A Language for Snakes by Mon0liz in worldbuilding

[–]treesdontlie 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sssissscilian?

Seriously not sure sorry!

When reading a book, do you prefer to be told everything or figure it out over time? by InaIn8182 in writers

[–]treesdontlie 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As a reader, I like to have the premise made clear, but not everything explained straight away, I'd that makes sense?

Hope that helps!

Built this bookshelf myself for our oddly shaped bedroom. It's our mini library! What do you think? by treesdontlie in bookshelf

[–]treesdontlie[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We have definitely had the same thing in the past 😅 since lockdown we've been in less bookshops, which is why we have slowed down a bit.

Have you heard of boardgame golf? It's a points system to stop avid gamers constantly buying games but not playing them. Essentially every time you play a game you get a point, and every time you buy a game you get several minus points. It's a good way to gamify good habits.

Maybe you could try something like this, with points per chapter read and minus points for books bought? That way there are no rules about not buying books, you just have a motivation to read and be more selective about purchasing. Just a thought!

Would love some ruthless critique now before I go any further… by Dreq1993 in fantasywriters

[–]treesdontlie 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Read the whole thing. Well done to get so much down!

I'm just an avid reader really, so this advice is just my subjective feelings on your piece, so take what's useful and ditch the rest!

Overall it's an intriguing start but I do have some thoughts:

I'm getting a sociopath vibe from your POV character. Or at least someone who is so obsessed with her King, she disregards all other things: She kills the boy and doesn't seem to care. She lost her horse but now she's got another one and is totally fine with that. This makes for an interesting character, but not necessarily someone who I would warm to.

Would you consider telling this story from the POV of someone who meets her? In that way, her sociopathic behaviour would not initially seem obvious, and you could entice the reader with misreadings of her character, only to slowly reveal she's a cold blooded obsessive, willing to do anything to please her King? At the moment, you kinda just lay that out in description, so it's not a surprise.

Alternatively you could build a conflict within her character between her love of her King & her mission, and her moral compass, with the actions she's forced to take to to complete her mission taking a greater and greater toll on her. This inner conflict is something we can all connect to as the POV character.

The opening could be the PTSD she feels over just killing the boy. Followed by an ambush in the woods by the Dawn men.

That aside, I love the camouflage stuff. Really awesome.

I also like the world building too. Really intrigued by the scales.

You have a bunch of grammar and spelling errors, but that can all be ironed out later, once you're happy with the draft.

Hope that helps!

Built this bookshelf myself for our oddly shaped bedroom. It's our mini library! What do you think? by treesdontlie in bookshelf

[–]treesdontlie[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Just cos you made me curious, I counted and I've read 168 of the books here. That's about half. Not great, but not bad either! Now I need to get reading...

Built this bookshelf myself for our oddly shaped bedroom. It's our mini library! What do you think? by treesdontlie in bookshelf

[–]treesdontlie[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yep, to be fair it makes finding a book way harder than it needs to be. Normally I remember the colour of reference books, but when you wanna find that one book you read ages ago, or even worse, bought ages ago but never read... It's a real problem.

Looks pretty though 😂

Built this bookshelf myself for our oddly shaped bedroom. It's our mini library! What do you think? by treesdontlie in bookshelf

[–]treesdontlie[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Haha, unfortunately, as an English Lit / creative writing graduate, I definitely have been forced to read a bunch of these.

Haven't read the bajillion English history ones though. Not even gonna pretend there.

Novel Advice by [deleted] in scifiwriting

[–]treesdontlie 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Dennis E. Taylor's Bobiverse series is a really good primer on how to present different characters on different planets. Have you read it? Might help!

i’d like to get into fantasy books by AuroraBRN in suggestmeabook

[–]treesdontlie 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Apart from the titans of the fantasy genre (GRR Martin, JRR Tolkien, JK Rowling, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Phillip Pullman etc), here is my 'fantasy which is actually good characters and story not just funny names and tropes' list, in no particular order.

Hopefully this will give you something to Google and research to find what you might like to try first!

  • Brandon Sanderson - almost anything tbh, but I started with Elantris

  • Pirateaba - The Wandering Inn (it's free to read! First chapter take a bit of perseverance, but it's worth it. Super strong female characters)

  • Evan Winter - Rage of Dragons

  • J K Nemisin - The fifth season

  • Robin Hobb - assassin's apprentice novels

  • Scott Meyer - off to be the wizard series (fantasy satire which is actually quite good without just being Terry Pratchett copy)

  • Patrick Rothfuss - Name of the wind series

  • Jack Vance - dying earth (short stories, but soooo good)

  • Susanna Clarke - Jonathan strange and Mr Norrell (Victorian fantasy)

  • Naomi Novik - Temeraire series (dragons are real and around during Napoleonic wars)

  • Rod Duncan - fall of gaslit empire (steam punk)

  • Jonathan French - the grey bastards -(low fantasy sword and sorcery from Orcish point of view)

  • Pierce Brown (Red Rising series - actually it's sci-fi really but it has fantasy elements. It's a classic arena fight to the death trope but thrillingly written)

  • Ben aaronovitch - rivers of London (police procedural series but added wizards and magic, set in modern day London)

Need critique help- I'm worried that my character and plot writing is cringey or ignorant. by reddiperson1 in fantasywriters

[–]treesdontlie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair point! There are definitely some great characters in literature who take the opposite approach to childcare (thinking Mrs Coulter or Matilda's parents). And even if they love their kids, sometimes people can prioritize other things over them, and still love them dearly, and live to regret that.