Are You Writing Serious Fantasy?

[Melephelwen]

Now I reached page 4 ... catching up on you guys! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]

Are you writing fantasy seriously?
I'm not sure what others would say to that statement, but I think I do. When I'm not in school, on BD, doing homework, at work, taking care of my 'social life', reading Tolkien, I write. Okay, that doesn't sound as I'm a very active writer, but I have a bad habit with skipping the homework so I can make time. I also stay awake 'til 11pm writing, allthough my parents keep saying 10pm... I'm getting a bit unpopular at home [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img]

What kind of writing do you do?
Everything and anything. The Snake-story I mentioned I am so far writing from two different points of view. Actually it could be compared to Tolkien writing his story from Morgoth and Lúthien's points of view. It's a bad example, I know,but I couldn't think of anything better.

What way of developing characters works best for you? Action? Forced Cooperation? Psychological / Conversational interaction?
Not action... Sometimes conversation, sometimes the narrating voice is telling about them. I did a really stupid thing a while ago... with no explanation(sp?) at all, a blond girl suddenly had dark-brown hair... oops... [img]smilies/redface.gif[/img] Now I have a system, I put a coloured clips in my papers everytime I descripe a person/thing, so that next time he/she/it is mentioned, I look what I've written earlier.

Do any of you have characters like that -- that being, characters that get up off the page and exercise Free Will of their own? And do you beat them back down into submission or just stand back & roll with it?

Not that I have noticed... thinking about it, they do it all the time... I just let them, it's probably better. Though I might cut it out again in the editing.

I sometimes have trouble describing things properly. I want to describe things so I'm sure the reader will "see" the place, person etc., but then, I'm a bit afraid of being too describing in my writing, something I think Tolkien overdid a few times. He could use half a page to describe a tree. OK, not exactly true, but you know what I mean, right? If you overdo it, it tends to get boring, and then some ppl will skip through the text and perhaps miss something of importance. I think it can be difficult to find the line. How do you know when it's enough or too much? I mean, I've SEEN the places I write about (in dreams) and I want my reader to see them as well, not to skip pages because my describtions are too thouroughly.

That's true. Another example, apart from Tolkien, is Jean Auel, who wrote 'Earth's Children' ('Clan of the Cave Bear' etc.) In the fourth book, the descriptions of just about everything, 50% not really necessary for the storyin any way, is getting way out of hand. I've heard somebody say, that he/she could skip chapt. 4, 5 and 6 without missing anytyhing of the plot! I haven't tried myself though... It's sad, 'cause it's a really great story, but the descritions ruin it. Tolkien is luckily not getting that far! Because of that, I tend to skip all descriptions when I write, except of the characters. If I write of a house, it's just 'the size of (something)' and I leave the rest to imagination. I might change that later. Actually I think I will. But I'll try to keep it at a level I would want to read myself. I'm not really into reading descriptions... [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

Btw, I'm happy you bothered reaading this!