Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Ruthie

Pages: [1] 2 3 4
1
Everything Else / Re: Cool Stuff Found on the Internet, again
« on: February 24, 2011, 05:55:15 AM »
I'm not sure why I think that's kinda cool, but I do. Especially Leia and 3PO.

2
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Mistborn e-book art
« on: February 01, 2011, 05:00:01 AM »
Very nice.

3
Books / Re: Truly unique fantasy worlds
« on: January 12, 2011, 04:01:57 AM »
*going crazy adding stuff to her goodreads list*

Thanks, guys! I'm excited to try some of this stuff out.

4
Books / Truly unique fantasy worlds
« on: January 11, 2011, 05:00:25 AM »
I debated whether to post this in Brandon's forum, or the writing group forum, or here, and ultimately decided I wanted the discussion to go in a broad direction.

I recently finished reading WoK and was struck by two seemingly opposite thoughts: 1) the world seems completely unlike anything I've seen in a fantasy book ever, and entirely unlike earth, and 2) the culture still seems vaguely medieval European, like pretty much every fantasy book I've ever read.

What I've wondered for years, actually, is whether there's a market for a fantasy novel where the characters' culture is totally unlike European culture. Like, what if a novel based its culture on the ancient Mayans? Or the Chinese? I mean, the possibilities aren't endless or anything, since I think a fantasy set in a hunter-gatherer society would have less potential for being epic, but there are advanced societies to choose from outside Europe. I guess Egypt has been explored too somewhat, so maybe I'm overgeneralizing.

Or maybe it's been done and either I just have missed those particular novels or they haven't done well because nobody wants to read a fantasy novel about people who are vaguely Chinese. This question is of specific importance to me because I'm seriously considering doing a major revision of my current fantasy novel to set it in a non-European culture. I'm wondering how much of a mistake (or great idea) it would theoretically be.

5
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WoK interior art question
« on: January 08, 2011, 03:24:57 PM »
I can't remember. There's something like something from Aether of Night, though.

Hm, haven't read that one.

It sounds like I was conflating plates on a horse-like animal that you ride. I did read that book about ten years ago.

6
Writing Group / Re: Plotting Chapter by Chapter
« on: January 08, 2011, 12:13:07 AM »
Watch this. The link goes to the first of the five videos. It's an AWESOME presentation by Dan Wells on story structure that helped me immensely with a similar problem.

7
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WoK interior art question
« on: January 08, 2011, 12:05:57 AM »
Good to know. Maybe I should keep my red pen with me while I read. ;)


Oh, also, were there creatures like chulls in White Sand? They seemed very familiar to me . . .

8
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WoK interior art question
« on: January 06, 2011, 06:06:45 AM »
It makes me feel better that Brandon chose the placement of the pictures. The idea of it being haphazard was bothering me.

I feel like I'm being really negative here. I totally understand time restraints undermining good intentions for editing. I myself have had to say "good enough for the time I have" on a few projects, and it drives me nuts.

9
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WoK interior art question
« on: January 06, 2011, 06:04:55 AM »
Yeah, I've used it before. I wonder sometimes if I'm wasting my time, though. How long will it be before such changes are implemented?

10
Brandon Sanderson / WoK interior art question
« on: January 06, 2011, 04:49:02 AM »
While I loved the interior art, it was baffling to me why the publisher placed each illustration where it was. Why was Shallan's drawing of the dog thing, for instance, placed hundreds of pages after the part where she draws it? I would much rather have had all of it a page or two away from the scene that references it.

Furthermore, why are all of Brandon's books so poorly proofread? With his first books, I assumed he was too new for TOR to want to invest much in the way of proofreading on him. Now that he's such a success, the continued poor quality just doesn't make sense. I am a copy editor, so I notice such things more than most people do, probably, but I also compare books with each other, and Brandon's seem to be in relatively bad shape typo-wise.

[Addition: My husband, also a copy editor, says the new Tad Williams book he's reading is poorly proofread too. He thinks that maybe publishers are just having to cut back on editing in this economy, or maybe in general in response to the changes in the industry, such as the move to e-books. It might be.]

11
Writing Group / Re: Let's play: Where does my book go?
« on: August 23, 2010, 09:25:40 PM »
James Owen doesn't do color illustrations, but his works are self-illustrated. Check out Here, There Be Dragons as an example. Note that I have not read anything by him but am aware of him. I think he sells pretty well.

12
Writing Group / Re: I need bad supernatural YA - really, i do.
« on: August 03, 2010, 08:26:37 PM »
Hahaha, this story sounds awesome! I can't help you with the bad supernatural YA, though. I didn't read any of that when I was a kid (I was into Nancy Drew, Lloyd Alexander, and horses then), and I don't really like that genre now either. If it were me, I'd go to my local library and ask the same question. I'll bet the librarian would know.

13
Writing Group / Weaknesses
« on: July 31, 2010, 02:30:18 PM »
What's the hardest thing for you as a writer? Is it writing convincing dialogue? Making sure your characters are round and dynamic? Getting the ending right?

For me it's detail. I get so wrapped up in telling the story I want to tell that I don't even stop to describe the scene adequately, let alone clothing, facial expressions, specific movements in a fight scene, etc. To me, thoughts, feelings, dialogue and large-scale actions are the most interesting, so that's what I write.

On the one hand, there are (good) published authors who have this weakness. Orson Scott Card comes immediately to mind. His characters are interesting and their personalities complex, but are any of them described in any sort of detail? Some scenes are described in detail; for instance, I think I have a pretty good mental picture of Battle School. But Lusitania? No way.

On the other hand, I love it when authors do a good job of creating worlds and characters in such vivid detail that I feel like I've been there and met those people. I love when I'm reading a series and will walk down the street and think, "That guy looks a lot like how I imagine Mat Cauthon looking." I want to write like that, and when I work on it, hard, I can.

At this point I'm wondering if it's a bad idea to just focus on getting the story out in the first draft and then work on fleshing out details in the second. My only worry is that writing this way will add 50 pages or more by the time I finish the second draft. Hahaha.

What are some of your weaknesses, and how are you working on making them strengths?

14
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Funny pic that sums up the Wheel of Time
« on: July 31, 2010, 02:21:17 PM »
I mean really, the series would totally suck if Egwene's collapsing chair weren't in it. It was totally worth the pages and pages spent on it.

15
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Alcatraz *SPOLIERS*
« on: October 19, 2009, 06:34:17 PM »
Okay, funny thing. I never actually read this series because I rarely read YA anymore, and the premise sounded a little silly to me. But when I was at my local library and found it in the "for sale" bin for 10 cents, I couldn't pass it up. Turns out they were getting rid of it because there are crayon scribbles on a number of the pages—didn't hurt readability at all, but still. Anyway, I liked to think of those scribbles as Alcatraz's notes in the margins. Or maybe his father's. :)

Pages: [1] 2 3 4