Timewaster's Guide Archive

Has anyone else noticed how remarkably similar LOST is to the Mistborn Trilogy. In the end, at least.

In Mistborn: At the end of the first book, the Lord Ruler dies, who has been protecting the world from Ruin, who is set free, and the characters finally see the real threat.
In Lost: At the end of Season Five, Jacob is killed, and the characters realize that the smoke monster is the big threat.

In Mistborn: Vin, after absorbing the mists, basically becomes Preservation, but nearly messes everything up. And then she dies fighting Ruin.
In LOST: Jack takes over for Jacob, but nearly destroys the island after he has Desmond pull the plug thing. And then he dies from a wound made by smoke monster Locke.

In Mistborn: Sazed takes the place of both Ruin and Preservation, and does everything right cuz he knows how.
In LOST: Hurley takes over for Jack, and it is suggested that he is going to do everything right, even where Jacob couldn't (just as the Lord Ruler couldn't really do it right).

Anyhow, that's what I've got. JJ Abrams copied Brandon.

Anybody know if Mountain-Con is happening again this year, and if so, when? All I could find was a website talking about previous Mountain-Cons

Thanks for reading!

Ahoy all.
    Well, I'm just posting to let you all know that I'm going to have to drop out of Reading Excuses for a while. Not permanently. I've just found myself to be more overwhelmed between school and work than I thought I'd be this semester. If you haven't noticed, I haven't gotten around to critiquing anyone's work for weeks, and I've been having trouble finding time to do very much writing. So, until things get under control, I'm probably not going to be submitting or critiquing anything.  Hopefully it's not for too long, but we'll see.
   

I've found myself in a pickle.
For the past two months, I've been working on a story, which I've also been submitting to the Reading Excuses group. I have enjoyed what I've been writing, and I really like setting and characters. However, the problem arises with the plot. I don't see it going anywhere.
The problem originates with how I started writing. I had a cool idea for setting and magic, but no story to go with it. At the same time, in my creative writing class, for my final project I needed to write a short story that was no more than 10 pages. I saw this as a great opportunity to write about this setting, incorporating the magic, yet not have to worry much about the story. So, I wrote my piece, which turned out to be the prologue to my story (Birthright), which many of you have read. When Reading Excuses started up, I decided to submit it, and from there, decided to write more.
Now I've come to the problem: I don't know what to do with the plot. As I've been writing the few chapters I've done, I have put together a little bit of a plot, but I don't like what I've come up with. I simply don't see it going anywhere.
So, why am I rambling on about all of this?
I have an idea for a story, and it is possibly the first idea I've gotten for a story that hasn't been setting driven, but is, rather, plot driven.
What I'm torn between is whether I keep working on the story I've got, even though I don't see it going anywhere, or I start up this new story, with a plot that is solid, and I can clearly see where to take it, and I really like where it will end up.
My holdup is that I've started a whole lot of stories, but have only finished one, and I'm trying to break that habit.
Any advice?

Here's another chapter!

In the sci-fi novel I'm writing, there is a special group of dragon-riding warriors. I'm trying to come up with a good name for them, but I'm having a bit of a hard time with it.  Right now, I'm going with Dragoon, but I feel it is a bit overused. I've also considered Myrmidons, but I'm not sure.
If anyone has any good ideas, I would really appreciate it. Also, the setting is in the distant future, and the group of dragon-riders is a sort of special forces. With that in mind, I've considered having the name of the group have a longer name, with several words in it, but when you take just the first letters of the words, it spells something cool that they go by. (for example, S.H.I.E.L.D., from the Marvel universe)
   Anyhow, I'd really appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!

For a school assignment, I need to bring an excerpt from a book that is a good example of characterization, particularly in physical appearance. I want to get something from Mistborn (or Well of Ascension), because they are just such great books and more people need to know about them. Unfortunately, I've lent my books out to a friend, and the assignment is due Monday.
So, I was wondering if anyone here could help me out with some good examples of characterization in Mistborn or Well of Ascension. Ah, heck, Elantris was good, too, so anything from that will work too. I'm looking for anywhere from 1 to 3 or 4 paragraphs in length.