamcatcher3. Ashley4. Monosmith5. Buzzy6. Lucy7. Mary8. Nixie9. Brutus10. Blitz(that's an extremely inaccurate list, considering that it's impossible to list those characters in a hierarchy)Antagonists1. Death2. Craytus3. Master Legious4. Clear Water5. Megstra6. Monthus7. The White Dragon8. Quarr9. Vizer10. TitanusAnti-Heroes1. Deleta Giger2. Jack3. The Black Swordsman4. Dexter Uswold5. Euthanasia Bones6. Lance Giger7. Theophilus Zweifel8. Michelangelo Zweifel9. The Neutral Guys10. Roteris(many of these characters have gone through more than one moral alignment and have developed over time, but for the sake of these lists I go with their most memorable forms)Top 10 Moments (in no particular order)

• [*]Nixie's vision (Part I)[*]Monosmith's encounter with Vogelbrand (Part III)[*]The Second Empire destroys Earth (Part V)[*]The appearance of the White Dragon (Part VII & Part IX)[*]Ashley, Buzzy, and Monosmith having dinner (no particular book)[*]Kraggh enters the battle of Iniuri (Part XI)[*]Dreamcatcher appears (Part XII)[*]Dreamcatcher meets Deleta (Part XII)[*]Blitz escapes from prison and becomes a fugitive (Part XII)[*]Monosmith fights Master Legious (Part XVIII)

Top 10 Inspirations as a Storyteller1. Star Wars2. Lord of the Rings3. Bionicle4. 2001: A Space Odyssey5. Fantasia6. Bone7. Titanic8. Animorphs9. Smallville10. Titan A.E.You know, I'll definitely write a follow-up post on this last list later, since there's a lot to say about it.Your Honor,Emperor Kraggh

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

lists

Hey, this looks fun. Let me try... although I don't have that many defined characters yet, so I don't quite get to 10...Protagonists:1. Darik2. (Unnamed man)3. Suveiar4. (Unnamed elf)5. (Unnamed Draconian)Sidekicks/Supporting characters: 1. Taphir2. Broquiin3. Dr. Gordan4. (Unnamed man)5. Argona - Actually, does she count? ...sure.7. AmiaAntagonists:1. Aelganar2. Elves (does a group count as an antagonist?)3. Draconian Brotherhood (still trying to find a better name for this group)4. (Unnamed Draconian)...Not sure if I have any anti-heroes. Maybe I should... what's an antihero?Moments:1. The climax where [censored] is destroyed entirely, causing all the [censored] to [censored]. (hey, no spoilers!) (Book 3b)2. (Unnamed man) reveals, to everyone's surprise, including his own, that he is [censored]. (Book 2a)3. Darik's transformation (Book 1b)4. Dark infiltrates the Draconian Brotherhood, only to find another Draconian calling himself Darik. (Book 1b)5. (unnamed man) saves Vaierru and Suveiar tries to free (unnamed man), completely reversing their roles and turning them against each other in the most absurd way possible. (Book 1a)6. Darik finds himself back in time / in an alternate universe during what should be the Book 3b climax, only to watch himself die. (Aftermath)7. (Unnamed Draconian) and Dr. Gordan are attacked by Darik, who seems to have [censored]. (Book 2b)Hmmm... that's odd. Most of my most memorable moments and characters (to me, at least) are in the "b" storyline. It makes sense, that's the "present day" story arc, after all, but 2a is my personal favorite and I'm surprised more moments didn't make it into the list (although several of my favorite supporting characters are only in 2a). It does make sense that 1a is distinctly missing from the list - I'm not horribly excited about that one and I wanted 2a to take its place, but it's important where it is.

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Eh, might as well give it a go. Bear in mind, this is very vague, as I tend to build a world and then work out the actual story. Further, world-building is a slow process for me, and I have paid little attention as of yet to the heroes and villains of this world, focusing more on the bizarre neutral.Villainous/Unsympathetic Protagonists-Lenny KarlsVillainous/Unsympathetic Antagonists-"Magnus" (no definite name yet - a god-like character who believes those with power like his should have formalized rule over humanity.)-Various Criminal Personages-Arthur Wills (brief appearance)Heroic/Sympathetic Protagonists-Lloyd Oscar Jeed (Certainly not heroic - or at least not intentionally - but a luckless fool the reader is almost guilted into feeling sympathetic towards)-Various Nearly Obnoxiously Heroic Personages-CatsHeroic/Sympathetic Antagonistsnone as of yetNeutral Protagonists-Death-Unnamed Bizarre Person (formerly known by the placeholder name of "Captain Wonderbread". On review, that name is a bit too self-praising for this guy.)I'm not giving away much more as of yet, mostly because much more doesn't exist quite yet.

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

-Cats

Is this a character name? Or are cats as a species locked in combat with antagonists?...Either way, count me interested.