Timewaster's Guide Archive

I have a friend/coworker here (non-mormon) who forsees a complete finantial debacle due to Obama's finantial plans, which will lead to the country electing Romney 4 years from now because of the man's strong background in economics/finance.


I hope that bigger changes are in store for next year. It could be that it is too soon to drastically rehaul the system, so he had to make some (on the surface) unsound decisions in order to make his plans work next year.

I 'll wait and hope. (All I can do really)

I personally would like the setting to be very thorough in the game.

Descriptions of all the different cities (not just Luthadel), description (and/or maps) of the keeps. Paintings. Info on the Noble Families. The ability to play noble or ska or merchant.

basically a fleshed out highly visual world. Not just "go read the book" for the setting. The various cultures should be addressed. Skills or bonuses depending on upbringing.

This is not just a random Fantasy world, so extreme attention must be payed to render the setting correctly and make sure that the characters have something detailed and alive with which to interact.

The Sounds of Silence

(Seriously it is QUIET around here)

Currently reading Book One of the Runelords by David Farland.

I'm not all that far into it (3 chapters) but I am liking it quite a bit so far.

It was refreshing to not start out on a farm, but with a murder in the middle of the night

Oh dear, if Miyabi and Necroben ever get together we could have some very scary stuff going on around here.

Necro would be the Igor to Miyabi's Dr.Frankenstein

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farm boy becomes king, magic sword, evil overlord etc.

These are archtypes. Archtypes can be cliches in stories if they are used improperly but they still derive from archtypes.

The Peasant King, the Magic Sword, etc. These are not bad at all. Not cliche. They form the basis for a great deal of collective mythology.

They only become cliche if the person using them does not do so in a new/original way, or just copies them straight from the mythical archtypes without any twist.

The Peasant King can be seen in the American dream. Rags to riches. This is a powerful motif. It has meaning in the social subconscious.

The cliches are the ones where you can obviously draw a one to one comparison. 'X is definitely King Arthur just ported directly into this story.' However if the Peasant King also has self immolation (ie. Messianic properties) along with a host of other new/differentcharacteristics, then it doesn't resemble the exact archtype anymore. You can see influences of the archtype, but it has escaped being cliche because it encompasses MORE than just the 'Peasant King'.

Jordan used a lot of archtypes, but never one per person. He created real characters who filled several roles, had complex personalities and motivations and whose story was more than just Good vs. Bad.

That was awesome!

Reminds me of "Oh Brother Where Art Thou"  --- "They turned Pete into a horny-toad!"

I think you are confusing "playing up the uniqueness" with creating coherence.

You lose the chance to apply subtle characterization and cultural depth if you fall prey to the cliches of English vulgarities. (They are so boring too.) You could simply imply that someone is angry by having them spout the f word. OR you could actually do some prep work and make the world more realistic and the character more real by coming up with a cultural reason why they are using an expletive in the first place, expanding on the culture of their birth, commenting on their current situation, AND expressing their anger.

You get all this for adding one original curse instead of being lazy.

Our swear words just have no meaning anymore. 'Stronger' swear words have replaced 'weaker' ones in usage. (for example What the 'heck' becomes What the 'F'). Making absolutely no sense. They have become watered down cliches used as filler. I would think people would leap at the opportunity to create something original.

By that same logic, why don't we just use earth as the setting for all our stories, instead of playing up the uniqueness of your world?

If you are writing in spanish would you use english curse words? no.

Curse words in text are not supposed to simply be curse words. Every word in a story has to be there for a specific reason. ESPECIALLY when you are creating a world from scratch. (edit: Also, it isn't so much about what curse words do/mean to the reader as much as what they mean to the character saying them.)

And I disagree, writing may be about getting meaning across, but writing novels is about story. Plot and character and setting are all too important to be wasted on cliches.