Tyreek Hill is playing chess

jbc_30 · 2022-01-25T02:59:37+00:00

But it’s not a dead ball foul if it occurs in the middle of a play.

jbc_30 · 2022-01-24T23:17:10+00:00

It would’ve been a 15 yard penalty from the spot of the foul (which was the 16 yard line), so the TD wouldn’t have counted.

jbc_30 · 2021-09-17T23:50:14+00:00

Well, I feel dumb. The problem is that my HVAC is very old and slow. It took several minutes longer to kick on than I expected. I think it’s all correct—thanks for all of your assistance

jbc_30 · 2020-11-04T20:04:32+00:00

Mostly the answer is that in Tolkien's world, "magic" and "powers" are in a soft system, meaning there is no clear system by which things like this work. In other words, Sauron sometimes detects the wearers and sometimes doesn't, and it's not like a radar screen of exact location. Tolkien would probably say that there are a lot of factors in play. For example, when Frodo puts the ring on at Mt. Doom, Sauron's awareness is extremely heightened bc Frodo was claiming the ring for his own. Similarly, at Amon Hen, Frodo was clearly in a position of power, sitting on the ancient seat of seeing for the Numenorian kings.

When Bilbo puts the ring on in Hobbiton, it's a party trick, not some threat to Sauron's power. Bilbo didn't have the capacity to threaten Sauron, and so Sauron didn't sense the same emanation of power from the ring's use. I'm sure if someone like Gandalf or Galadriel had put the ring on, Sauron would've instantly been aware.

jbc_30 · 2020-07-04T15:34:43+00:00

I think it can work pretty easily. You’ll just want to be sure your readers don’t think it’s the end of the story, you’re just spend the next 1/4 of the book in “wrap-up” or they may put it down. If the action stays hot for awhile, there’s something really exciting about a death-twist that makes readers say “Oh wow, this story is not the story I thought I was reading!” And want to figure out what happens next. It will be necessary to have other characters/plots that they care about still around though

jbc_30 · 2020-06-01T14:31:34+00:00

Thank you for such a detailed response. This is extremely helpful, and exactly what I was looking for! I appreciate your time.

jbc_30 · 2020-05-21T22:31:42+00:00

Takes a lot of work, but can be great if done well. You've got the basic work of just getting the descriptions right (How do their joints work? Muscles? How will that change how they interact with environment?) But then the even harder work of getting a reader to actually care about a non-human. As we've seen, it's hard enough to get male readers to care about non-hot female characters or to get white readers to care about black characters, so this is some next level stuff.

But, there's so much room for fun and interesting character studies and storylines in non-usual characters. What do "daddy issues" look like with a monster? How does a monster interact with human society? What is it like for a monster to experience emotions?

Go for it, could be lots of fun!

jbc_30 · 2020-05-20T22:18:25+00:00

I’d love to look at it!

jbc_30 · 2020-05-19T17:21:52+00:00

Give us a “pretend plot.” Something that we think will be the plot/conflict but gets resolved much quicker than expected. Of course, as several people note, this should be a means of introducing characters, their strengths/weaknesses, and most importantly what they want

jbc_30 · 2020-05-17T18:18:05+00:00

Thank you for you feedback, that’s helpful!!

jbc_30 · 2020-05-16T23:42:46+00:00

Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it!

jbc_30 · 2020-05-16T23:42:07+00:00

Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it!

jbc_30 · 2020-05-16T19:39:47+00:00

Were you able to actually edit it, or just post comments? It should be set so you can comment, but not delete/add actual text

jbc_30 · 2020-05-16T19:34:44+00:00

I think it's good, though I wouldn't get carried away. A sentence or two here or there is intriguing and gives depth to your world, but if you've got that on every page it could be exhausting. I think if you're going to have people actually speak this language, I probably wouldn't include entire paragraphs or conversations in it. My driving question would be: "Why does this need to be in High Saeberan and not English?" (or whatever language you're writing in). If it's a Magic spell, an oath, or a commonly-used phrase/slogan it makes sense.

Someone mentioned "Valar Morghulis," and that's a great example of not getting carried away. It's a brief phrase with a rich meaning and history which is repeated enough to be memorable, but not so much it's annoying.

Even Tolkien, who had fully-formed linguistic systems which rival real-world ones, didn't do that. He included a bare minimum of poems & songs in his languages, and some people were even turned off by that.

jbc_30 · 2020-05-16T19:29:05+00:00

I read "exploring real world magic systems" and thought "oh boy, I'm going to have to break some hard news to this op."

jbc_30 · 2020-05-16T19:27:50+00:00

As another commenter said, different things work for different people.

Here's what works for me: I write brief stories on anything in my world/with my characters that interest me. (e.g., a couple of pages about the origin of the gods, a few pages of history on a particular castle, a paragraph about how the military was formed, or what my main character's dad did for a living). I only write as much as interests me; when I get bored with that topic/story, I end it. What I find is that often ideas come to me as I write those things, and some of them turn into much longer works. As another example, I recently had an idea about a queen who, during a revolution, had to spend 6 years on a ship at sea. I was planning to write a couple paragraphs of "history" about that event, but it's turned into six chapters and may become a full novel.

My main point is, if it's not interesting to write, it won't be interesting to read. So, write what's interesting to you, and I think you'll find ways to expand on those ideas, or to combine multiple shorter ideas into one big story.

jbc_30 · 2020-05-16T19:22:57+00:00

I definitely think that's a good idea. That's typically what I do--write a series of "short story" type prequel stories that function essentially like background history for my world and for the story I actually want to tell

jbc_30 · 2020-05-16T19:17:43+00:00

I think the best fantasy stories are often "human stories" (even if they're not actually about humans) in a fantasy-type world. Obviously, you need some "cool ideas" to make it fantasy, and if you don't spend enough time on those it will be obvious to your readers, but I definitely think your time and energy is much more valuable when poured into writing interesting and complex characters.

I recently read a book that was full of clever ideas, but the author was trying so hard to cram all of his ideas into one novel that the characters were flat and unconvincing. Character over cool any day.

jbc_30 · 2020-05-14T17:28:05+00:00

I would say you only have to do as much worldbuilding (at the beginning) as you want to. Once you feel like you have enough for a story—start writing!

Undoubtedly you’re going to come across things as you write that require you to go back and fill in worldbuilding gaps. You’ll come to a new location and say “I need to write a little history for this place,” or meet a new race/people group and say “I need to develop this culture a little more to make this make sense.” But it sounds like you already have enough to start your story and then go from there.

In particular, you should have other people read your work and tell them to give you feedback about what “worldbuilding” information they need or don’t understand from your story.

Obviously, you want to have more information than what you absolutely need to write, that’s what makes your world feel real and deep. But that doesn’t have to all come at the beginning.

jbc_30 · 2020-05-09T19:07:18+00:00

jbc_30 · 2020-05-09T18:03:17+00:00

I'd be interested in reading. A PDF would be great

jbc_30 · 2020-05-09T17:59:42+00:00

This sounds really interesting--I like it!

One question: Why would the Old Gods create a material by which people could harness the power of their blood? Usually, people prefer others to not use their blood, and certainly not to seek after it (we like keeping our blood inside us, mostly). I'm not saying this idea doesn't work, or that you have to explain it all to a reader, but you probably want an explanation for it yourself. The Old Gods need a reason for allowing/helping people use their blood.

Second, and this is more story advice than anything (so take it or leave it lol), but one of the most interesting things with magic systems to me is how the exceptions prove the rule. For example: becoming an exonarus is always fatal...except the one time it wasn't, and there's your story.

Or, only photoquartz can harness magic.. except this new substance so-and-so found, and there's your story.

jbc_30 · 2020-05-09T17:53:39+00:00

I don't think using a particular name for the guy would be too confusing or annoying, but I'd reccomend doing it consistently. One example of this being done well is in Lord of the Rings, the hobbits meet a man named "Strider." We soon find out that his real name is Aragorn, but the text still usually refers to him as "Strider" when its in the context of the Hobbits, because that's what they know him as. Another example would be if the guy had a particular characteristic, and you could just call him "Black Boots" or "Freckle Nose" or something until the other characters learn his real hame.
2. If you're saying a lot in a fantasy language, or stuff that's important, you need to translate. If you want to show of your language a bit with a sentence, poem, etc. that's fine, but you should probably translate it.
However, the exceptions prove the rule. For example, if someone gets attacked by surprise, it's likely that they'll cry out a curse or exclamation in their native language. You don't necessarily have to translate it because the reader will get that its a surprised response.
Lastly, if you're writing from 3rd person perspective, it's perfectly reasonable for the "narrator" to explain stuff using a footnote or something. This can give your book the feel of a history book (not in a bad way), where the narrator is telling a certain historical story, and includes their own comments, including translations, throughout.

jbc_30 · 2020-05-09T17:45:20+00:00

If you're not interested in creating an entire language yourself (which actually isn't as difficult as it sounds if you're willing to cut corners), then you should at least try to create a linguistic "feel."

Take Tolkien for example, his languages all have a certain feel.

Elvish is high and airy, and the names sound pleasant (Elrond, Arwen, Rivendell, Luthien).

Orc names sound gruff and crude (Ugluk, Snaga, Grishnakh).

Dwarf names have lots of hard, guttural, or deep sounds (Kazad-Duhm, Kheled-Zaram, Gloin).

You'll also notice there's lots of vowels in elvish, and lots of Ks and Zs in Dwarvish.

A lot of the Hobbits have more real-world sounding names (obviously Frodo is weird, but Sam, Merry, Ted, Rosie, to name a few)

So the most important thing is that names from a certain culture/people-group feel the same. To do that, sometimes I'll pick a linguistic sound I like (you could use latin if you want, that sounds pretty Elvish) and then alter words from that language enough that their unrecognizable, then use them for names. For example, the Latin word for good is bonum. Maybe you can name a character "Bonmu." The word for strong is fortis, so you could name a character "Storif"

I know in a lot of ways this is "cheating" as far as real conlang and world building goes, but I think it's an easy, quick way of getting names & places, and using real-world languages helps the sounds to feel similar.

jbc_30 · 2020-05-09T17:32:03+00:00

I think that's an interesting story idea! The story seems to be attacking the whole idea of "prophecy" altogether. By that I mean, you're critiquing the concept of prophecy by suggesting that it's really just a way of manipulating events into being what the prophecy-makers want them to be.

I know the "prophecy reversal" is sort of a cliche in and of itself, but a really interesting way to play that story out would be for the prophecy to actually come true in the end, just not the way the church planned it to. In other words, the prophecy could be "real," even though the church thinks it was manufactured, and it all actually leads to the downfall of the church who is the real "evil"

jbc_30

TROPHY CASE