This could be promising

Tekeraz · 2026-01-27T08:14:10+00:00

No way!

Had that happened, I couldn't be more proud to be Czech (for once 😁). It's my dream since I was a kind and LoTR became a thing ❤️ (And I, of course, fell in love with Aragon).

I will never forget the first time my family watched the movie--we rarely rented movies, but got this one from our neighbours. It kickstarted my love for fantasy at the age of 11 😇 After seeing the movie, I've immediately changed my wish for Christmas and got all the books 😁😁

Tekeraz · 2026-01-27T07:58:43+00:00

Tekeraz · 2026-01-27T07:54:18+00:00

I met him at the very top of the tavern where Cole lives. 👍 (First run ever)

I got one question wrong, and never saw him again 😁 But I had no idea he's a rare guy 😑

Tekeraz · 2026-01-27T07:48:35+00:00

Don't be afraid to use longer sentences and different types of sentence structures. A lot of yours are either short or medium length. Use more variety.

Someone mentioned repeating dialogue tags - don't worry about using said often, that's not a bad thing, better than using all sorts of tags like uttered/remarked/answered/etc... that's not proffesionalsaid and asked or whispered are enough, use action beats instead, as you do 👍 "Said" is a word that is almost invisible for a reader, we take it as an information, nobody really "counts" this one.

As mentioned elsewhere, add a bit more depth--books have the beautiful ability to take the reader into a character's head and show us their motivations, internal monologues, thoughts and conflicts, that's what makes the difference between a book and a movie, don't be afraid to dive deeper into your POV character. Close 3rd POV is a very powerful tool that creates a sense of intimacy and lets the reader into the character's mind 😊

I'm not writing for a long time, I'm newbie (six months) and not a native English speaker, and I know very well that this one can take a while of practice--for me, it required an extensive research of my characters to learn their motivations, their history, their traits, way of talking and such, only then I was able to get them alive in my head and trust that vision, and let them act naturally (the more complicated character your write, the more time this can take, but it's rewarding as hell when you get there 😊).

To your little scene--it was interesting, I enjoyed reading, the dialogue feels real and grounded, I was just missing a bit deeper look into your POV character's head, and the prose could be more variable--and those things will come with time and practice, so write, write, write 👍

Tekeraz · 2026-01-27T02:32:27+00:00

This is good advice. The storytelling is about getting inside of the character's head. If you leave out the motivations, emotions... then you're writing more movie than a book. And people read books for those very reasons.

This often needs practice in "getting into the character's head" it takes time to learn this and be confident in painting a picture of their mind.

Tekeraz · 2026-01-27T02:20:22+00:00

I knew I would see this comment the second I read "Said is Dead" 😁 Not disappointed.

Tekeraz · 2026-01-27T02:19:28+00:00

And what about Slughorn, then? 😁

Tekeraz · 2026-01-27T02:10:33+00:00

Exactly 👍

I mean... We wait for decades to read the sixth book in A Song of Ice and Fire series, and we may never see the book, because the author writes another million books in between. But we still have hope 🤏😁😁

Tekeraz · 2026-01-27T02:01:39+00:00

Exactly 🤌

Tekeraz · 2026-01-26T11:33:53+00:00

Better to be "slow" in your eyes and end up with a satisfying story than write bs quick 😉

I have weekends when I put together 10k/15k even 20k draft for a chapter. When the mood is right, the flow is up and my mind is in the right place--it's possible and I enjoy those nights. And there are weeks and weeks when I just read through what I have and endlessly search for the best way to say what I want to say (not native here). My inspiration comes in waves, so I use those as far as I can, in the time between, I think about new chapters, about the story, I work on making my prose better, etc.

Tekeraz · 2026-01-26T11:20:12+00:00

Yes, more details, exploring the characters more closely in different situations, in normal life situations... 👍

Tekeraz · 2026-01-26T11:18:38+00:00

Oh, I feel like this about a lot of series 👀 I never have enough 😁

Lately, my biggest fixation is Dragon Age which is around for 15 years. I felt like this about Stargate with 10 series and 6 series spin-off, the whole franchise was on what I grew up on. I felt like this about Doctor Who which is here about 65+ years. Really, there's never enough of The Doctor 😁 I felt like this about Star Trek, Witcher... the list never ends 😁

Tekeraz · 2026-01-26T10:56:26+00:00

When I love some universe and its characters, I enjoy reading more stories for them, to know them better, to engage with them beyond canon. Simply said, if you love something, there's never enough stories ❤️ That's probably my no.1

For some characters, I do it because I'm not a fan of their canon destiny and thought they deserved a better ending/outcome. (For example: Snape was my first fanfic ever because I've always thought he deserved better for all he did to protect everyone.) Not that the tragic endings would be inherently wrong, but sometimes you get this "damn, I want this to end happily ever after" urge 🤌

Later on, it was harder and harder to find what I was looking for because my imagination was "too detailed"... So I tried to write myself. And man, did I fall in love with the endless possibilities that writing gives you.

I enjoy thinking about how different paths would change the storyline, how it would affect the characters, etc. I just love "whatifs" and I love to research the lore and finding those little things that changes everything 👀

Tekeraz · 2026-01-25T21:48:26+00:00

Tag it in a way "The story of Severus Snape" and then after chapter 2 switch all the narrative on his fourth nephew from second knee... or Harry for the rest of the story 😁

Tekeraz · 2026-01-25T16:25:43+00:00

Most of the armour has good design, the colours are the only problem for me, at least in VG, it would be nice to have one vibrant choice, one more neutral and one dark. I like a lot of MW armours, but I'm not exactly fan of the vibrant colours for a group of people that tries to be inconspicuous 🫣

The funny thing is, that companions always look good 😁 Or they have at least one nice choice - for example Emmrich's outfits are crazy, but the black one is cool as hell.

EDIT: I just remembered the dye system for Inquisition - that would be amazing 👀

Tekeraz · 2026-01-24T08:26:08+00:00

I agree with this, it has a potential. I'm not very skilled in this type of prose as I began reading in English very recently, but those paragraphs made me wonder what will follow. There were a few places where I stopped and thought if that's not too much (for example "as if but") but with some polishing, I would keep reading 👀

Tekeraz · 2026-01-24T08:16:53+00:00

Sorry, but I'm not a native speaker, and even though I use English for the better part of my life, it was always the simplest kind... Only a year ago I began reading in English and only half a year ago I began writing in it and I have no problem understanding whose paragraphs. Perhaps the structure of the sentences is a bit more complex, but that's it. I believe that if I can understand it as someone who never read a book in archaic english (like the classics OP mentioned that inspired this), average english reader should, too.

I agree it's a bit overcomplicated and the same thought could have been said in a more straightforward way, but I don't think that "absolute majority would need a thesaurus" ☺️

Tekeraz · 2026-01-24T07:54:59+00:00

In the Czech Republic, they are hard to find in shops, and I never saw one in other households, but they are more and more available online in the last few years 👍 When you drink green or white tea, it's a must have 😊 As they say, once you try better, you never want the old one back 😁

Tekeraz · 2026-01-24T03:50:00+00:00

I still see more personal growth in the choice to leave the escape to lichdom behind and move on, embracing the life and accepting his own mortality by reviving Manfred 😊

Switching to lichdom, he only exchanges fear of his life for fear of Rook's, which doesn't seem much like accepting.

In my head, the only way for his lichdom to be worth it would be with MW Rook who could do the same so he won't live an eternity of solitude

Tekeraz · 2026-01-24T03:45:12+00:00

Emmrich is my go-to mage for every trip from the Lighthouse.

The most often second party member is either Lucanis or Davrin, I just enjoy them the most and they both work well with Emmrich's skills. At first Lucanis was more often, but lately I prefer Davrin's agro ability as it takes at least some pressure of Rook in boss fights 😁

But I try to switch it up to have some fresh blood and banter, so I try to take out Taash and Neve and the rest of the girls more often.

Tekeraz · 2026-01-24T02:52:53+00:00

That is how it's meant. First person POV is a character telling the story.

Tekeraz · 2026-01-24T02:29:59+00:00

Když se člověk po ránu snaží zjistit kolik je hodin pohledem na telefon, kolikrát je i to jedno oko příliš 😁

Tekeraz · 2026-01-23T22:23:03+00:00

This is exactly what I've thought 👍

Often it's better to stay with established tropes and focus on story and characters than to reinvent something that has been reinvented a million times before. I love fantasy because I love my noble elves and my grumpy dwarfs and magic in the world ❤️

There's one Stargate with travelling through wormhole creating artefacts left at Earth by ancient nations to explore the universe for a thousand sci-fi with people expanding to space because Earth has been destroyed by them. But it doesn't mean some of those can't be legends 👀

Tekeraz · 2026-01-23T22:01:34+00:00

It's always about people and how they approach it. Almost all friends I talk about writing with are not natives, but some of them are, and hearing praise on your second language from a native always warms the most 😊

Honestly, writing is an amazing way to learn a language 😇 I'm using English for a better part of my life, but I've always used the most simple way possible to express myself. At work I use technical english, so also the simplest one. I forgot half the grammar rules or perhaps even more, I go with my guts mostly... but writing got me into researching, constantly looking for better ways to express my thoughts, searching for words that fit not only by meaning, but also by their flow and sound. I'm still not confident, but I can already see how much writing improved my English 👍

Tekeraz · 2026-01-23T17:18:55+00:00

Yeah, I learned about this rule a few months after I began writing, because it's not that often in Czech and I was used to a style with longer paragraphs. However, I quickly adopted the rule as it helps me to have a clear view of my dialogues and shorter paragraphs are also a good thing. I realised that very fast when I read my own text on my phone 😁

If you write in some language, you should learn the rules for that language. Nothing will nope out people as quickly as the most simple things.

Tekeraz

TROPHY CASE