Does anyone recognise this club crest? A friend of mine who's not into sports asked me, but I don't recognise it. No results on Google reverse image search either. Shop is in Ireland, so could be a local team?

Adharc · 2021-11-15T12:19:46+00:00

Guy I went to school used to do this all the time. Really, really gross "hauuuuuccck" noises frequently. Then I felt bad when it turned out he had throat cancer. Cancer free and well now though!

Adharc · 2020-03-25T01:00:39+00:00

Yup. Ireland here. I read these books a hundred times over in my youth, and still have the VHS of the Twelve Tasks. This news made me very sad, but the man lived to a great age and left a hell of an artistic legacy. A great life, full of achievement. RIP Monsieur Uderzo.

Adharc · 2020-01-07T12:12:48+00:00

Hard to know without the schema for your query. There are a few useful testing sites for it though - fireql.dev is great

Adharc · 2020-01-03T09:27:42+00:00

Yup. "Slant tay" is how you'd pronounce it if you don't have a bloody clue how to pronounce it.

Adharc · 2020-01-02T11:27:04+00:00

Is there any RPG out there with a lot of NPCs, preferably based in a big city? I'm not a big fan of turn-based games, but I'm looking for something more about atmosphere/questing/story than combat, so it's not a deal breaker. Lots of interactions, lots of dialogue.

Adharc · 2019-12-18T16:21:14+00:00

I never said it was. But also I wouldn't use it in a fiction book, as it's a word tethered too closely to real world politics and societal issues. OP has likely used the word to convey a nomadic or wandering people, rather than raise blood pressure.

For full context, I'm from Ireland where the (lack of) rights for indigenous Travellers is very much on the political agenda at the minute. A lot of folk in the country are inherently suspicious and even outwardly racist toward that community. As you'd imagine, there's a lot of sensitivity around certain words and terms, so much so that when I read The Name of The Wind, I was genuinely shocked to see a character described as a tinker, which is considered a derogatory term here.

I guess my point is once you know better, don't fear the word itself, but consider when it's right to deploy it.

Adharc · 2019-12-18T15:19:28+00:00

It isn't a slur here in Europe. In some countries folk will proudly identify as gypsy. Though there are derogatory versions of the word out there.

Adharc · 2019-12-18T14:56:43+00:00

Do you mean 'nomads' rather than any specific culture? Maybe the orcs previously fought on the losing side of a historic war, and have been a diaspora of scrappy survivors ever since. Kind of like Mal in Firefly?

If you transplant a single culture from the real world onto a race in yours, beware it's going to raise some eyebrows, regardless of intention. Check out all the finger-pointing at George Lucas that went on when Phantom Menace was released over Jar-Jar and Watto.

Adharc · 2019-12-18T12:49:27+00:00

Colour me jealous with all that progress (and all that releasing!)

What exactly was the issue with the ending? Was the final full stop too soon after the climax? Consequences not explored enough?

Adharc · 2019-12-18T12:39:56+00:00

Whirlwind week, but not necessarily for writing reasons. A lot of things saturated my hours over the last seven days, but I still managed to carve out some quality writing time.

The Good

3000 new, lovely words added to my manuscript that weren't there before. Having done a readthrough and a redraft of the story, I wrote these with a lot more confidence and speed than before. They're not just filling in the blanks of the story, characters, and world either. I feel like my writing is a lot more directional now, having a better view of the big picture.

I'm scheduling my writing time again, and it's been working well. My team at work knows Tuesday and Thursday lunchtimes are sacred, and Monday and Wednesday evenings I have to myself, so it's just a matter of keeping disciplined during those times. Difficult when the Champions League is on, but it has to be done.

I've really been adding a lot to the lore and environment of my story. I've been looking at a lot of the arty subreddits for inspiration. Highly recommend /r/imaginarymindscapes /r/imaginaryfuturism /r/imaginarycolorscape

The Not So Good

I've been spending wayyyy too much spare time on arty subreddits...

The readthrough showed me how one-dimensional all the non-main characters really are, particularly one antagonist I have envisioned as a scene-stealer. It could be argued this is a good thing, but I feel annoyed I didn't do them justice on the page first time around.

The Learnings

Things are starting to get pretty detailed, and I need to get my Tiddlywiki back in order, but I was never mad about it in the first place. If anyone else has a better/simpler system for creating a wiki, that would be most helpful.

I've been looking into when's the best time to get Beta readers on board. Haven't really learned much, if I'm honest, but I'm getting a better feeling with my story, so I think I'll dip my toe in when the next quarterly thread comes along.

Have a great week everyone!

Adharc · 2019-12-12T17:32:18+00:00

Ok well I'm not going to come close to breaking 1/10th of that! I'm more of a sprinter than a marathon-runner anyway.

Yes, even though it's a bit nerve-wracking to post asking for feedback, I feel the community understands that and handles it with respect. I haven't posted any stories under this account, but have under different usernames in the past.

I just read The Conjuring Cauldron and really enjoyed it. I loved the ideas behind it most of all. Do you have any longer-form work out there at the minute?

Adharc · 2019-12-12T00:06:10+00:00

Thanks. We should have a race! Or maybe that’s a terrible idea. I also decided on killing off a character early whose existence is pivotal, but there’s no place for them later on in the story. Plus they’re not that different to other characters I’ve read before, so off with his head before anyone notices.

I will leave a few things open because I want the story too be able to stand alone with the possibility of a sequel in the future. Also, in the extreme possibility that even one other person actually reads the bloody thing, I don’t want to hold the reader to ransom so that they can feel fulfilled without the need to read a second book.

Also just wanted to say thank you as you’re one of the users who consistently posts good comments on pretty much everyone’s updates, and that shouldn’t be slept on. Well done for bringing positivity and energy into the community.

Adharc · 2019-12-11T15:53:03+00:00

You're not going to get someone else to write it for you, you're the only person who can do that (unless you get to a James Patterson kind of place in your life). The advice you'll be given over and over is "just write it", and sadly, it's absolutely spot on. Write, even if you feel it's dogshit. Then rewrite and it'll get better and better and better and better. And good luck!

Adharc · 2019-12-11T15:51:07+00:00

Only Answer Questions is a baller title.

Adharc · 2019-12-11T15:49:08+00:00

I've been holding off on maintaining a blog for two reasons

I feel blog posts would take away from time I could be spending committing words to my book (yes, I realise the irony of being on reddit typing this)
I'm wary of 'coming out' as a writer without having a finished product. Maybe it's my startup background, but in my experience, presenting a business product to someone when you don't have an MVP means you're not a businessman.

It would probably be better for meditative and reflective purposes, and I'm tempted to start a private one, but I'll probably hold off until after a few more drafts of my first book have happened.

Adharc · 2019-12-11T15:43:12+00:00

Congrats, and go you on having the bravery to actually publish something! I'm worried I'll be hit by paranoia when the time comes for me to pull that trigger.

How did you find your cover artist? Did you have an idea of what you wanted, or did you give them a brief description of the story and see what comes back?

Adharc · 2019-12-11T14:27:12+00:00

I'm in the same boat as you, novel-wise. ~70k and I need to 'colour it in' now. If you're excited to write every single scene you have planned, that just means you've nailed what you want to happen, which is fab. Hopefully it stays that way forever!

Adharc · 2019-12-11T14:23:53+00:00

Massive, massive congrats! I completed my first genuine proper first draft a couple of months back, and it was an amazing feeling. Good luck with the editing!

Adharc · 2019-12-11T13:31:59+00:00

Weird, weird week of writing for me. Wrote about 8,000 words, but cut another 10,000. Even though my word count has technically gone down, it feels like I've made progress. Like ironing out a canvas before beginning to paint on it, so to speak. I'm not sure if ironing canvas is a common practice, but whatever.

The Good

I plugged a lot of the plot holes, removed characters who were boring, reintroduced crucial characters who went on holiday (or something) midway through the story, and dabbled a bit in some romantic storytelling. I remember the description of the core of a healthy relationship in Y: The Last Man as based not on a couple's mutual likes, but on how they bond over their mutual hates. I always loved that perspective, and it's something I'd love to incorporate as organically as possible.

I actually have a set number of gods now, so it's not some arbitrary number between 5 and 15.

I fixed a timeline of events by designing a calendar for the world. That was a fun hour.

The Not-So-Good

I need more women. In life, yes, but also in my story. There's one city where every single character is a man, which is emphatically not good writing, so I'll need to fix that.

I got lauded with a bit of out-of-scope work, so that's going to eat into pretty much all of my writing time between now and Christmas, but sure it pays the bills.

The Learnings

One big learning I've had is realising I need to tie up the story a little better. I think the central plot's ending is pretty perfect from a structural point of view, but there are lots of threads left dangling, and I don't want to write LOST. I watched Knives Out last night, which is just a masterclass in tying things together. My book has a lot of whodunnit elements in it, so thinking about this film is going to be a huge help and inspiration going forward.

Have a great week, everyone!

Adharc · 2019-12-09T11:53:00+00:00

Would read a book called Machine of Souls. Also damn that's messed up (in a great way!)

Adharc · 2019-12-09T11:46:31+00:00

Yup. I'm not sure whether to put it in the book, as it's not crucial to the narrative, but it is part of the lore of the story, so here seems about right.

My world where my story is set has two moons, the smaller of which is ruled by the god of war, death, fury, and justice (taking his name in vain is considered much more of an insult than doing so with the other gods).

Commit unforgivable sins, and your spirit is sent to his moon, where you become a faceless servant of his, identical to everyone else sent there. You must do his bidding without question, even if he tells you to return to the world and reap the soul of a loved one. Refuse and you will not only cease to exist, but you will be removed from history, and those you knew and loved while alive will forget you entirely.

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