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Awesome! That’s actually one of the few I haven’t read yet. It’s the first he’s published actually. I’ve read the Novella that takes place after the book, but it doesn’t give much context, despite being on the same planet. You’ll have to tell me how it is, unless I beat you, but I still have 4 other books from him I’m trying to read first😂
Shall do! I’m looking forward to reading it.
Great! Feel welcome to tell me as much about it as you want, and I can give ideas and pointers, does that sound good?
That would be wonderful.
It’s really cool when a story can end that way, being able to have a lasting impact on us, in a bitter-sweet sort of way. I’ll have to look more into my Tolkien lore!
Yesyesyesyes do!
Fair enough, still a fun idea though!
Yes, and one I might implement another time. I have other developing races in need of a story, so. . . .
!!!! WHICH ONE!!!!????
Elantris
I love linguistics! I would be happy to offer any thoughts on what you can do if you want to develop it more!
Yes, that would be wonderful. I have a feeling I could do it well if I really focused on linguistics, but it’s not enough of a passion for me.
Thank you, that was very helpful! I actually do have a way to save one character, as you were suggesting. And thank you, everyone, for the advice.
I know bits and pieces. Tolkien does a lot of tales of the mortal man and fair elf maiden in the history of Middle Earth, so I get them mixed up, but I know that much.
It’s sooo good, and one of the few times Silmarillion characters actually get a happy ending. And even then, it’s depressing.
Interesting! So they’re essentially perceptual caricatures.
Essentially, yes.
So does this allude to their spiritual side?
If I had purposely developed these for the story, probably. But they were a just-for-fun project that demanded to be taken seriously when finished.
And thus does the spiritual side basically embody human ideals and concepts? If so, that would remind me of Brandon Sanderson’s cognitive realm in the Cosmere. Again, high recommendation, and if that’s an idea your playing with, then the Cosmere might give helpful inspiration anyways.
Well, I purchased my first Brandon Sanderson book at a sale last week, so we’ll see!
The Maege sounds cool! You mentioned the enalids, but only by name, and not much else.
The Maege is very cool in concept, but much harder to write. I’m no linguist, so anything I invent gives off Ancient-Language-of-the-Inheritance-Cycle vibes.
Interesting, but based off of the assumptions given, and if No Cat is indeed its own creature, then all Cats must then have 3 tails, unless the base assumptions were false.
You make a good point, however the terms are just too vague. At least we need to clarify ‘No Cat’, or possibly risk equivocation.
Beren and Lúthien, Tuor and Idril, Aragorn and Arwen. . . . and personally, I count Aegnor and Andreth as a fourth.
I haven’t read the Silmarillion, but I know the majority of the stories, and it’s a very different kind of dark and cynical, but feel free to look into it, I still recommend the first to anyone.
Shall do. (Which stories do you know? Please tell me you know Beren and Lúthien, it has the best twist of fairy tale tropes ever, and I will die on that hill.)
Yeah, a good mix would be best. I feel ya on the the perfectionism😅
To be honest, I think it’s an author thing.
Fair enough, what do they look like then?
On average, they’re prone to be four feet or so, often with curly or wavy hair. Most of them wear their hair long. They have cat-eye pupils and ears very similar to faun’s ears. Their builds are more on the stocky side, though not as stocky as dwarves commonly are–more like an underlying solidness. They age very slowly (though they do age and eventually die) and can live for hundreds of years. They’re described as having something ‘more’ about them–if they’re attractive or ugly, it will be different, or ‘more’, than an ordinary person would be (if that makes sense; I’ve left that description slightly ambiguous on purpose).
Linya are especially known for their natural knowledge of maege (basically magic; it’s a force in nature and in the elements with its own telepathic language). Linya are usually born knowing it, though since it’s been centuries since dragua paired with humans, it’s becoming more and more common for linya to either sense or summon maege but not be able to interact with or use it, and vice versa.
(There’s also enalids; I’m not sure if I mentioned them. They’re the result of a linya and an ordinary human coupling. Obviously they have a mix of both traits, but they’re less likely to have maege, or they’ll have an incomplete sense of it. Their ears are just a little pointed, and their eyes are usually normal, though that’s not a rule. They also don’t live as long as linya, but longer than normal people.)
If No Cat has 2 tails, and 1 Cat has 1 more tail than No Cat, then do all Cats have 3 tails?
I would say no, because No Cat seems to refer to the lack of a cat, and 1 Cat is just one out of many.
On the other hand, if No Cat is actually the name of a certain cat. . . . I’d still say no. Or at least not necessarily.
I pronouce genre as GEN-ear and puree as PUR-ee. I do pronounce caramel correctly though! Which is odd considering me. I also have some kind of accent that my best friend notified me of this week. She has no idea what it is though.
Hmm. I’ve never heard anyone pronounce them that way before!
Yes, though not the last one all the way through…he lost me on the first chapter.
*is sad*
So until I was like eleven, I never read bookw. Even now I’m very picky. If a book doesn’t capture me on the first chapter, consider it unread.
I can understand. I’m rather similar, though prose is usually the deal-breaker. If the prose is bad, I’m more likely not to read it.
Let’s face it, Normality is overrated.
You said it! 🙂
Wait…I just saw you like purple and blue…Purple is my fAVORITE COLOR! Ever since I can remember.
YES, it’s such a beautiful, versatile color. It can be rich and simple all at once.
I adore cats too, but horses steal my heart. I own seven cats at the moment.
My family only has one, lol, because my dad’s allergic. She’s such a sweetie though–a tabby-tortoiseshell mix. We call her Tin Can Crackerjack Turtleback Sax (because I have many siblings, and we couldn’t decide on one name).
I like to write fantasy and sci-fi. A historical fiction one day, but not yet. My WIP is sci-fi.
Historical fiction is really fun (I have a WIP set in 1940s France that I might resurrect), but really hard. Of course, speculative fiction is even harder because you have to set up a believable world, lol.
Am I the only one in the world who pronounces it puh-CONS? Pe-cons, pe-cans, puh-cons, what other ways can you pronounce ONE word?
🙂 Don’t ask me. What about caramel? I say ‘CAR-uh-mel’. (Though a friend has informed me ‘CAR-uh-mel’ and ‘CARE-uh-mel’ are two separate things spelled the same way.)
Oh, that gets me on the topic, how do you pronounce ‘genre’ and ‘puree’?
JON-ruh
Pure-AY
So…for me, I got to point with the Simarillion and even though Tolkien isxmy favorite author, I set down the book for school and haven’t picked it up (it doesn’t help our copy gives me headache for some weird reason). Right now I’m in a Robert A. Heinlein phase.
I haven’t read much Heinlein (just Starship Troopers, and I recently found a copy of Have Spacesuit, Will Travel), but I really like what I’ve seen of him and I’m looking into his work. Frank Herbert, too.
Have you read C. S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy?
Hello, nice to meet you! (Totally get the characters & story ideas, lol)
1 what genre do you like to write?
I do a variety–historical fiction, mystery, a little sci-fi, and lately mostly fantasy. I’ve done a few plays as well, and I have a lot of poems. Right now, I’m working on an epic fantasy, and some fairy tales for a side project. You?
2 how do you pronounce the word ‘pecans?’
Pe-CONS
3 do you like horses? If so, what’s your favorite gait?
I enjoy horses, but I don’t know much about them.
4 what’s your WIP about?
My WIP is kinda complicated, but here’s the basic outline: in the early days of the world (Ulvrast), some spirits coupled with humans and produced the powerful race of linya. Since then, linya have been viewed as half-demons and have isolated themselves in the mountains. For the longest time, linya and humans fought each other, as each wanted to rule the country (Brening). Finally humans won, but linya just set up their own government in the wilderness (which humans tried to ignore, since they were sick of fighting). In the present time, linya are taking steps to get Brening for themselves, while humans are trying to subdue linya once and for all. Meanwhile, monsters are slowly on the move, trying to destroy Brening. (And then there’s multiple subplots, but they’re all related.)
5 have you ever read the Simarillion(Or attempted to)?
YES, I’ve read it about ten times. It’s my favorite book in the world!
Hope you like kp! Bye
Thank you!
I can recommend the first book to anyone with the time, but it really depends on what you want after that. The first book is much more of a hero’s journey with clear good and evil, but after that, the books become increasingly cynical, political, and morally gray, though they are thought provoking. The first is a complete well rounded and resolved story, so many readers can happily stop there without feeling any need to continue, but the rest of the books get into far deeper themes, so while they are sadder, they are interesting, so it’s up to you how much you read.
OK, good to know. (I’d like to say I’m desensitized to depressing books after reading the Silmarillion, but it’s probably untrue, lol.)
Cool! Yeah, Tolkien was the first to really popularize real hard worldbuilding, and it has become a favorite hobby of people around the world.
At the expense of my sanity, alas. But it’s a wonderful hobby anyway.
I do love Chosen one stories, they are immensely cliche, but there’s still so many different creative things you can do with them still. Procrastinating your worldbuilding in favor of your writing isn’t as bad as procrastinating your writing for your worldbuilding, what I deal with. I would say to just let yourself write, and simply remember if nothing else, consistency. Don’t break the rules you’ve already established in writing, and use the tools the characters have, don’t use them once, then never talk about them again, something way too many stories do. After that, the world will feel far more well built anyways, then you can build it up anyways, and modify the writing as you go as well.
Very good point, I’ll probably do a mix of both. The biggest thing is wanting to keep it consistent for my beta readers (and I’m a chronic perfectionist to boot).
Wait a “hobbit-elf-human-dwarf hybrid”? I am suddenly very intrigued to see how such a combination could work, and how does that lead to spirits possessing people and having non-human children? *scoots closer and gets popcorn*
Well, they’re not really hobbit-elf-human-dwarf hybrids per se, but they were designed the way I thought such a hybrid might work. Then I liked them so much, I gave them a place in the story and *things happened*
Well here’s one: If No Cat has 2 tails, and 1 Cat has 1 more tail than No Cat, then do all Cats have 3 tails?
I will ponder this and get back to you.
Thanks, nice to meet you!
Cool! Do you intend to embody that in your own writing?
Perhaps.
Yeah, it would be interesting to give a go. If I was ever to try it, I would probably blend it with hard worldbuilding, where there’s perhaps things like the known aspects of reality, then those sporadic parts that can’t quite be quantized in any way.
That would probably be the best way to do it. Best of both worlds, lol. Really, you might need a little hard worldbuilding (even if it’s just a little) to really solidify the world.
Ooook, that makes sense, thanks for bearing with my prying that out of you. It reminds me slightly of Children of Dune, which I just finished about a week ago. So what inspired such a story?
No problem, I love explaining my story to people! (And I have been wanting to read Dune for months now, is it any good?)
Inspiration: a variety of things. I began writing fantasy when I was, idk, maybe eight? Of course, I hadn’t read much besides Narnia and some fairy tales, so my early stories are actually bad (not just me looking back and cringing, I promise). Since then, I’ve developed a bunch of random worlds, characters and story ideas. This ties into my current WIP, which began last year. It was a very lighthearted, simple thing. . . . but then I became a Tolkien geek. And things got deeper. I’m going to say that’s when I really got into fantasy, and really studied the genre (which led to me really studying writing in general).
After that, the story just got deeper and deeper, and I began adding plots, characters, and elements of those abandoned stories I mentioned above. And we still haven’t gotten to the linya plotline! THAT came from. . . . actually, I don’t remember exactly. It started by accident, if I remember right. I was playing around with fantasy races, wanting to create a hobbit-elf-human-dwarf hybrid, and invented the race of enalids. Things went places, the story got deeper and darker (as I’ve said), and ‘enalids’ became linya. This plot really solidified thanks to the World Anvil website, which I was using for worldbuilding tips.
THEN I introduced the theme of a ‘days-of-Samuel’ type world, where magic and spiritual forces exist but are rare at this time. THEN a Chosen One plot came out of nowhere (if I remember right, I was toying with tropes to make them more interesting, and the results really stuck in my mind). So now it’s a gorgeous mostly-organized mess that needs a bit more organizing and polishing. (Which I am procrastinating on, because it means more work when I just want to resume writing the story.)
Yeah, those sorts of things have always been intriguing. I’m full of random paradoxical questions if your ever interested to hear more.
I would like that very much!
Yay, we have another Sara(h)!
But you spell your name wrong, lol. The correct way to spell it is actually Sara. haha!
No, the correct way is Sarah! 🙂 All kidding aside, nice to meet a fellow name-sharer.
What is your favorite color?
Almost all shades of purple and blue.
What is your favorite animal?
Cats! I adore them.
What is your WIP about (assuming you have one)?
My WIP is kinda complicated, but here’s the basic outline: in the early days of the world (Ulvrast), some spirits coupled with humans and produced the powerful race of linya. Since then, linya have been viewed as half-demons and have isolated themselves in the mountains. For the longest time, linya and humans fought each other, as each wanted to rule the country (Brening). Finally humans won, but linya just set up their own government in the wilderness (which humans tried to ignore, since they were sick of fighting). In the present time, linya are taking steps to get Brening for themselves, while humans are trying to subdue linya once and for all. Meanwhile, monsters are slowly on the move, trying to destroy Brening. (And then there’s multiple subplots, but they’re all related.)
Do you have a WIP? I’d love to hear about it!
What kind of music do you listen to? I listen to Christian music. I love Colton Dixon, For King and Country, Ellie Holcomb, Sarah Reeves, Britt Nicole, and Danny Gokey, as well as pretty much every Christian artist out there! I could literally go on and on and on….
YESYESYESYES ANOTHER FKAC FAN!!! My sisters and I are huge fans. They’re so underrated. . . . and Luke and Joel are such gentlemen!
I also love Newsboys (my favorite band) and TobyMac. I also like Clamavi De Profundis, The Harp Twins, Howard Shore, and Blind Guardian’s Nightfall in Middle-earth album.
What’s your favorite person to write in? First person (I did/do this), Second person-it’s really rare, but still I have to ask, haha (You do this), or third person (He/she did/does this)
Hmmm. . . . I usually write third, so I guess that’s my favorite. I enjoy writing from first person sometime though.
Lol, I totally get that. XD I’m not sure, tbh. Sometimes it changes depending on my mood. 😂 But most of the time, I love writing one of my MCs, Everton. He’s my impulsive, sometimes cocky, defensive, and probably a little wild boi! He’s much more fun to write in interaction with other people though, especially his best friend.
I love the wild characters, probably because they’re so different from me. I was thinking about it, and right now at this very second, my favorite character is my rogue character Fiona Eden. She’s very mischievous, which makes her a lot of fun.
Hi! (sadlly I can’t speak elvish and failed in finding an online translator so i don’t know what you said. XD) So cool!! (and yes, feel free to rant about the movies, I have a lot to say on the hobbit movies). And yes, I agree that The Silmarillion might be my favorite Tolkien book! I really liked The Fall of Gondlian too!
For Elvish, I recommend Parf Edhellen. It’s this online dictionary for most of Tolkien languages. Very useful. (I said well met, a star shines on the hour of our meeting.)
The Fall of Gondolin is definitely my favorite Tale of Beleriand. (I still can’t hate Maeglin, even after all that. I feel too bad for him, even though he was creepy with Idril.)