@dragongeek
Active 6 years, 9 months agoForum Replies Created
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Posts
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Oh, boy. I’ve been working on a twist villain as well, so here’s what worked for me, but no guarantees.
If the villain is acting nice, there’s probably a reason. They shouldn’t just be trying to hide by pretending to be a good guy–they should be trying to accomplish something. They have an endgame, and they’re working towards it in secret. Let’s say they’re after a powerful magical artifact, and your main character knows where it is. They’re going to try to bring up the artifact in conversation often. Or maybe there’s a locked room they need to get into–they’ll hang around that area a lot. You get the idea.
Fandoms: Narnia, LotR, Harry Potter, Marvel, MLP, Ranger's Apprentice, probably everything else
Your style sounds a lot like mine. My advice is to make sure you know what their character arc will be–what their struggle is, and how they’ll change in that area before the end of the story. Build everything else around that, and feel free to leave things open to change along the way. The first draft is honestly where you discover a lot about your story, and character traits (as well as a lot of other things) will shift. That’s completely normal. Don’t feel that your characters have to be set in stone. Even the character arcs can change, but those are really the center of your story, so be careful if you decide that needs to happen. Otherwise, use them as a guide for everything else. As long as you keep an eye to your arcs, the rest will come more easily.
Fandoms: Narnia, LotR, Harry Potter, Marvel, MLP, Ranger's Apprentice, probably everything else
You know you’re a writer when you go to a bonfire, and you want to just let yourself experience the wonder of the moment, but you also want to dissect and analyze the way the flames act for your writing.
Fandoms: Narnia, LotR, Harry Potter, Marvel, MLP, Ranger's Apprentice, probably everything else
@lillian-parks03 Wow, I love your description of him!
Fandoms: Narnia, LotR, Harry Potter, Marvel, MLP, Ranger's Apprentice, probably everything else
Working on fight scenes of my own now. Trying to use the same advice I gave Archer. Anybody else on?
Fandoms: Narnia, LotR, Harry Potter, Marvel, MLP, Ranger's Apprentice, probably everything else
@r-m-archer I’m on a website where a bunch of amateur writers post their work online. One of those people is the absolute KING of fight scenes (not of grammar, but that’s a topi for another time). Eventually I decided to try to learn from him. This is what I got:
-Know each character’s fighting style. Let’s say you have a world where magic is common and your characters are all mages–maybe one of them has a lot of magical power, to the point where they can just overwhelm their opposition with both incredibly powerful spells and huge, huge fleets of smaller spells. One of them prefers to go largely defensive and wait for an opportunity to strike with a small but deadly spell. One of them creates illusions to make their enemies attack something other than themselves. Another stays at a distance and uses spells that travel really far, while their enemies can’t reach them. And so on.
-Then figure out how long you want to spend on the fight scene. If it’s a short one, or takes place between only two (or only a few) people, you might be able to go for a blow-by-blow account. Read the Ranger’s Apprentice series to see some excellent examples of how to do that–the fights always feel really alive, and they never seem to drag on too long, even though they describe every. single. move. On the other hand, if it’s a big battle between two armies, blow-by-blow isn’t really feasible. You can describe that one with the general flow of the armies and large strategies (see Helm’s Deep or the Pelenor Fields from Lord of the Rings), or use the POV of someone in the battle to get a limited, but vivid description (like the Battle of Five Armies in the Hobbit, where everything [if I recall correctly] happens from Bilbo’s view). The person I prefer, though, uses a mixture. They give a blow-by-blow for the first few minutes of the fight, usually somewhere in between 4 and 12 moves. Then they sort of zoom out and describe the overall strategies and fighting styles of each member, before zooming back in to show the end of the fight. It works really well–the fights are fun and engaging without feeling like they drag on forever or show too many details.
Wow, that came out long. I hope it helps!
Fandoms: Narnia, LotR, Harry Potter, Marvel, MLP, Ranger's Apprentice, probably everything else
I’m on and finally getting around to writing! There’s a small piece I’ve been wanting to work on for a while, and tomorrow I’m starting a large project that will be taking up all my writing time and energy for a month or two, so today I’m hoping to get the small project out of the way. Anybody else on?
Fandoms: Narnia, LotR, Harry Potter, Marvel, MLP, Ranger's Apprentice, probably everything else
@anne-of-lothlorien I would promise to be careful with it, but I don’t have much precedent for that, since I keep leaving mine in the 17th century…
Fandoms: Narnia, LotR, Harry Potter, Marvel, MLP, Ranger's Apprentice, probably everything else
Is anyone here? I’m trying to muster up the motivation to write, and also trying to decide if I want to be writing my current main work or a short story for a contest that closes in a week and I’m still not sure if I’m entering or not.
Fandoms: Narnia, LotR, Harry Potter, Marvel, MLP, Ranger's Apprentice, probably everything else
Welcome! It’s nice to meet you. Your story sounds so fascinating!
Fandoms: Narnia, LotR, Harry Potter, Marvel, MLP, Ranger's Apprentice, probably everything else
I don’t know, but I’ll be your friend! Hi!
Fandoms: Narnia, LotR, Harry Potter, Marvel, MLP, Ranger's Apprentice, probably everything else
@Sam-Kowal Well, you can still sit and read with your back to him. My human friends tell me it’s very warm.
@allison-grace Hello! Thank you very much.
@emerald-flyer Nice to meet you! I’ve always thought of it as a paw. And if you’re looking for fingers that would be claws or talons. Personally, though, I prefer to wave with a wing. So much more flair, you know? It really catches the eye.Fandoms: Narnia, LotR, Harry Potter, Marvel, MLP, Ranger's Apprentice, probably everything else
Welcome! Nice to meet you. Do you think I can borrow your time machine sometime? Mine broke down in the 17th century and I had to walk home to get spare parts. I forgot that I can’t walk back…
Fandoms: Narnia, LotR, Harry Potter, Marvel, MLP, Ranger's Apprentice, probably everything else
@girlsetfree Hi there! I personally talk to dragons all the time. Of course, most of them are my characters…
I’m a Standard Western, though sometimes I cosplay as a Nightfury. I usually have blue scales–when April is over, I’ll change my profile picture to a good picture of me.
@sam-kowal Nice to meet you, Stan! Is he a shoulder, lap, or riding dragon? These distinctions are important, you know.
@supermonkey42 Well, droids are certainly interesting… but perhaps not quite as interesting as dragons. *preens wings*Fandoms: Narnia, LotR, Harry Potter, Marvel, MLP, Ranger's Apprentice, probably everything else
