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You are viewing the most recent 20 entries December 17th, 200506:36 pm: What it takes to make Limyaael love a love triangle
Well, this is masochistic of me, because if I were just asked to do a rant on love triangles, I could sum the whole thing up as, “1). Don’t write them.” However, just because I have hated 99.9999999% of all the love triangles I have ever read, and would undoubtedly hate more if I didn’t purposely avoid stories with love triangles in them, doesn’t mean that there isn’t some redeeming feature in love triangles. Maybe. If one looks reeeeally hard. ( Or perhaps they can be transformed )That was kind of fun, actually. Tags: fantasy rants autumn 2005, rants on romance
November 25th, 200506:38 pm: Rant on creating subgenres
This is the rant on various ways of creating subgenres—that is, small pockets within fantasy, rather than separate genres altogether like science fiction. Most of these are ways I’ve used. Others are ones I’ve seen recommended. Each will have its caveats, of course. ( On to the rant! )Tags: fantasy rants autumn 2005, rants on subgenres
November 19th, 200506:49 pm: Rant on writing extroverted protagonists
This is one of the character types that doesn’t often show up as the protagonist of a fantasy novel, but gets relegated to being a sidekick. I suspect the reason is not a story-bound one—like an extrovert hero being incompatible with a lot of fantasy plots—but authors not thinking things through again. ( Extroverts say hi! )*looks fondly at extroverted protagonists* There is no law at all that says they’re less interesting or intelligent than introverts. They just get written that way. Tags: fantasy rants autumn 2005, rants on character types
November 9th, 200509:17 pm: Moments of great social change
This consists of me saying, “Ooooh, shiny!” more than it does ranting. After all, I’ve talked about specific manifestations of social change before, as in the rants on revolutions and civil wars, and the things I find silly or unrealistic about the way that most fantasy authors portray them. So I’ll try to show what I think would be good ways of portraying them. ( Instead of a storm, why not have a landslide? )Getting nature more involved in a fantasy novel is up next. Tags: fantasy rants autumn 2005, rants on emotional scenery, themes i turn to
November 1st, 200511:00 pm: Ten great things about non-tragic fantasy
(I will answer comments on the espionage rant tomorrow. I'm sorry, but I've written about 11,000 words today, counting the rant, which, according to the way my wrists ache, was clearly too many. I'm happy, though). Now this is an interesting topic, isn’t it. ( Oooh, neato )A lot of my recent interests lately—post-apocalypse stories that are really post- and not focused on the event itself, stories about recovery and healing, stories that demonstrate the true psychological cost of abuse and the rising past it rather than simply curing it with True Love—can be traced back to this, I think. And I still wish there was a better way of defining it than by the name of what it’s not. Ah, well. “Life-affirming” will do. Tags: fantasy rants autumn 2005, rants on subgenres
October 19th, 200508:17 pm: Rant on pacifist/"coward"/non-fighter characters
These all got lumped together because I wanted them to be. Or, you can think of this way, if you want: All of these characters avoid fighting. What varies is their motivation. And since fantasy sometimes seems focused on making heroes out of people who can cause the most bloody carnage, I think focusing on people like these could be fun. Just adjust the points as needed for the motivation. ( I like them )*looks at poll* *poll says twin rant is next* …Oh, shit. Tags: fantasy rants autumn 2005, rants on character types
October 17th, 200510:37 pm: Rant on older protagonists (25 and up)
Yes, I realize the phrasing is odd, but it is true that many, many fantasy protagonists are, if not teenagers, in their early 20’s—particularly if they’re the heroes of a quest or crossover fantasy, in which they’re sent away from home or from Earth to a fantasy world. So what happens when you start getting into people in their late 20’s, or (settle yourselves, for it will come as a shock) even in their 30’s and 40’s and 50’s as characters? ( Lots of neato stuff )I liked that. It was fun. Tags: characterization: protagonists, fantasy rants autumn 2005
October 14th, 200511:18 pm: Rant on things that really irritate Limyaael
This is just a little Warning. In most rants, I attempt to have a sense of moderation. There might, for example, be one situation where I think a stupid villain would work, if [insert condition x here] exists. Or there might be a situation where the heroine of the book could be a red-haired, fiery-tempered fire mage and not annoy me. (Arguably, there is one book kind of like that, Sarah Micklem’s Firethorn…but the heroine doesn’t have any control of the fire magic, which comes as a favor from the gods, and she is not in the least fiery-tempered, being the ‘hero’s’ obsessed and codependent camp follower, so nevermind). Or I’ll try to suggest solutions that I think will better the problems I see, even if those solutions aren’t common in fantasy, probably because many authors actually like the stupid things better. This rant is just on things that annoy me. I’m not going to try to justify them, or excuse them. This is me in full out rant-mode. Also, there are lots of swear words, including the one I heard primly referred to as the ‘f-bomb’ the other day. ( You have been warned )That is the longest rant I have ever done. And it only took me an hour and a half. Guess I’ve had my say. Tags: fantasy rants autumn 2005, idea rants
October 6th, 200508:06 pm: Conlang rant- worldbuilding
The last of the conlang rants, on more general ideas when coming up with specific languages in fantasy worlds. ( Here we go )And that is the last of the conlang rants. Next up: keeping static worlds plausible, and then a poll. Tags: conlangs, fantasy rants autumn 2005
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