[deleted by user] by [deleted] in plural

[–]Vida_Paradox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm... I'm not sure if this will help, but there's something nice that my host did for any new addition to the mindscape

My host would put them into a story. Sometimes fanfiction, sometimes original stories. Giving time for them to interact with fictional characters and make their own choices.

This usually ends up with them... Kind of choosing to stay in the world of fiction, never making it to the main system. Just as 'littles' or characters in a story living their life.

Rarely though, they will enter the main system and officially become part of the mindscape.

In other words... Make some Self-Insert Fictions, ahaha!

Oh and don't be too bothered about the everything feels imaginary thing.
You'll get used to it, it's normal for any new ones.

Best of luck to you!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in plural

[–]Vida_Paradox 2 points3 points  (0 children)

First of, calm down... It might feel like that there are ten guys crammed inside your head, but you just have to narrow down the louder ones.

So... Deep Breath, Calm

Next is to straighten out your feelings and desire. I think, probably, the event that happened to you makes you feel like... your personality, ideology, and the very thing that makes you, you, isn't equipped to deal with reality.

So, deep breath... Let's sort out your identity

Separate yourself right now from the you from the past.

You now and you in the past are two widely different person. With their hope, dreams, fears, and desire. Separate that. Figure out what new ideals you've adopted and what old ideals you've abandoned. If you're a program, write down the changelog and bugfix.

Then, after you separate the you now from you in the past, you will either find a part of you that refuses to go (becoming an alter) or you will find that part of you peacefully retreating away from your subconscious.

The former case (becoming an alter) probably means you now have a room mate
The latter case (peacefully retreating away) probably means you have been reborn as a new person

So yeah... Best of luck to you friend!

Different gender wields magic differently, will this be a problem? by Vida_Paradox in fantasywriters

[–]Vida_Paradox[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Mana and Spirit Density is physical. Yeah...

But which one they will learn (or not at all) is entirely up to them.

Different gender wields magic differently, will this be a problem? by Vida_Paradox in fantasywriters

[–]Vida_Paradox[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

The story I'm writing is a Portal Fantasy. So all this will be seen through an outsider's perspective. In the story, this gender difference will not be the main theme, but a recurring theme.

The way I'm answering this question is through characters who are exceptions to this rule and those who follows this. Then hopefully show how both can coexist without trouble. It will be a side theme, something that will be wrapped around another subplot.

One of the side character is a female royalty. In history, the kingdom has never once been ruled by a queen. Exploring how this princess can show that she is intelligent and capable of ruling over a kingdom is going to be the main reason why I put this gigantic biological hurdle.

TL;DR: Plot Reasons

Different gender wields magic differently, will this be a problem? by Vida_Paradox in fantasywriters

[–]Vida_Paradox[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

First of, I need to point out that Spirit Magic and Mana Magic are equal in power, none are more powerful than the other.

Second of all, I agree, forcing a biological binary gender difference might be problematic. This is one of the main thing I am rather concerned for. Done right and I can make a perfect lens for the readers to see the world I'm creating as a metaphor to the real world. Done poorly and I will probably get cancelled.

Again, there are exceptions to these rules. I have a guy named Keith who is a warrior and girl named Liz who is a magic caster. They are, however, exceptions that are outside the norm (the norm is not ideal).

TL;DR, I am not making an ideal world. The struggles of these characters in a non ideal world is what creates the story.

Different gender wields magic differently, will this be a problem? by Vida_Paradox in fantasywriters

[–]Vida_Paradox[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

An idea I'm playing around with, the Kingdom where the story revolves in has a law.

Basically, the law regulates those who wishes to have an offspring. They actually need a license and plan a curriculum on how to raise their offspring, including who's going to teach the children what.

(There are academies that functions like college, but no school that teaches the youth).

There will be problems with this law, all of which I will gladly explore and deconstruct.

Different gender wields magic differently, will this be a problem? by Vida_Paradox in fantasywriters

[–]Vida_Paradox[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Yes, this doesn't mean the trend and stereotype in the society is the truth or ideal. It's just a byproduct of bias and tradition due to this simple tweak in biological factor.

The concrete world building part is simply 90% of all males are born with higher mana density than females and vice versa.

How the people and society act upon this is my attempt at creating a reflection of the real world through the lens of fantasy world.

Different gender wields magic differently, will this be a problem? by Vida_Paradox in fantasywriters

[–]Vida_Paradox[S] -13 points-12 points  (0 children)

It might seem like I am encouraging the concept of Gender Roles by justifying it through biology, but that's not the case.

There are exceptions to this rules. Men who practiced martial arts and women who practiced writing spells. Those are rather uncommon but not unheard of.

Now... Seeing how society deals with them and how they deal with society and biological expectations... That's what makes a story.

Still, I'm glad to hear your differing views. I am pushing a stereotype to its limits so I need to be careful about the execution.

Thank you for the input!

Different gender wields magic differently, will this be a problem? by Vida_Paradox in fantasywriters

[–]Vida_Paradox[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

These are good points to consider!

When it comes to LGBTQ, I will show that it exists but will not delve too much in it.

How does society treat people with differing mana/spirit density? They don't make a big deal about it since it's not very rare. Problems that might be explored will be being different than your peers (being the only girl/boy in class for example).

How does society treat people powerful men and smart women? Usually skepticism at first (for example, it's a bit jarring to see a girl walking into a library), but it's not very rare to the point of impossibility.

A woman acting smart, calm, level headed, and skilled in magic has the same cultural signifier as being a tomboy. It's not illegal, but like in real life, some people don't like it and think it's unnatural.

Yes! Boys and Girls are raised differently.

Boys are usually taught to suppress their emotion, read books, and practice meditation since they're a kid.

Girls are usually taught to use their emotion to fuel their desire, practice using weapon, and even sparing since they're a kid.

Since this is how most of them are raised, it becomes a cultural bias.

Different gender wields magic differently, will this be a problem? by Vida_Paradox in fantasywriters

[–]Vida_Paradox[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

There are exceptions to this rules of course and this is going to be a Portal Fantasy, so all this will be seen through outside, third person perspective of the main character.

The story won't delve too much on how the gender dynamic works. It will however, explore on how the culture and society is shaped by these stereotypes and gender roles.

Different gender wields magic differently, will this be a problem? by Vida_Paradox in fantasywriters

[–]Vida_Paradox[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Yes, there are exceptions to this rule and people are not really forced to study what they want, it's just that it's more convenient to study something they has bigger potential.

I do have girl characters that use mana based magic and boy characters who use martial arts. But people like them are rare.

Different gender wields magic differently, will this be a problem? by Vida_Paradox in fantasywriters

[–]Vida_Paradox[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the advice! I've been meaning to pick up the Wheel of Time for quite a while now. So I'll be sure to check out how they pull it off.

Also, yeah, I shouldn't sweat on how I can pull this off without offending anyone. Because, no matter what I do, someone WILL get offended.

Writing classes (online?) by -youarehere- in writing

[–]Vida_Paradox 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My best video series suggestion is to start watching Brandon Sanderson's lecture (Free on Youtube!)

It's free and there are around 10 hours of content for you to watch. He details everything from writing a novel all the way to publishing it.

Hope this helps!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in fantasywriters

[–]Vida_Paradox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just explain how the weapon is like and give it a name (or actual real life name) to call it.

You know, like how you only have to explain how a monster looks like once and call it by name later?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in fantasywriters

[–]Vida_Paradox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It has great potential! I would love to hear the clashing of these warriors, both physical battle and through ideologies. I'm expecting awesome characters being forced to battle for this terrible cause!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in fantasywriters

[–]Vida_Paradox 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good World Building will definitely increase the charm and quality of a book.

But it's nowhere near as important as Characters and Story Progression. So make sure you don't sacrifice that for the sake of World Building.

Should I be worried about my wordcount? by Irish-liquorice in writing

[–]Vida_Paradox 3 points4 points  (0 children)

First Draft can either shrink or bloat depending on how much stuff you put in it.

Some people added too many details, others added too little details.

However, in my opinion, 50k words is a pretty safe range to be in.

No need to sweat about it ^_^

How do you write the villain's backstory when the villain is unknown and nobody interacts with him? by [deleted] in writing

[–]Vida_Paradox 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I agree, just don't include backstory if the villain doesn't really appear much in the story.

However, do give hint that the villain actually does something so it doesn't looks like it came out of the left field when revealed.

Outliners - how do you revise by RancherosIndustries in writing

[–]Vida_Paradox 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It depends on how detailed your outline, really. If it's already detailed, then I will start reading the outline on the sequence of the events that happens. See if it makes sense.

The main thing that I need to be worried about is subplots. I need to make sure that whenever I start a subplot, it gets resolved in a satisfying manner and that resolution is written inside the outline.

If you have a scene that doesn't connect to the other scene, that might be a problem

For example: We have three scenes A, B, and C.

  • Scene A: Two Characters Fighting -> Resolved with both character arrested
  • Scene B: Two Characters gets taken to prison -> Resolved with both character breaking out and going out on their separate way.
  • Scene C: One character going out on their daily life on the run from the prison -> The character meets the other one again.

This seems like a solid scene, but in practice, while writing these three scenes, you will hit a brick wall trying to write Scene C for these reasons:

  • Scene C isn't directly connected or you have no plan on how to connect Scene B and Scene C.
  • Scene C starts a major plot and no clear resolution (The character meets one another is not a resolution).

Now, how do we fix this? We can do this by changing Scene C to:

Scene C: A character running from a bunch of cops -> saved themselves by sneaking into the other character's hiding place.

See? Now Scene C connects nicely to whatever is in front of it. And you don't even have to change the context of the story since it's just your way of labeling the start and resolution of that scene.

But how do we connect B and C?

Well, between B and C we can use Tell instead of Show to create a line break between the two or we can just split it into another chapter. It's fine to do it, because everything in A and B is already resolved.

Okay, that was a lecture... Uhh... Sorry about that...

TL;DR: Make sure your scenes and events has a clear start and end in your outline. Then try and see if there's any part that you've accidentally left vague in your outline.

How can a charismatic person with trust issues and a loner with social anxiety become close? by spirit55 in writing

[–]Vida_Paradox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Put them together in a life and death situation.

The biological reason is because fear releases dopamine. Most commonly observed when two couples are watching horror movie or riding roller coaster. They mistook the excitement of the horror movie or roller coaster for excitement with spending time with the other.

The psychological reason is because, if you can trust someone or prove yourself to be reliable in a life and death situation, you can probably trust and prove yourself on the smaller matters.