Michaela

@mgtask

I try to stick to one or two projects at a time. Having two allows me to swap between them if I’m having trouble with one or the other, but still keeps me focused on finishing. Exploring is good and important, especially in the early years of writing, but finishing is also an important skill and it’s good to learn how to power through on…[Read more]

@mgtask

Hi Michaela! For me, I generally have several stories simmering in the background, but I can only really focus on one (maybe two, if one is fanfiction. Those tend to require less work). What I do (or, what I’d like to be doing) is have one project that I’m writing beginning to end. If I have a sudden burst of inspiration for something…[Read more]

@mgtask I’ve considered it, but I’ve never really been able to truly get going lol

What fandoms/works do you want to write fanfiction for?

@mgtask

Hey,

Thanks for posting this! I was actually thinking about this not to long ago and was debating on whether or not to put in a character with some of the things you mentioned. I’m glad you brought this up, it helped me consider using them a bit more.

-Katja

@mgtask

I think you’re totally right…writers do tend to follow stereotypes for characters. I think one of the reasons for this is because characters represent who we want to be (and everyone wants to be Aragorn😄). I think another reason is that we’re not educated with how minorities think and act…so we revert to what’s familiar.

I would…[Read more]

@mgtask Like the others said, it goes back ultimately to Tolkien.

But it isn’t just because everyone picked up LotR at a young age and fell in love with it.

LotR has its roots most strongly in oral mythological and folklore traditions, between Beowulf, Norse mythology, and German and European fairy tales. He wanted to create a mythology for the…[Read more]

Hi @mgtask !

I agree with @katja-r that Tolkien had a huge influence on fantasy, but Middle Earth isn’t that much medieval – it’s a combination of 19th century pastoral England, Northern mythology, ancient Europe, and Tolkien’s imagination. In fact, Narnia is much more medieval – knights, ladies, castles, hunting the white deer, feudalism,…[Read more]

@mgtask

Hey Michaela,

The most common answer is Tolkien. I found this in an article I read recently by Dominik C. Durst.

“A lot of fantasy readers first traveled to the legendary world of Hobbits, Elves, Orcs and such. Even though little Johnny started with Tolkien, it doesn’t mean he was the only one writing the genre so early. Books like The P…[Read more]

@hope-ann

I love this!! I’m probably not the most qualified to answer, since my main characters are the more emotional ones without fail. I do have a pretty important, cold hard side character, so this was honestly kinda helpful 😆

My big things with him is, he’s the scary quiet one. He doesn’t say much, and he doesn’t raise his voice. So in my h…[Read more]

@mgtask Ooh, the second one might work! Thanks!

@mgtask – What a great topic! I’ve gotten so many insights based on everyone’s responses. Along the lines of other countries/cultures getting represented, I’ve always wanted to see more based off of Russia (being the largest country in the world, there’s so many opportunities), lesser-known European countries like Croatia, and little South Asian…[Read more]

@mgtask Great topic! I would also reaally like to see more neurodiversity in Christian fiction. As far as I’m aware there has been a huge push toward giving a voice to neurodiverse characters in secular fiction over the past seven years or so (though whether that has been done well is a different issue) but I don’t see the same in Christian…[Read more]

@mgtask
<p style=”text-align: left;”>
*dives headfirst into the forums, realizes life is busy and vanishes*
*sees this topic and reappears*
*gets on soapbox*
I’m one of those people who doesn’t believe in trying to drill diversity into stories for the sake of diversity, but will always, always give a book extra points for just subtly acknowledging…[Read more]

@mgtask

Heh, yeah, that was super vague. XD It’s about a ten-year-old boy growing up in a tribe that is cruel to others. He ends up slowly deciding that he needs to be different from his tribe over the course of the story. It starts with him looking into the eyes of a deer he’s about to kill on a hunting trip and suddenly having a hard time doing…[Read more]

@mgtask

The King of Night and Snow is mine 🙂

I quite like the sound of it to be honest.

Unfortunately my fantasy novel has no snow in it so i’ll have to come up with a new plot based solely on this prompt.

@mgtask

“Daughter Nightmare Stars.”

Um….? xD

I’d like to see what a book with that title would be like!

@padawanpadme I feel like if you include an overt caste or class system and you aren’t also doing comprehensive worldbuilding on a Stormlight level, you’re telling your reader “here’s a point I’m making about class in the real world,” because you’re drawing attention to something that’s a hot-button issue in the real world.

Which isn’t an…[Read more]

Hi, I know I’m really late to this, but I do have one thing to say.

As one of the youngest people on here I am also one of the youngest readers. I love reading, and one of my favorite genres to both read and write is realistic fiction. But, now when I find a realistic fiction book I have to check when it was written. Six new realistic fiction…[Read more]