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Greetings,
I don’t suppose I’ve ever introduced myself on this forum. I’m rather surprised at myself, actually. Quite frankly when you don’t know where to start on a writing forum and the link says “start here,” one can’t really be blamed for clicking it and proceeding to carry out its instructions. 😉 Okay….I’ve been keeping an eye on Kingdom Pen for quite some time. The articles are both amusing and instructive, which has been a great pleasure, as one doesn’t often find an excellent combination of the two in this day of extremes. 🙂 I’ve refrained from spending any time on this forum until now first and foremost because the one most important thing to do as a writer is to write, which is what I’ve been doing. Now that my book is coming together rather nicely, and I’m nearly done with the first draft, I thought it might be a good idea to seek practical advice from those of you who have “been there and done that” as idiom goes. I’m a musician who teaches violin full time to the community and hoping ultimately to compose. I’m working on an opera based on book one of Edmund Spencer’s Faerie Queene, which, by the way, if anyone knows and loves that book as I have come to, I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject. I’m also heavily involved in writing a fantasy novel, the aforementioned book draft, for which I come here seeking advice of any kind. Alright, I shall close this lengthy epistle with one request. If you could only give one piece of advice, encouragement, or word of wisdom to a fantasy writer, and it had to be your very best, what would it be?
Many Thanks.
~ Christianna
Well hello there! It’s nice to meet you @christianna-hellwig
Admittedly, I haven’t much advice to give, because I haven’t “done much”, as you put it in your post. I’m eighteen, but I’m still learning how to do things like finish a draft, create characters, create (and write) a solid theme. I like learning. Makes places like KP all the more relevant.
The purpose of this post, then, is to just say hi, welcome to KP! Glad to have you. I’m afraid if you were just looking for advice, then you’re going to get much more than you bargained for, because we’re obsessed with things like MBTI types and Star Wars and books (duh?) here. Good luck, and happy writing.
Writer. Dreamer. Sometimes blogger. MBTI mess. Lover of Jesus and books.
@christianna-hellwig Greetings, and welcome to the bestistest place on the internet! (Or as I like to call it: The bestest place in Cyberspace) 😀
Ooh, music! I really want to learn violin. I can play cajon pretty well, and I can play “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and “The Imperial March” on the piano X)
I’m glad you have decided to join us! I am positive you will get some really good advice
As for advice here and now… Mmmmmmm… Well, I’m not quite the writing expert like a lot of people here, so my advice won’t be quite as… great as some others. But here goes…
For fantasy, if you want to enthrall your readers with your world, add diversity to it! Not just elves, dragons, knights, kings, and things like that (although those are all awesome). For example, in The Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson, there are dragons and trolls and typical fantasy creatures, but there are also toothy cows, Fangs, bomnubbles, nuzzards, thwaps, and countless other original and utterly awesome creatures. Of course, there are other components to your fantasy world other than the wildlife, this is just an example 🙂
And there you have it: A little bumbly piece of advice 🙂
You can pronounce it however you want.
@christianna-hellwig Welcome!!! What kind of music do you listen to when you write? And as for advice… Don’t write about elves and dragons or fantastic battles. Write about human emotions and experiences.
Welcome again 😀
Silence! Silence everyone, for the king's speech!
Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind. I suppose it’s a good thing to seek advice and community before one has even done anything….I guess that’s a side effect of my having way more pride than is good for me. I look forward to hearing more from you. By the way my MBTI is INTJ. 🙂
@christianna-hellwig Welcome! @dekreel You actually said it? Wow! I’ve only heard you say that special little welcoming phrase about twice – or less. 😀
Soo0, Christianna, what’s your favorite period of history? Do you write any other genres besides fantasy?
My “one word of advice” would be “Realism“. That may sound strange advice to a fantasy writer, but I find if the story becomes too fantastical it becomes harder and harder for the readers to relate to the characters and the story. In little kids picture books where the aim is mostly to just entertain, leaving out realism in favor of hilarity can be useful. But in teen or YA fiction, if you want to form a connection to your readers, even in a fantasy book there must be a certain amount of realism.
Again, Welcome!
"Sylvester - Sylvester!"
Dekreel, thanks. I heartily enjoyed the peculiar creatures in the Wingfeather saga. So glad you brought it up! I am attempting to conjure up my own race, though the names aren’t even half as good as Thwaps and Meeps! 😉
MNValentine, that’s good advice, I vowed from the start that I wouldn’t touch elves, dwarves, dragons or any of that with the end of a forked stick in my story if I could help it; and battles, well, I shall touch them as briefly as is humanly possible in an epic fantasy story. Human emotions and experiences are what I’m going for. It’s good to hear it again. When I write, I’m especially fond of classical music with an emphasis in the Baroque and mid-Romantic period composers. I also heartily enjoy a lot of acoustic, folk-like Country, and traditional folk songs from Ireland, Scotland, the United States, and Germany.
Rochellaine, Favorite periods of history are rather difficult for me because I like several for different reasons. If you asked which time period I’d most like to be plopped into, well, I think the 1700’s would have been most intriguing in that sense…except for the hair styles…white powdered wigs…ugh! What period do I like to fantasize on the most…probably the dark ages…that was definitely a very adventurous time in history, especially the period in England and Ireland from 500 to 1000 A.D. What’s yours? And why?
Besides fantasy I enjoy writing allegorical-mind-bending-philosophical stories usually set in the here and now so I don’t have to worry about the historical aspect, I’ve done a bit of it but I can’t say any of it shows any potential as of yet.
Thank you for the advice about keeping my story real. It makes sense and I’ll be keeping it in mind!
@christianna-hellwig A word about tags–to let someone know you’ve responded to their post, simply put @ and then their username, like I did with your tag above. You can find a persons’ tag just below their username. My username, for example, is Elizabeth, but my tag is @that_writer_girl_99. Make sense?
Writer. Dreamer. Sometimes blogger. MBTI mess. Lover of Jesus and books.
@Elizabeth Thanks, I’ve been wondering how to do that!
Dah! It didn’t work! How about this… @that_writer_girl_99
@christianna-hellwig *cheers* You did it!
Writer. Dreamer. Sometimes blogger. MBTI mess. Lover of Jesus and books.
@christianna-hellwig, Welcome to the bestistest place on the internet! 🙂
You. Write. Opera.!!!!!???????????!!!!!!!!!!
How did no one else pick up on that??? @dekreel, @that_writer_girl_99, @rochellaine, @mnvalentine….
Anyways. WOW! How long have you been composing for?
I play a couple of instruments but would really like to play violin… and flute. Might take me a while to convince my mum on those. 😉
I also do a little ‘composing’ here and there, but an opera? yeah. no.
Fantasy! Nice. It seems like a popular genre to write, and although I currently only write historical fiction, fantasy is definitely something I plan to do in the future.
Again, welcome aboard! Hope you really love it here. 🙂
Official Member of the Certified Club of Aussie Kapeefers
@christiana-hellwig 😀 Welcome to the bestistest place on the internet!
You’re writing a fantasy novel? Awesome 😀 what is it about?
I’m a fantasy writer, as well, its my favorite genre.
I have a friend who plays violin really well! I like to write music but find it really hard- composing an opera sounds epic, and tough.
Hmm… advice or word of wisdom.
Don’t give up on tough parts of your novel, because working through them will make you a much stonger writer. One interesting thing I’ve noticed about writing is that it’s not a layered system you have to learn; like in violin, you start easy and get harder as you go, whereas in writing, although your early work might be weaker, you don’t have to wait to master, say, character before moving on to trying theme as well.
*Giarstanornarak tries to melt chair*
Also, Daeus has 22 turtles in his signature.
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