Recent content by Heliotrope

And I still stand by my original post... it must serve the plot. I don't give two hoots what your world is. What is your plot? What is the point of the story? Once you have that figured out then you build your world around it. Why would you spend forever worrying about what sort of animals...

lol, according to my husband (who is NOT a writer) High fantasy - super feminine too skinny women in flow-y dresses Low fantasy - skinny young street girls. Not interesting. Hard sci-fi - Nerdy women who know a lot of sciency stuff but are still hot. Usually they wear their hair up. Soft...

This is my view as well. Anything that is "fantastical" but can't be explained by science (even theoretical) would be considered fantasy to me. This includes alt-histories, alt-earths, etc. As far as super hero, I'd say it fits best in sci-fi, only because most super heroes had an element of...

For me, anything that contains "fantastical elements" is fantasy. This includes urban fantasy, magical realism, fairy tales, fables, myths, etc. Most Disney movies fall into this catagory, including Hook, Moana, Jumanji, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, etc. Now, for me the difference...

My opinion is to use whatever is necessary to the story. What is the point of the undead? What purpose to they serve to the story? Would the plot change if you replaced them with wolves or lions or aliens? If the answer is no, then consider why they are even there in the first place. All...

Re: the science behind eating a drunk person... the answer would be no, a werewolf could not get drunk from eating a drunk person. I'll explain why. This was explained to me when I was nursing my first baby. I was worried I could not have a drink while breastfeeding. It turns out that even if...

Yes. I want to thank ^^^ a thousand times. This is exactly right.

Hmmmmmmmm, interesting. Ok. My thoughts. Werewolves are sort of known for their healing capabilities. They have to be able to heal fast in order to switch from man to beast monthly (insert bad PMS joke here). Not too much is known about what causes a hangover, but dehydration is one cause...

Or maybe it's like The Last Starfighter where the video game playing kid get's picked to save the universe by a bunch of aliens because the video game was really a test put on earth to find a great warrior.... in which case it serves my point that the mundane intro can be important if it serves...

Dem, yeah, I think that is true... "The way it was written" it did need an earlier chapter... but to be fair, I sort of feel like the car explosion opening works great in films, but not so much in fiction. I don't know why. I feel like in films, it is very visual, with music etc... there is more...

Yes. That is exactly it. I think it all boils down to having a goal with high stakes, whatever that may be. In that same post you mentioned above I suggested giving the character a temporary goal and stakes, even if the point is to thwart them with the "hook". Ideally, the initial goal and...

Hmmmmmm.... good point. And this is where it get's tricky. Because we say two conflicting things. "Open with a hook!" and "Show the 'real world' first." It can be confusing. Honestly, the only reason it all became clear to me was by studying every book intro, movie intro and TV show intro I...

Yes!!! "Dual-mundaness" lol. Awesome. The Clark Kent example was a good one. Once upon a time there was a super adventurous history professor named Indy. Every day he risked his life to preserve important historical artifacts... But one day.... He was sent to find the most valuable...

Yes. I think the point is to establish status quo so it is interesting when it changes. Which is why the Pixar story format works so well, and it's something I'm teaching my six year old at bedtime. Even he now knows to start a story with: Once upon a time there was a boy named.... Every day...

Yes ^^^ but I think, when I use "mundane" this is what I mean. Basic story structures says that the "set up" should show the character in their "real world"... whatever that "real world" is. I use "mundane" to mean "real world". So in the case of GOT, the crows "real world" involves them...