Timewaster's Guide Archive

So, how do you really do this?  It seems to me that there is a very fine line here.  In an amateur story I recently read, a character suddenly did something completely out of character.  The author's explanation is that he was trying to make the character seem well-rounded by giving him more complex motives.  Yet, it came across to me as a break in characterization.

I wonder about this.  Everyone always says that characters have to be well-rounded, they can't be 'flat.'  This seems very hard to do, especially if it's not a viewpoint character.

http://deforest.allofoem.biz/?cz

I assume that this is a scam of some sort.  I'm curious, however--this is one I haven't seen before.

So, here's a topic I've always been curious about.  Maybe it won't be of any interest to others, but it's something I'd like to know more about.

How effective is a bow and arrow for close-ranged combat?  Did people really, for instance, use bows to do robin hood style 'hands up or I'll shoot' kinds of things?  Did people really use them inside of buildings, shooting down hallways, that sort of thing (like you always see in fantasy books.)  I wonder how much the use of the bow in stories is influenced by the way we use guns in modern society.  Any ideas?

Link courtesy of Slashdot:

http://www.comingsoon.net/news.php?id=4202

So, Sprig, when are you going to have something better for me to put up than the current screen?  (I'll give you a cookie if you do it soon....)

So, I'm entering a portion of my current book where I have to devise a lot of names.  Anyone want a Cameo?  I could throw in something close to your name, or perhaps a version of one of your usernames, if you wish.  Firstcomers get speaking parts.  

So, I was thinking about the Arthur thread, and pondering how that legend has kind of spawned its own varied mythology--kind of an internal 'mythos' of its own.  

Then I was thinking about Hellboy, and the Lovecraftian themes, and how the Lovecraft mythos was kind of the other major self-sustaining fictional mythological world....

And, you guessed it.  I figured "Hey, wouldn't that be the most awesome fantasy fanboy story of all time?  I would call it:"

ARTHUR VS CTHULHU!

I can almost see it now....

(Feel free to respond to this, or come up with your own fanboy crossovers.)

So, I'm not sure what the appropriate term is--nick, handle, username, etc.  However, I thought I'd start up a thread where people can explain where their chosen forum usernames came from.  Perhaps this will give us an insight to each other's psyches--which may, or may not, be a good thing....

My personal nick heralds back to TLE days, when many of us worked on the staff together.   We had nicknames for former editors who stepped down, but kept coming to the magazine.  Prometheus, for instance, was called 'Obie Wan.'  (Because he was kind of a benevolent spirit of an editor, dead but still hanging around to help out.)

Well, when I stepped down from editor-hood, it was generally decided that I couldn't possibly be a 'good' spirit, like Prometheus.  They decided to start calling me the Evil Undead Overlord (since, during my days as an editor, I was sometimes called the Evil Overlord of TLE.)

So Evil Undead OverLord=EUOL.  Pronounced 'Yool.'  That's me.