How old were you when you started writing?

I know there’s a folder, somewhere, with a story I wrote about a dinosaur named Sue, with chemo from my K-3rd grade years. That was my first ‘real’ story. Junior high math class was another keystone point when I started (and finished?) my first multiple-chapter piece. It’s laughable now, but was still an…[Read more]

. How do we write about bondage without letting it pull our readers down either with the temptation of the bondage or the despair of its power?

Always offer an alternative, the hope and knowledge that this isn’t the end, even if it seems that way to the character/s in the moment. It’s dark, it’s bleak, it’s the end road to them, but as the author…[Read more]

I very carefully hop heads several times throughout each chapter’s narration, but when I do get to settle in long enough to play with internal monologue, it’s usually rather entertaining (for me, at least).

For example, this scene was reworked a number of times to find the right balance of shock and denial.

“He was… banished?” Ealdur asked, b…

[Read more]

Thanks for the insight on where to start poking again.
My FMC is stalling out on me (as emotionally flat) because of the undefined relationship with her father (the antagonist), and he’s flat because his main goal is vague, and not at all defined. He’s also a shadow-on-the-wall lately, and not actually doing anything remotely threatening.

Now,…[Read more]

I know I dropped the ball on this one.. for future reference, how would one count revision in such a count, if at all?

Hey everyone! I just wanted to apologize for my extended absence. There was a bit of post-event business to be dealt with, which unfortunately dragged into the following week/last week. In any case, life is starting to return to normal, and it’s back to writing!

I will readily admit that I may be an outlier here. As I’m revising my pet-project novel, one of the things I’ve started to pay attention to is the chapter breaks and length of chapters. In the original draft, each chapter was around the 1,000-2,500 mark, and it the overall appearance became rather gangly. In my revisions now, I’m working at…[Read more]

The “Wessian Scribes” has  a lovely feel to it. It may also help that I consider myself a scribe already…. (I do medieval-calligraphy and illumination, which gets super fun since I’m lefthanded…. sinistre scribe at your service!).

@lady-iliara Which play?
Our local SCA group is hosting our first-ever event, (it’s a kingdom level event, so cancelling’s never an option), and the Crown has decided that it would also be super convenient/timely to raise our forming group to full-status. Just a bit of pressure!

Hello everyone! It appears we’re going to have an awesome guild going, already!

As a forewarning, I have responsibilities that are essentially taking over my life right now, and are most definitely hogging all of my free time. (Sleep? Eating? Do those really need to be priorities?) I will, however, be free after May 12th! In short… I apologize…[Read more]

@j-a-penrose

It’s another Quenya textbook, available a few different ways:

http://www.science-and-fiction.org/bookstore.html#lambe_eldaiva

I scored a 50, so I’m at the intermediate level. I’m not allowing myself to write until after May 12th (for purposes of sanity and priorities), but when I do, I’ll be most likely be using the Writer’s Rank to focus on the areas I need improvement in, but while referencing the Journey to keep an eye on the overall result as well.

@daeus-lamb The noun class cultural differentiation is a fascinating idea! My nouns have to be classified by suffix to determine the rank of the person being addressed in the conversation. The verb declensions are fascinating too! Are you primarily using prefixes, suffices, infixes, or a mix?

It’s what I get for learning Quenya and the tengwar (and a bit of the Sarati, but that’s reference only) and then starting to take up Hebrew by learning the letters first! Language growth and change in reference to the parent culture is also a large factor 🙂

@lady-iliara Good luck with ‘not using it much’. That’s what I said too, once upon a time! I know have a mostly-working grammar, spelling rules (they’re inherently tied to grammar), and I have to work against creating a paleo-script for the modern script, which I also want to develop soon.

@lady-iliara That sounds neat! Do you have rules you follow for which parts of speech can come from each language? Do you use the English grammar system, then as your primary structure?