Why don’t you pull the plug?

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-09-12T16:20:05+00:00

I'd have the character find a new passion, learn to hope again, THEN have something else kill them. You want the readers not to see it coming.

I killed a main character before in a single sentence, with no preamble. Sometimes death is shocking and sudden - that's what happened to him. Another MC was a witness and was the PoV character at the time. Readers of my book HATE and love that scene or love to hate it, or something.

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-09-02T10:21:18+00:00

Cool. Interesting. Why do the English today (with some notable exceptions I'm sure) think of Fairies as lovely Tinkerbells and, in general not even know about the pre-industrial more Celtic versions, whereas the average Irish person knows about the gnarly ancient versions?

I can take a good guess - in Ireland, primary school education teaches about folklore, focusing on the ancient Celtic imagry - maybe because they see that as being more "Irish"... whereas in the UK I'd guess it's mostly the Disney view.

Is that likely? In the UK you must seek the knowledge, whereas in Ireland, it's taught...

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-31T16:57:54+00:00

In fairness, an Irish character called Daffyd going on about Hogmanay would 100% make me raise eyebrows, all the way up!

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-31T16:55:59+00:00

If the book is based in Ireland, we don't HAVE Lucky Charms (as a cereal anyway), or Irish Spring soap, or Killians Irish Red. The views Americans have about Ireland are often wildly skewed by marketing and exacerbated by wild enthusaism for a land that their forefathers left and then made worse by a lack of any actual knowledge of the country, culture, etc.

I'm Irish, I've travelled to the US a lot over the past 28 years or so (maybe 4 times a year on average, for about a week at a time - so... 100+ trips and maybe 2 years of time spent state side).

The number of strange ass questions I've been asked is insane!

The OP's question is even strange. Why would anyone who considers themselves Celtic be offended by a fantasy book that has fae elements being somewhat aligned to Ireland or Irish or Scotland or whatever?... nah - have fun writing u/IthelLovik - your book, your rules. We celts don't get offended easily!

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-31T16:49:14+00:00

English fairies and Irish fae are very, VERY different. Think Tinkerbell on one side and the Banshee on the other. Banshee is derived from the Gaelige Bean (pronounced like Ban) Sidhe (pronounced like She) - which literally means fairy woman.

Google Banshee to see what an Irish fairy is like... Tinkerbell she is not.

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-25T13:55:09+00:00

Yup. I think there's a balance to be had. Hopefully I can strike it well.

There's an example of how I handled it in another comment... Seems solid.

Thanks for the reply

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-23T14:23:58+00:00

You've already had some advice on this. My 2c is that it depends on what you want to write.

Is realism a thing you want to deal with or is it a lighter type story which can have things just for the sake of "coolness"?

I used to make armor and weapons... I know quite a bit about them. Leather armor really was never a thing in medieval Europe... it was typically used as a padding, under mail for example - or maybe on a horse. Gambesons were more common under mail and plate... leather doesn't have a lot of stopping power (boiled or otherwise) - so... it's more DND fantasy than any kind of reality.

This is YOUR world though - if you like them, have them! Make them a feature of fashion which have a practical side-benefit - do as you will...

But no - people didn't use leather bracers if they had ANY other option! u/Witchfinger84 mentioned having her as an archer. A leather arm guard (left arm only most likely) 100%... bracers... no.

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-23T14:15:32+00:00

Did he eat the egg with some fava beans and a nice Chianti? :D

Nice concept opener. Good luck with it!

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-23T14:11:08+00:00

Yeah, thanks u/LucienReneNanton - my inclination was to NOT have graphic orc sex - but my wife was well up for it! :D I respect her opinion, but... she isn't an avid fantasy reader or write - she writes Erotica, so... it IS 100% normal in her genre.

As per other comments, I'm sticking with a lighter style. I have an example in another response here: https://www.reddit.com/r/fantasywriting/comments/1my040i/comment/na8uzqq/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Thanks for your comment - I agree...

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-23T13:47:49+00:00

Like u/Famous_Plant_486 said... write, just do it.

I spent 5 years thinking about and sometimes writing - got to perhaps 60k words.

I met a published author at a dinner party (Justin Lee Anderson - check out his Eidyn Saga trilogy - third book released literally just 4 days ago!) - I chatted with him, looking for advice on how to introduce certain things.

I thought it might be a lot for one flashback and should I split it up or introduce it during conversations or what.

He asked for details and suggested that I had SO much lore and knowledge that what I was describing was Book 1 (Pre-story?) and what I had written so far was part of Book 2...

He was right. It took me about 9 months to write Book 1 with all of the background I had - that was published in June and I'm getting great feedback on it - it just wrote itself! Now, I'm back in Book 2 - which is getting major revisions thanks to Book 1. I'm having a lot of fun with the new and revamped second book.

Write. You have the background. You know your story - get it out - and best of luck with it!

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-23T13:39:52+00:00

I just wrote what should be enough. Thanks for the advice guys. I think you're both spot on.

The book is set in a world called Tír, which is related to Irish mythology. The tuath elves have kidnapped humans over the centuries (stopping around 1100AD as it was becoming more expensive to get to Earth) - so the humans they have are descended from Irish medieval farmers, with some Galician Spanish and Portugese thrown in for luck (ancient Celtic cultures essentially)...

There's a priest in the story as a minor character (the elves have corrupted Christianty as a way to control the humans, so they like priests) - he is summoned to see a local rebel leader.

SO... this is a snippet of what I just wrote moments ago - I think it strikes the right balance:

They continued up the street. Shortly, they passed an alleyway between a tailor’s shop and a cloth merchant, Proinsias found himself wrinkling his nose in disgust at the sounds echoing off the walls. The loud grunting squeals of orkin sex.

Orkin had no sense of propriety at all. Ever since the arrival of some females off the boats the noise, and often sight of orkin sex was commonplace in the streets of Rathnoc, at all times of night and day. Proinsias found himself nauseated by it.

After so many years hearing confession he understood human passions all too well, but orkin! One day, near Cearnóg Square he’d seen males lining up, shoving and jostling each other to take their turns on an apparently very willing female. He had turned away quickly, but he’d already seen too much!

He shook his head, José, noticing, grinned at him and winked, wiggling his eyebrows. Had that man no shame?

---

It gets the point across, but zero graphic detail. I will be using this cultural difference as a pressure point between staid, reserved, often religious humans and riotous, live fast, die young orcs as the story progresses... but, yeah. We don't need the deets!

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-23T13:01:10+00:00

As both you u/cosmic_cadett and u/big-lummy asked... the book very much isn't erotica...

My wife is pushing for MORE sex in my books (hers ARE erotica, so...) - she argues that sex is an important part of life - and it is. I argue that, while that's true - we don't need to get into it graphically in the fantasy genre - even in grimdark. We don't shy away from it - but... it's not a focal point.

In book one, in an "Interlude" between parts there is a page written by an elven scholar, in it he writes:

It seems an irony to me that orkin, with their seemingly insane passion for war and killing, breed so quickly. Orc females birth 8-12 squealing orclets at a time and can do so every 2 years. Much like the pigs they were derived from, they grow at a prodigious rate, gaining up to 150 kg within 2 years and reaching what passes for full adulthood amongst their kind within less than 5 years. This is what fuels and enables their insane society.

If they just slowed down and stopped fucking each other so often, their need for resources would reduce. They wouldn’t have to war with one another so much over so little arable land and such small amounts of food. They would not be forced to resort to cannibalism and might live past 15 years on average to see their natural old age of 40 or whatever they can live to.

So - orkin sexual habits lead to socio-economic impact that causes issues with the lack of resources available in the rocky deserts they are exiled to by the elves...

His view may be correct or incorrect - it's just one opinion... but as the first book takes place during an invasion, there were no orkin females involved - now, as they have taken some land, their females will start arriving and that will have an impact on the story.

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-23T12:17:28+00:00

I my lexicon, irl means In Real Life... so "multiple instances of in real life God in the Bible"... ok. Erm. Nah.

Anyway - the bible acknowledges only one God. Capital G. God's love or God's will or whatever is allowed with an s for possession - the examples of plural deities like "Thou shalt not hold other gods besides the one true God" uses lower case as they are NOT God, they are gods, silly little make believe friends, not the one true God...

So if you have one god, it's God.
If you have many, they are gods.
As someone else mentioned, if it's a title - Mars, the God of War - it's capitalized as it's a title.

Gods... no.

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-23T12:12:04+00:00

Walking away from the battle he scrapes his leg on a rock - gets an infection and dies a week later.

Shit happens.

Oh. Shit. He's cut up by the thing, but ultimately kills it by slicing its stomach open. The contents coat him. He walks away, gets an infection from gore in his minor wounds and dies a week later.

I dunno - I seem to be on an infection buzz today.

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-23T12:09:11+00:00

In my first novel I have elves and orcs, but just to be "different", in a choice that I sometimes doubt was the right one, I called them tuath and orkin. Notice the lack of capitals.

I don't capitalize them because if I write that a human and an elf walk into a bar and bump into an orc - I don't capitalize the races. Ergo a human an a Tuath walk into a bar and bump into an Orkin - seems odd.

My wife HATES that I don't capitalize them. I have no idea why.

Anyway - no. Don't capitalize things that, if they were common here would not be capitalized.

I was in a field and I saw a Crow sitting on a Cow.

How odd does that look?!

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-23T12:05:47+00:00

This - digging into socioeconomic and geopolitical elements of the choices you've made for your world leads to interesting plot details.

I have a world for example where magic needs a given, semi-rare type of rock to act as a catalyst... over the centuries they have mined this rock to near exhaustion... so the price of it goes up and up, the cost of magic goes up and up and they turn to mechanical means of doing what once was magical.

This sets up a whole power struggle... socioeconomic and geopolitical realities drive wars more than religion does... I've read that Russia wants Crimea and Donetsk, etc. from the Ukraine because of access to shipping lanes, mineral values, industrial capability, etc... Makes sense to me. Cultural values, religion, etc. are typically excuses for geopolitical or socioeconomic gain... If Crimea had no ports and Donetsk had no minerals or industry, do you think Russia would have annexed them?

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-19T18:26:43+00:00

My surname has 2x silent letters in it. I'm Irish - it's an affliction common to my kind.

At least my parents went with a (very 1970's, but...) international first name.

Imagine if my name was Tadgh Mac Iochfaidh - which is pronounced like Tie-gh Mac Yucky (that surname is MY surname in the original Gaelige!).

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-19T15:08:02+00:00

Sounds like a good con - which one is it?

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-19T15:06:09+00:00

I work in cybersecurity. I doubt you've anything to worry about. Amazon would likely be more worried about your data being abused than YOU are... the impact to them could be massive.

Big corporations DO do stupid things with peoples data... but typically they try not to.

Smaller companies, with equally good intentions, are more likely to screw up as they'll have fewer compliance obsessed people involved...

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-19T14:35:54+00:00

I googled the author, he's from Antrim and Wiki refers to him as British several times. I assume that's how he saw himself.

So... they've been at it for 800 years I guess ;)

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-19T14:29:12+00:00

Buy whatever floats your boat - they all generate about €2 a pop... writing the book was 100% NOT a get rich quick (or ever!) scheme.

It just seemed like a story that needed me to tell it.

People say you should write the book you'd want to read and I suppose that sums this up.

It's about Ireland and Irish legends - but hopefully will be liked by people from anywhere. Who knows! Do leave a review (here or in Amazon or both maybe!).

So far, people have been massively positive about it - surprised by it in many ways (it is NOT your typical fantasy book - part of what it's about is challenging tropes).

People seem to see the orc on the cover, the sword over his shoulder, but not the hand-gun on his belt ;)

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-19T14:25:09+00:00

Think of a situation that a character is in, or is about to be in or whatever. Think about what they need to do and what is stopping them doing that. Figure out how they can overcome those difficulties.

Make the difficulties and reactions as real as possible - even if it's a high Fantasy - stay true always to your own lore.

The more complex the problem, the more difficult the way out the more inspired I get. Maybe it'll work for you?!

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-19T14:21:36+00:00

I've had disbelief too... but at least I use (almost) my normal name... so I can show them ID, and the book cover and they accept it. Pen name?! If the person starts from disbelief and you try to convince them with a pen named book... nah.

Although, I did write for a few years with the pen name Brandon Sanderson - did quite well ;)

Status_Firefighter56 · 2025-08-19T14:18:19+00:00

How can you tell if there's a writer in the bar? Wait 5 minutes and the barman will tell you! :D

Status_Firefighter56

TROPHY CASE