Awwww, I was going to make this joke. That wouldn't be fantasy, it would be farce. Yep, that'd be a fantasy all right. Though I wonder if by "everyone", you're really meaning "Remington". Honestly Shortwave, don't bother finding someone to give you ideas or act as a sounding board or whatever. Just write prolifically, chase as many different ideas as you can to expand your skills and avoid pidgeonholing your writing (I'd advise you to write things other than Fantasy as well), and above all else, READ. Read as much and as varied topics as you can, to expose yourself to as many writing styles as possible. And if you're dyslexic, you're going to have to work extra hard to make sure your writing is grammatically correct and has correct spelling, and is worded the absolute best way it can be. Fall back onto your condition as an excuse even just a little, and your writing is never going to go anywhere but the junk heap. Use your posts here as practice.
Hehe! I love our cold-ass world just the way it is! Give me Satisfaction or give me Death. Honestly, This man has no Honor... This.
Coincidentally, I myself am writing a fantasy novel, and while I won't give you ideas based on stuff I've thought of (I hold that very close to my chest), I can give you some insight to my writing process, which might help you out a bit. Shoot me a PM if you want to talk about writing.
Don't share your ideas online or with anyone you don't trust completely. There are thieves everywhere...
Ok I will try and make a few suggestions. These are just some of my fictional preferences designed provoke creative thought. A problem I see in a lot of high fantasy fiction is using its altered medieval or Edwardian setting as just a glossy visual thing rather than something that feels real and central to the story and characters. This often leads to faux olden days settings with no contraception, health or dental care yet somehow feisty female Mary sue warrior characters and everyone doing wise cracks and having post internet self awareness mixed with modern standards of political correctness. This is also true of many of the stuff I have seen set in world war 2 so it couldn't hurt to do a bit of research on variety of cultures. Reading about the religions, folklore and behaviour from a huge variety of what is considered normal throughout history can be fascinating in itself. There will no doubt be the odd thing in your researching which you had maybe never came across before that really shocks you in a way that would undoubtedly do the same to someone from the past reading about our cars, plastic surgery, facebook and celebrity culture. So given the creative license fantasy allows take that strange thing whether it be some kind of outlandish sexual norm, food habits, body or genitalia mutilation, or some now seemingly bizarre religious that fascinated you and change it slightly and use it a starting point in introducing something into your world. Try and not judge or express your moral opinion on any of the events portrayed and keep your stances on political things largely a secret. As much as I adore the writer Garth Ennis for his ability at making me laugh like loon at his brilliantly depraved comics like Preacher and The Boys but I find it slightly distracting and corrode the credibility of the setting when his characters break into long opinionated speeches which (I could be wrong, of course) sounds suspiciously like the views of the author and him trying to make a point or impart them to the reader. I personally find it more interesting when figuring out the rights and wrongs and who to root for is not so easy. The enduring appeal of the Watchmen comic is a good example of the power of moral ambiguity. Try not to make things too easy, over explain or talk down to your viewer/reader. If they cant bothered to put the effort in f*ck them. I know its easy to forget now as most of us have re-watched them loads of times but the Dark Knight Trilogy where not that easy to digest and challenging on there first viewing. these movies made more money than many of the easy to understand CGI-fests of their time and where successful in the often patronised and underestimated young demographic. This can extend to the way you use language creatively; If you want to write partly in a different language, a thick accent Irvine Welsh style or incorporate your dyslexia into your writing style creatively go for it. As well as cultural influences it is good to view your characters as individuals with their own personalities including habits, ways of thinking, subconscious's, interests, addictions, sexual preferences, senses of humour and many other things so maybe reading up a little on psychology couldn't hurt in helping you make your characters have an element of truth in them. This is just a personal preference in the interest of keeping it entertaining and I know people really do exist like this but I would stay away from mopy morally indecisive characters, they could potentially be interesting but get it wrong and your in emo nightscream territory and no-one wants to be there. One of the things I found the most refreshing about The Wire TV show was how the characters made decisions and believed in what they where doing rather than moping, complaining or whining. I know this sounds like a no-brainer but if you are going to include wild supernatural fantasy or advanced science stuff try and ground it with some kind of internal logic, uses or limitations. If you use a narrator, narrators can lie, gotta love those. use or discount as much of this as you like. hope it helps or at least provokes thought
Thanks my basic idea revolves arround a question. in a world of many sentiant races who was the first? many races claime it was them elves, humans, Kruai,Na' ja zura and of corse Dragons. the war its self begins over a metal Olmylicon a antimagical metal that can disspell magic and its twin Valminen that adsorbs magic and retains spells. (Flame swords ect.)
The premise is interesting but while you shouldn't skimp out on the fight scenes, it's obvious that a lot of emphasis needs to be placed on the history and maybe even mythology of each race. Remembers that while worldbuilding is sexy as hell, too much might distract from the story. This does open up a lot of doors for an adventure story, so if you're going for war, you may as well intertwine the two in some way. Don't answer this here, but why do these races want to know which is the oldest race? How is age relevant? Is it somehow connected to the weird metal you described, magically or politically?
The best advice I can give is read some good science fiction authors like Frank Herbert, George R.R. Martin and Tolkein. They made extremely detailed fantasy worlds so its a good start!
This is awesome advice. Seriously, I couldn't have said it much better. As an addition to this, I'd say that the more world-building you can do, the better but that doesn't mean you need to SHOW all the world-building you've done. Just because, for example, you've constructed a complex and involved mythology doesn't mean it all needs to be laid out for the reader - just the parts that advance the plot. But if you have extensive knowledge of said mythology, writing it will be easier and help make your characters act more naturally. And if you've done the world-building yourself, even if you don't lay it out explicitly, it will come through in the subtle details, how your characters act and the little off-hand references they make. To use a personal example, I'm writing an urban fantasy novel and have extensive notes on the clothing styles and beauty standards of the culture. Very little of it will ever be discussed in detail in my book but, because I know these details, it makes it easier to add little references to it and make my characters sound more natural when/if something related to clothing does come up.
tellme about it i have folders full of scraps ideas and sketchies of creatures, deities, races and historical facts ect. i did write a 300 page draft but it was godawefull i just kept adding characters for no reason.
Yeah i did work out a few ones and a shared Alphabet and numerical system known as the Abrogath and alograth but most speak a comon trade language named Seratenian. (Yeah that old cop out.) im working out my pantheon i have arround 7 gods but only 5 so far i have my godess of Evil and stuff. but realy i need races and cultures to work on.
Having a well-established universe lays the groundwork for a lot of stories. Even if you have too much to cram into one story, at least you can save the unimportant bits for another.
