Category: fantasy

Creator of Worlds

Recently I remarked to one of my writer friends that I wish I could write funny.

She replied immediately that she wished she could create worlds.

That left me thoughtful. I’ve created many worlds. Some overlap part of this world, but many are second-world type settings that have little in common with our ‘real’ world. I’ve gone on stellar and planetary math quests, researched deep rabbit holes about life and items like it, and often find myself having to make up entire swaths of items to answer a question or to allow a character to do what I know they require for that story.

My first second-world fantasy idea came in high school. I never did write that series, but I had ideas about it. Eventually I abandoned it because high school is full of people who will listen about your ideas even if you overtalk it and then don’t spend that time writing it, and I did high school and college for a semester – and in the margins you could find my notes for this novel that hasn’t ever become more than ruminations in my head.

I’d say maybe one day, but I’ve created so many others that I may never get back to it.

I looked at a list today, of created projects that are in limbo for the moment since I’ve been working so hard on this Space Western that I am determined to get out and publish. That list doesn’t include the novel I thought I was going to write in high school/college, and it already had 9 projects listed. I didn’t even look that hard, just to projects that had been drafted or mostly fleshed out and ready to draft.

Ransom, Creator of Worlds But They Might Not Be Funny Ones.

What’s your writer tag? What’s the tag you wish you could write? I do believe that most of these great things are like muscles that can be strengthened or atrophied over time whether we use them or not, but there are many pieces that come naturally or they don’t.

The good news for novels is that the one I’ve been struggling with my antagonists is maybe, finally, coming into line with what I want and need it to be. Then it’ll be on to the next one. The really good news is that I feel after all of these acts of creation- the characters, the plots, the settings, and the themes- that I am getting much better at this than I used to be. It’s a tough road, but I still enjoy it.

Posted on by ransomnoble 0

Pets

If you’re following me on Twitter or Facebook, you might have already seen these questions: What do you look for when you find a pet? What draws you to pick a certain one, like a cat vs a dog vs a turtle vs an ant farm vs a tarantula?

I found some interesting information on what your pet says about you. ABC reallyworks.org  Even the name can say something about the person who owns the pet. Jezebel

Most of that pertains to dogs and cats, probably because most people own one or the other, or both. I tend to disagree with the inherited name meaning the owner is too lazy to change it. Perhaps it’s better to let the pet retain its identity through a change of home. Of course, some people also rename children when adopting them, so perhaps we think of a lot of things as needing change when entering our home.

It’s something to take into account when fashioning a character who has a pet. Right now I am working with a teenager who has a pet cat. He doesn’t have a very unique name for her because that isn’t in his character. His best friend is constantly pushing her name for the cat – a Shakespearian character she thinks has a beautiful name.

Somehow it also reminds me of another story that pops into my memory here and there, an urban fantasy where some of the species kept humans as pets. What would that say about those types of people? Partly, they feel humans are less intelligent if they can be owned. They were also able to enforce their will through magic.

What is it about a pet that makes a human a good or bad one? I haven’t dug into that part yet – my focus centers on a character who is half-human and only has a peripheral view of the pets themselves. But now it makes me want to.

Drat. I didn’t need another distraction from my novel rewrite! That’s why I’m going to have to be prolific – I just keep getting great ideas.

 

 

 

 

Posted on by ransomnoble 3