Recent content by studentofrhythm

I can't believe nobody's mentioned Firefly's creative cussing: "go ram it," "rutting," "we're humped" etc. Not to mention all the Chinese. But they can lay that on a bit thick too. I'm reading The Stormlight Archive now and getting mighty tired of the frequency with which all the characters...

Why not Sumerian or Akkadian?

Your description of your story reminds me of Halldor Laxness' Independent People about a crofter in northern Iceland about a hundred years ago. Though the setting is rural and not urban, I'd recommend it to the OP, along with Upton Singlair's The Jungle, which takes place in Chicago at about...

I would say that it's more important for you to research the geography and the ecology of the area you want to evoke - because pre-industrial cultures are shaped so much by their physical environments. Are you going to have the action take place in a rainforest, a savanna, a desert? Are your...

1. What kind of settings do you like to read about? Any setting that is well-described can pull me in and win me over, I think. But I'll always enjoy settings that provide for a lot of outdoor and wilderness scenes. Descriptions of landscape, terrain, vegetation, animals and weather always...

1. What kind of characters do you like reading about? Ones that are pretty normal I think. They have the sorts of human problems that people might not want to talk about very much. Also, bookish types (gee I wonder why). 2. What kind of characters do you like writing about? Besides the...

Kerouac wrote: "don't think of words when you stop but to see picture better." I've read that the biggest challenge to drawing, too, isn't so much technique as clearly seeing what you're going to draw. I often close my eyes and imagine myself in a place, seeing, hearing, smelling, doing...

Anyone here listen to Sigur Rós? Their special EP of Saeglópur is very evocative. I think (), Takk and Valtari would set nice fantasy moods too. Also, go on youtube and search for Jordi Savall. This guy has been playing renaissance and baroque music in several ensembles for years and you...

Queshire, that's nifty. A cupcake that not only heals but has no calories? Dang, where do I get one of those? And I love the chain of fantasy fast food restaurants! Also, I can't help but recall Peter Gabriel's "Moribund the Burgermeister" from his first solo album -- delightful song about...

@delaitha, No problem!

I love geography. You misunderstand my point and attempt to put words in my mouth. The place names you cited all are English names from Greek, or coined in English using that old suffix borrowed from Greek. Some of them share the same or a similar name in their national languages, others...

Chiming in late, will try to be useful. This article is a green light for me. I don't know if my WIP would be classified as fantasy, because not only is there no magic, I don't see any plot-driven conflict either. The story does revolve around a sort of quest, which only comes about later...

I want to read more about our young friend Bazgog. I just googled "Bazgog" and found out there's a Bazgo village and Buddhist monastery in Kashmir, and a Nimo Bazgo Power Project on the Indus river. Not an exact match, but it supports Alva's point (at least as I understand it). If there's a...

Landscapes have always been a very important part of fantasy haven't they? Maybe we should all be taking time to read Wordsworth and Edward Abbey. Maybe there need to be more magic systems that incorporate that universal immediate enchantment that everyone feels being in beautiful places.

The author is certainly turning away from a task that might be needful sometimes. But such an author can duck charges of laziness as long as there's a big enough group of readers that don't demand or expect authors to understand more about how names and languages work, partly because not enough...