Activity for Galastelâ€
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
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A: Where can I find resources for bedtime story plots? I gave your question some thought, and I figure the best source of inspiration for you would be an encyclopaedia. Let me explain: your regular characters can travel to distant lands where they'd encounter new views, customs, wildlife etc. They can travel back in time to various interesting historical... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How to prevent turning off the reader at first with a protagonist with unlikeable traits but that becomes better later on? Your character is a warrior. That lends itself to many positive qualities you can show: loyalty, courage, professionalism, camaraderie. There's a reason we have so many stories about warriors: these qualities evoke respect. Show your MC as a complex character, with admirable qualities, and qualities ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Linguistic simplicity in novels: how do different world markets/languages view it? It would be hard for me to answer about popular books, but I can answer about literature I enjoy. In Hebrew and Russian (my mother tongues), as well as in English, I gravitate towards either the classics, or fantasy/sci-fi - towards literature that challenges me, and demands thought. I expect the lan... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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What pronoun should a hermaphrodite species use? In my fantasy novel, I have a species that is fully hermaphroditic: all individuals have both male and female reproductive organs. Like garden snails. Consequently, they have only one gender. They explicitly state that they don't mind when confused humans refer to them as he/she/it/they. Humans cons... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: What reason would there be for the heros to not let the benevolent superhuman entitiy handle the Big Problems? I can see several differently flavoured options. 1. The Entity is worshipped as a God, or similar. You do not risk your God's existence for your own goals. You give up your life for your God. This is an approach you see in Zelazny's "Amber Chronicles" (described from the "Gods'", a.k.a the Princes o... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: When naming a character, is thematic naming or realistic naming more important? There are many factors that would affect what names would work better for your characters. First, is the character using a name, nickname or pseudonym? A nickname would be given for some reason, a pseudonym would be chosen with some thought in mind. It therefore makes sense for nicknames and pseudon... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: "Real people don't make good fictional characters". Really true? Here's a way to look at it: suppose a Cerberus the size of a horse shows up in the middle of a crowded shopping centre and starts grabbing people. Most "real" people would either run away screaming, or freeze in horrified shock. These people don't make a good story - they are boring. They are reactiv... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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Pretty flowers with clunky Latin names I am writing a fantasy novel set in the Middle East. For multiple reasons related to both plot and atmosphere, I'm using flowers and flowering trees a lot in both descriptions and dialogue. Trouble is, many plants that are very common in the Middle East don't have common names in English - only clunk... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How Much Focus to Give a Supporting Character? The situation you're describing reminds me very much of Bishop Myriel in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables: had he not granted Jean Valjean hospitality, had he not drawn him to a new path, we would never have had the reformed Valjean. Thus, Myriel's influence on the story is crucial and transformative. Ho... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Where's the middle ground between genre conventions and originality? Originality isn't contained merely in what populates your fantasy world. In fact, I'd say that's one of the least important elements to an original story. You can have a new, fresh, original story in a setting with the old tired elves, dwarves and orcs (look at JourneyQuest, for example), and you can... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Sympathetic Racist Depending on your setting, it might make sense for your character to be racist, it might even make more sense for them to be racist than not to be. For example, in medieval Europe, if someone wasn't a Jew, chances are he was an antisemite. (Look for example at "La Morte d'Arthur" or at "The Poem of t... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Is it a good idea to make the protagonist unlikable while making the supporting characters more likable? Give the reader something to connect to early on, and the protagonist doesn't even need to redeem themselves. (No reason why they shouldn't, it's just that it isn't necessary for not alienating the reader. My favourite example is Humbert Humbert from "Lolita". The man is a paedophile. He's despicabl... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How unadvisable is it to flip the protagonist into a villain? You readers are invested in your character. There are multiple things they like about him, right? Those things cannot just disappear - that would leave your reader angry, frustrated, and feeling betrayed by you. The character's Fall needs to be believable. And after the Fall, there's the question of... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Is it a deus ex machina if the alternative is illogical? I'd say for this to work, there should be sufficient information before this point for the readers not to see the antagonist as a bad guy. Machiavellian perhaps, but not evil. Then, for the antagonist, it should indeed be the logical solution to let your protagonists go. I mean, they fought against ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How do I get my readers through the early, "hardship" part of my fiction? One way would be to condense the "Kansas" part as much as possible. I don't have "The Wizard of Oz" on me, but let's look at "The Hobbit" as a similar example. It starts with about two pages of what are hobbtis. Bilbo is established in one paragraph: > "This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and ... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Listing character traits Character traits should be seen. Absolutely. Being told that someone is smart isn't enough - he has to use his brains. However, can you sometimes tell rather than show traits? Let me show you some positive examples: > "This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: What should I do when I am stuck on names during freewriting? I often face the same problem with finding names, not just for characters, but also for places, titles, etc. In such cases, I use a temporary name, and specific markup, to make those temporary names easy to find later. For example > {Alpha} and {Bravo} lived in {TownName} town, {X} leagues from {Cap... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How to show a character being bored for multiple chapters without boring the reader Plot doesn't have to move at an even speed. Just as you can slow-motion over an important battle, you can speed up over long periods of time. A couple of paragraphs evoking boredom: staring at the rain, practising magic, staring at nature some more, counting days, whatever. Then move on to whatever e... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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Writing diversity I am writing a military sci-fi novel about an international military force facing aliens. My cast is very diverse: the MC is Yemenite-Israeli, his love interest is German, his room-mates are from Georgia (the country - not the American state), Mexico and Ireland, the squad leader is Asian-American, a... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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How to evoke wonder in the reader, when there isn't an incredulous character? A "fish out of water" character can serve as a reader proxy: whether it is a wondrous view, an unusual custom, or what have you, the character experiences and responds to them, and through him - the reader. But what do I do if there's no "fish out of water character" for whom the situation is novel?... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How to write a 'fish out of water' character? If you've ever played D&D, think of this character as having low wisdom, high intelligence: smart, but not knowledgeable. Curious. Interested in obtaining new information, looking at new things in wonder, awe - whatever emotion you wish to evoke in the reader. Consider not only the knowledge your cha... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Is it acceptable to have the theme of a story remain hidden to its characters? I'm not sure. Is the narrator of "All Quiet on the Western Front" aware of the themes of the story? He is very much aware of the horror and the tragedy of the war, and of how much it has changed him, but is he aware of how senseless and futile parts of it were? Like his own death? Is his awareness o... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Is there any way to get around having everyone in the world speak the same language? There are several ways to have more than one language in your world. Here are some ideas: - Your characters might be conversant in more than one language. If your characters are high-born or a hereditary merchants, it makes perfect sense for foreign languages to be part of their education. You can e... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: What are the advantages and disadvantages to leaving the narrator unnamed? Are you working with first person narration? Is the narrator's identity important? Is he the MC, or someone on the sidelines? Does anyone ever address the narrator in dialogue in a situation where it would make sense to use his name? Here's some examples I can think of: - Roger Zelazny's "Amber Chr... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How do I write an action scene? One of the most memorable fight scenes I've read is duel between d'Artagnan on the one site, Athos, Porthos and Aramis on the other, Chapter 5 of "The Three Musketeers". A whole chapter albeit a short one, is just this one scene. So how does it work? We start from how the MC plans to go about the ba... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Should the narrator use pseudonyms in writing? If it is your MC that's using a pseudonym, how do they think of themselves? Have they become the mask, adopted a new personality, put their real identity in a closed box? Or do they sometimes forget to respond when called by their pseudonym? You can convey information by the way your narrator calls y... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: How to write long extracts in a foreign language? You might look at "War and Peace" to see the effect of large parts of text being written in a foreign language: it is a book in Russian, with a significant part of the dialogues between nobles being in French. When Tolstoy was writing this, he could expect his readers to be bilingual. Nowadays, Russi... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: If I am writing from the first-person perspective of a non-English speaker in first person, what should I do? Think about it this way: surely you've read literature translated from another language? For example, Les Miserables, set in France. All characters speak French. Hugo doesn't need to tell you that they speak French, or that no character knows a word of English - the setting does that. You might be re... (more) |
— | about 6 years ago |
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A: Spacing out dialogue? Why do you believe you have too much dialogue? To take the question to an extreme, have you ever read a play? It's all dialogue, and yet plot happens. Now, I understand you're not trying to write a play. But if your strong point is good dialogues, why not work with it? You can write the dialogue, th... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A: What to Research for Military Fiction? I am a big fan of Sun Tzu. His "Art of War" is still relevant, so I suppose it would remain relevant in the future as well. He writes about general concepts like supply lines, instead of specifics like cavalry or drones. The concepts do not change, I guess. Another book I would recommend is "Catch 2... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A: How to create good character names? I too am having problems with this. My way of solving the problem is to start with the setting. Is your plot set in a real place? If so, you can look for names from that region. If you like, you can do some research about the origins and meanings of those names, so you can be sure they fit your char... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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How to write about Autism and Intellectual Disability? In a novel I'm writing, I have a minor character who is either autistic, or has an intellectual disability. (I know they're different. But like I said, he's a minor character, so I haven't really decided yet.) Either way, my setting is fantasy, mostly inspired by 9th century middle east, so both cond... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |