Recent content by DeathtoTrite

Yeah, just make it clear you're not promoting it. You don't even have to come out and be like "and MC realized the evils of racism," just don't glorify it. Frankly, nothing is more annoying than the author using plots as mouthpieces for their views, especially when its as something as clearly...

I'm going to give two bits of conflicting advice. 1) Get into the nitty gritty of the RL inspiration. There are a huge number of Celtic culture fantasy equivalents. These primarily rely on names, druids, nature themes, etc. Get inspiration from some of the Celts less known traits- the...

That first show was probably one of the worst thus far. I like it when they kill important characters. It keeps us honest. The Sand Snakes killing Doran and his son was just beyond stupid though. For one thing, the books show Doran is way, way smarter than the Sand Snakes. For another, there is...

Like Russ mentioned, nobility titles were hardly a definite idea for who had the most power-- powerful counts or baron coalitions could have the king at their mercy. For emperor, it bears mentioning what this title really means. In Europe, it always has denoted some kind of inheritance of the...

I think the whole thing isn't so much about what a Mary Sue is so much as what we should avoid-- characters who defy the internal logic of the piece for awesome, whether it be a villain regressing to ape-level intelligence, some improbable deus-ex-machina, etc. Sometimes, we can suspend our...

It's about what a prologue is, I think. Its NOT an info dump. Its not some vague, confusing thing that requires the waterboarding the author to understand. Its a way to focus the plot (especially if the first bit of your book might only gradually introduce the conflict) and give readers a taste.

Short: No. Long: No. I can honestly say the only made up languages that contribute to the book are nadsat and newspeak. This includes Tolkein. Unless you have a stunningly compelling reason why the difference in language is a major theme of the piece itself, creating a new language is useless...

Honestly, the secondary characters sound more boring than the MC. The reluctant hero is a compelling type. The thing about reluctant heroes, though, is they can't be overly passive. So instead of constantly reacting to big bad's plots and goons, returning to chill between confrontations, the MC...

Look at Skanderbeg of Albania, Stephen III of Moldova, and David IV of Georgia. To be fair, all of them were idealistic because their goals tended to be simply survival of their people, but they are all really interested examples of leaders of puny states that fended off vastly superior armies...

Thank god I'm not the only one!

This brings back bad memories of high school English. For me, I shouldn't feel like every time something symbolic happens the author doesn't go *nudge nudge wink win*. I have one story that goes out of its way to destroy symbolism (important character dies of disease? That's cause s***...

So, just a question about something that has always bothered me-- how do people feel about author's making their medieval societies remarkably tolerant and wise? I feel like this overlaps a lot with having Mary Sue races, which of course is part of the problem. And of course, not every...

A weird one- strong-willed, fiery female characters (stay with me) when this is their only defining trait. If I read your story and your female protagonist is one-dimensional in this way, it can be quite jarring and self-defeating.

Not at all. Plenty of authors have done this just fine. Hunger Games and Harry Potter both come to mind (barring later statements by J.K. Rowling). Game of Thrones just sort of has gay characters more as a ''historical'' note than political statement. I have a story set in Victorian England...

I prefer planning, for a lot of the reasons mentioned. Writing without a plan for me leads to exploding word count and often meandering scenes. Keeping good pace, brevity, and overall story plot is difficult for me without a good notion going in. But I very much value a book that distills a...