Timewaster's Guide Archive

I don't think it would be too late, myself.  If the plot is along the lines of a quest, and the character is someone the main group logically meets while questing, I think it would be alright.  But you could also split the POV's from the very beginning.  Tell the story that brings the first group together, but also outline the chain of events which eventually brings this other character into their path.  If you do it that way, you set the reader up to expect them to meet sometime in the future, so it doesn't come as a surprise.

Whee!  Good to see you Writerchick!

You know, I think it depends on how the author handles it.  As long as you remember that language/speech is primarily for communication, and then keep in mind the ways of that particular culture, it should be ok.  I guess what I'm saying is, language has a lot more behind it than just words- ideas, nuances of meaning, and tone of voice have a lot more to do with communication than just the words themselves.  There are times when a curse word would be appropriate because the IDEA of "I'm incredibly angry/annoyed/frustrated/etc." is what you're trying to get across to your audience, and that's the cheapest, easiest, fastest way to do it.  Likewise, there are times when it is not appropriate.  You could also choose to have entirely different words take on bad connotations for the culture you're dealing with, but then you have to explain that, too.

Thanks!  It's more of a blend of sci-fi and fantasy, and like I said, it's not "hard."  I'm dubious about the jotting down notes thing for myself though.  Most of the time when I'm "plotting" (heh) it's because I'm doing something mindless at work and daydreaming at the same time, so there's little opportunity for jotting anything down.  I might start keeping a small notebook in my apron, though, just to see if it works out.  Thanks for the tip!

Hello, all!  You can see my handle to the side, there... I go by Ravenstar, as I'm not really comfortable giving out my real name on the internet.  I'm a waitress by day, and use my B.A. in Music to teach private voice lessons on the side, though not very many of them at the moment.

A little bit about me:  I'm 24, female, married with no children (yet), and at the moment I hail from the south-east coast.  And I like stories.  I always have.  As a child, I would rather sit and watch my sisters play with Barbies, or Playmobile, or other toys of invention and imagination than to be put to the trouble of inventing things myself.  Ergo, I really like books, mostly sci-fi and fantasy, though I won't say no to a good action adventure, a non-smutty romance, or well done historical fiction.  I avoid horror and mystery because, frankly, they annoy me.

Right now I'm working on my NaNoWriMo novel (which will eventually be finished, I swear!), but sporadically.  At this point, I'm laying everything out in my head, playing around with ideas and characters until I find the best fit for the plot.  I find that I do this best in imagination rather than with an actual outline and character portraits- mostly because I'm lazy and don't like putting the nitty gritty details on paper.  There are also two other stories I'm working on which grew out of the aforementioned Writing Contest thread, one of which I will probably be using here.  It's sci-fi, but not hard (I don't have the technical experience or knowledge to make it hard, and I find that I mostly skip technical jargon in the hard sci-fi I read, so you'll just have to bear with me... or re-educate me on the error of my ways ). 

There will probably be lots to critique with my submissions, and frankly, I'm looking forward to it.  Please no inane "Yeah... good job... um, I really liked it..." If you're going to say you liked it, please tell me why, with examples.  That goes for negative comments too, btw.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to both reading stuff and having mine critiqued!