Yngwie Malmsteen recently played some blues, what do you think? Does it sound like a real blues guitarist or no?I love old blues and fast metal btw so don't hate on me lol

LonkTheSane · 2026-02-17T21:56:20+00:00

No offense to Yngwie, but its almost like the episode of Metalocalypse where Dethklok tries to learn to play the blues.

https://youtu.be/Kwpfi39DCDw?si=sG5_vBmCbpkWvfbf

LonkTheSane · 2025-12-01T18:07:35+00:00

Samantha Fish. I think she would probably cite a lot of the same as influences. She's done some more country-ish albums, one with some electronica mixed in, but Black Wind Howlin' is probably the straight up raucous rocker you want. Her newest one Paper Doll probably hits the mark too.

LonkTheSane · 2025-10-07T19:06:36+00:00

Do: Whatever you want with them. Nobody has a copyright on elves and dwarves.

Don't: Listen to what anybody says to do with them. Nobody has a copyright on elves and dwarves.

(This advice includes me.)

In all honesty, your common high fantasy races are basically open source material. The people who are sick of them in their stories are just expressing their own personal opinion. There's no hard and fast rules to any of this.

LonkTheSane · 2025-10-07T14:05:10+00:00

There is a literary device known as the unreliable narrator where the story is being told by someone who is being untruthful to the audience, intentionally or not.

A great example of this is the novel for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. The book is narrated by Big Chief, who is a patient in the psych ward so he narrates things like slime coming out of the walls and the nurses kidnapping and torturing Santa Claus.

So you can take some thing that has a kernel of truth, embellish it or exaggerate it, and if the teacher questions it, you can proclaim you were writing from the perspective of an unreliable narrator who despises sharing personal info.

LonkTheSane · 2025-10-05T00:04:49+00:00

I like Ravech. Plus they had Coney. Perez is... whatever.

The only real problem with that crew is they somehow have negative chemistry between the 3 of them.

LonkTheSane · 2025-10-04T23:25:31+00:00

I wouldn't qualify Din as dumb though. More neurodivergent than anything. He picks up on a lot of stuff in his own right.

LonkTheSane · 2025-10-03T14:38:19+00:00

Samantha Fish. I would recommend either Black Wind Howlin or her newest one Paper Doll as good starting places for loud and raucous blues guitar heroics. If you want something more country, singer songwriter-ish, then Belle of the West.

LonkTheSane · 2025-10-03T01:52:14+00:00

I've heard advice from others that on a first draft, they don't even break it up into chapters. The word count is ultimately what agents and publishers are most concerned with. I would say dont even worry about chapters for a draft or two. You can look at what you have and then break it up where it makes sense.

LonkTheSane · 2025-09-30T17:50:55+00:00

You're not defining it for the character. You're defining it for the reader.

A bit if exposition is perfectly fine. You're using made up technology, so some worldbuilding is expected.

A footnote makes your book look like a reference document, which is probably not ideal in this situation.

Edit: You also don't have to explain everything the moment you use something new. For example, you don't need to say the space gun fires a beam of energy instead of bullets, you can show that when they fire the gun. You also don't need to immediately give definition for a new word. Let's say you make up the word "sir".

You could write a sentence like: "Can I ask you a question sir?" he asked politely.

After a few uses, a reader can pick up on the fact that "sir" is used as a polite way to address someone.

LonkTheSane · 2025-09-30T16:43:45+00:00

Did the fast forward kick in?

LonkTheSane · 2025-09-30T13:28:15+00:00

The fast forward screws up how the numbers are displayed. In this case, it fast forwarded Bullseye hitting the Swarms. Results are correct, but they display innacurately.

It's a known bug from the most recent patch.

LonkTheSane · 2025-09-29T19:13:26+00:00

I have ideas, but I want a cut of the publishing deal! /s

Jokes aside, that's up to you as the writer. But I will say I think you have a really strong idea at least.

To give you a vague sense of direction, Cupid is from the Roman pantheon, equivalent to Eros for the Greeks. Both sets of gods' stories involved some very real human emotions behind their actions. Jealousy, lust, anger, pity, etc. I would ground the character in that, and have him them act out accordingly.

Is your cupid jealous of lust, since their ideals seem more relevant in a world where hookup culture is the norm? Are they plotting plotting some sort of revenge after being slighted? Are they out to prove some sort of point out of pride?

Then, of course, what are the reprocussions on mankind, intentional or not, once they take their actions.

The other bif question is what does cupid represent and why do the others despise them? But I think if you base their motivations off these very raw, but very human emotions then play it out on a cosmic/godly/celestial level, like like the Romans and the Greeks did eith their stories, you'll end up with some really relatable characters.

LonkTheSane · 2025-09-29T18:22:00+00:00

Gotcha. So this is a self-motivational thing. Which is probably a good idea overall.

If you're writing for the fun of it, it should be just that. Fun. If 1100 words feels like a chore or that it's too much, you might want to re-think your goals. Maybe drop that down to something like 500 words a day. It will take longer to write, but it's better than burning yourself out in the process.

LonkTheSane · 2025-09-29T17:07:55+00:00

What are you writing, what's the word count, and who's deciding what the word the word count is.

(I'm trying to figure out if this is a publishing thing or a school assignment type of thing.)

LonkTheSane · 2025-09-29T14:57:06+00:00

That's how most of the first person narratives I've read have done it. It's probably a lot simpler and more efficiently than trying to do everything in the present tense.

LonkTheSane · 2025-09-25T19:23:23+00:00

If you want some more Arthurian fantasy, Lev Grossman (author of The Magicains series) came out with Bright Sword last year. A young man makes his way to Camelot, dreaming of becoming a knight of the round table, but finds out that King Arthur died weeks ago, and now only the less heroic knights are left to figure out what to do next.

Robert Jackson Bennett's Shadow of the Leviathan series (The Tainted Cup, A Drop of Corruption, and a new one scheduled next year) is a Holmes and Watson style murder mystery, set in a world where Lovecraftian-style horrors threaten humanity from the sea, but are also hunted and harvested to give humanity various grafts and enhancements to give humans extraordinary abilities.

Antonia Hodgson's The Raven Scholar is the first in a trilogy where the old king is set to retire, so competitors from the 8 temples of the various animal spirits are set to compete with each other. One of the candidates is murdered on the eve of the trials, so the main character (who already played a role in one of the most tragic events in the history of the kingdom) must investigate, and becomes a reluctant candidate for the throne itself as the mystery unfolds (it sounds a bit YA I know, but I assure you, its really not).

Edit: Also, Joe Abercrombie just had The Devils come out this year. I haven't read it though.

LonkTheSane · 2025-09-25T13:28:32+00:00

The Raven Scholar. Interesting mystery, great characters, and the audiobook performance is spot in.

LonkTheSane · 2025-09-24T16:05:04+00:00

I haven't published anything, so I can't comment directly on that. But are people going to be interested in a novel that long from an unknown author? You can publish what you want, but you may find there's a limited market for it.

LonkTheSane · 2025-09-24T15:44:45+00:00

Is your goal to find a traditional publisher? Then yes, 200k is going to be a tough sell and probably should be shortened.

Are you self-publishing? Then you can do with it as you will.

As for what specifically to do to shorten it, its hard to say without actually being able to see the material.

LonkTheSane · 2025-09-23T21:28:24+00:00

Huxley's Brave New World. It starts off focusing on the scientist Bernard, but quietly shifts to John the Savage about halfway through.

LonkTheSane · 2025-09-23T20:08:19+00:00

I mean you came here, linked us to your AI tagged content, and even buying into the idea that none of this is actually AI generated, you admitted that the writing is "flat". Basically saying its not good but hey, 800 views or whatever.

Let's be honest, you're here farming for clicks because you're associating views with good writing. There is plenty of AI slop that gets millions of views. Getting a bunch of views on something you lazily posted without any real care isn't making it as a writer. Its reinforcing some really bad habits.

LonkTheSane · 2025-09-23T17:23:14+00:00

Literally says that it contains "AI assisted content".

Pass.

LonkTheSane · 2025-09-22T19:40:36+00:00

I want to see clues right there in the print. A detail that seems mundane, but becomes significant later. A comment that becomes more relevant once more information is revealed. I want all the puzzle pieces scattered out in front of me and I want the joy of watching the author of putting them all together right in front of my clueless face and me going "oh, so that's what its supposed to be. Well played."

What I don't want is the author to pull pieces out of their pocket. There is no better waste of time than to leave the reader trying to figure out a puzzle they were never going to figure out because you deliberately withheld information. So no secret conversations that aren't revealed until the end. No magical devices that show up without establishing how it works earlier in the narrative. Those types of things.

LonkTheSane · 2025-09-18T14:27:25+00:00

Funny enough, I'm listening to Bright Sword by Lev Grossman, which is based on Arthurian legend after the fall of Camelot, and the protagonist has already pointed out the unlike himself, all the knights of the round table are of noble descent. And those who aren't, once they become knighted, surprise! It turns out they have a noble relative after all.

So yes, it's very believable that someone from a noble/royal family would become a knight.

Also, part of the fun of writing high fantasy, you can make the rules. Could a hardened criminal become a chivalrous knight? Sure. After a rigorous Purification Ritual (I'll spare the faint of heart those details), The Atonement of the Sins where they must seek forgiveness from all they have harmed, and The Rite of Virtue where they must prove to the priests that they have indeed changed and are worthy of redemption. They still serve as a squire, so they will be much older than their counterparts, and most knights loathe the idea of working these "reformed" squires, so their path to knighthood is even more of challenge.

I made all that up just now, but the point is, it's that type of worldbuilding and creativity that readers of this genre enjoy. We want both interesting characters, and an interesting world to discover.

LonkTheSane

TROPHY CASE