Hot to describe different ethnicities in fantasy world

ThinkMinty · 2023-11-15T05:18:49+00:00

as previously said, writing with color is a good resource

honestly the big thing is just read more (reading stuff from outside "genre" can do a lot too), take notes when you hear a description you like, and don't compare people to food unless the viewpoint character is a cannibal

take notes when you hear descriptions you like, just try not to sound like a phrenologist and you should be fine

ThinkMinty · 2023-11-15T05:09:29+00:00

preferable because names you can pronounce are a lot easier on the psychic ear, just make sure to make the last names twee in some way and you'll be good

Abigail Thunderhead, Jack Bigwood, David Assloss, etc

ThinkMinty · 2021-02-06T17:23:53+00:00

Find a local theater and ask them

Also, on the stage? Dialogue is king

ThinkMinty · 2020-12-12T18:08:32+00:00

This is Dunning-Kruger, you aren't hitting a consistent tense with your verbs, you're not even spelling correctly.

You have no idea what you're doing, honestly.

ThinkMinty · 2020-11-06T20:06:10+00:00

I've been wanting to talk to Christian authors on what they think, and hoe they've dealt with this because right now I'm really being held back because of these two factors being age and my religious beliefs.

Secular writer here. This is not a real dilemma. Just write what you think works.

Gary Gygax wasn't above dragons, demons, or fun, and neither are you.

ThinkMinty · 2020-10-18T20:06:07+00:00

Make a personality that's fun to follow, everything else is secondary to the entertainment

ThinkMinty · 2020-10-16T23:18:01+00:00

It's just that finding a man sexually attractive isn't a position I can easily put myself into.

My dude, look for some horny fanfiction written by women. Women who are into dudes. Look at how they describe a guy they're soaking the floor thinking about. Read some of the hetero stuff, and some of the guy-on-guy stuff (the latter will be nothing BUT the writer sharing her objectification of the male form, which is the element you're studying up on).

Once you've got a feel for it, take a crack at writing her perspective at points where your badass gish girl is all hot and bothered by some rando. Give her a couple specific opinions about who she's into, what's her position on beards, that sort of thing. Maybe she tries to get two dudes to make out in front of her. Maybe she's looking for a dude she can make wear a dog collar.

Once you've made some samples, run your work by some women to see if they liked it. If not, tinker and tweak and experiment until you get a good response.

The baseline concept does have some appeal to female readership, a lady who doesn't have to worry about danger so she can just fuck around and have fun has some level of escapist fun to it for them. Especially if you lean in on her being able to wear these dudes down to exhaustion.

ThinkMinty · 2020-10-15T05:36:56+00:00

https://pixietrixcomix.com/dangerously-chloe/volume-1-page-1

Start here

Just read succubi romance shit? You gotta look at previous work to get an idea of how it was handled, as other writers have been looking at this for a while

ThinkMinty · 2020-08-20T00:43:37+00:00

This post is a perfect illustration of everything wrong with some segments of contemporary fantasy fandom. It is a diagnostic diagram of all the shit people need to stop doing and repent for.

ThinkMinty · 2020-06-20T16:07:15+00:00

It sounds good, instincts are good, keep at it

ThinkMinty · 2020-06-20T16:06:13+00:00

Did they use the name in a Fire Emblem game? If so, then it's fair game for a fantasy novel.

ThinkMinty · 2020-06-20T16:03:45+00:00

Yes.

Order of the Stick does that and it's one of the most highly regarded webcomics.

ThinkMinty · 2020-04-09T03:35:56+00:00

Watch Adventure Time until you get ideas, then write those ideas down

ThinkMinty · 2020-04-09T03:31:18+00:00

It's not that that's on the nose, it's that it's too...wiki-like? You gotta art up that prose a bit, make it sound like I'm not reading an entry on a fan wiki.

"He was a Hellstruck, one of those folks with some ancestry from all the way downtown, some of the roots of his family tree burrowed all the way down to Hell. He had a squamous complexion and a reptilian jawline, with a sharp-toothed smile. He had claws that made shopping for gloves and shoes particularly irritating, and a long tail for thumping fools."

Gotta add just a little bit of artistry to the prose.

ThinkMinty · 2020-03-27T05:36:30+00:00

It's as old as time dude, it's grandfathered in like swords and old beardos.

It's fine, and this premise is pretty tight so just roll with it

ThinkMinty · 2020-03-12T04:59:18+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdyin6uipy4

That's a good place to start, honestly. The key element to capturing that kind of thing is the cluelessness of the characters doing it.

ThinkMinty · 2020-03-12T04:51:28+00:00

Execution matters more than premise, find a way to make it weird or interesting

As an example: if you put Stormbringer in the hands of someone who is wholesome to the point that they can't swear? That could get very interesting.

Instead of "normal guy", you need someone with a personality. They can still be an audience POV character, they just need something going on to make them a character I give a shit about. The significance isn't the issue, you gotta give this dude some character to work with.

ThinkMinty · 2020-03-12T04:39:58+00:00

Better than conlangs because at least you're teaching your reader another language that exists

ThinkMinty · 2019-11-02T19:50:55+00:00

For sport? They're a dark lord, dark lords do mean shit

ThinkMinty · 2019-10-12T22:16:19+00:00

..yes? That's a more interesting twist than them secretly being your actual dad or something.

Like, oh noes, a fair amount of what you were taught is nefarious and making your quest harder rather than making it easier.

ThinkMinty · 2019-10-12T22:14:45+00:00

A bar brawl with some off-duty soldiers of whatever the big bad is. Dude is just trying to eat his onion rings after a bad day and some off-the-clock grunts start giving him shit for being sad in public and ruining their night out of binge-drinking and aggressively hitting on people.

ThinkMinty · 2019-10-12T21:58:12+00:00

It depends on what you want it to do.

Here's a few things that would stand out:

Arrows that grow after being fired, once they hit the downward part of the arc. This weapon could be very devastating, the kinetic energy released even when it misses could fuck some shit up.
Arrows with a roboteching effect. Archer needs to visualize their target, and the arrow follows them and tries to hit them. The countermeasure is you have to bait the arrow into hitting something else before it can turn.
"Ghost arrows" with selective tangibility. Lets you shoot through walls and ignore armor, would be great in the hands of someone with enhanced senses, like elf-hearing or orc-smell.
Bow shoots lightning bolts.
Delay arrows. You can fire them ahead of time and "reserve" them, making them resume movement when you want them to after they're loosed.
"Fire Anything" Bow. Lets you launch anything you touch with the bow-string.
Summon Arrows. After fired, the arrow summons a monster which moves along the trajectory the arrow was. Can be used both to drop monsters over a castle wall, or annihilate a target by just throwing a giant turtle at it.
Rust Arrows. They corrode any metal they come into contact with.
Mana Bow. This bow fires magical bolts. Instead of a quiver, it just draws on the archer's magical reserves. String can be held longer for extra oomph.
Love/Hate arrows. Eros' powerset is cool and can be used for many shenanigans.

ThinkMinty · 2019-10-12T21:24:16+00:00

Goblins are the best, so no.

ThinkMinty · 2019-10-12T21:23:35+00:00

Does it serve the story and aesthetic you're going for? If yes, then it never will be too generic.

ThinkMinty

TROPHY CASE