Archives
Categories:
- Business announcements
- Best First Line Contest
- Books/Reading
- Contests
- Editing
- New Releases/Excerpts
- Life
- Miscellaneous
- Round Robin
- TV/Movies
- Writing
Recent Comments
- Tez Miller (Point of Origin...story ideas.)
- MJ (The Last Things I Learned Before I Published)
- Maria (The Last Things I Learned Before I Published)
- Taryn Blackthorne (I'VE GOT NOTHING TO SAY)
- Marilyn (The Worst Review...May Be The Best Review)
- N.J. Walters (I'VE GOT NOTHING TO SAY)
- N.J. Walters (My Life is Chaos)
- N.J. Walters (The Worst Review...May Be The Best Review)
- Isabo Kelly (Breaks are Good)
- Meg Allison (The Duke is OUT!)
Once Upon A Name...
Nexus Spear… the Moonstone Rod… Tiger’s Eye Stone… Hellblade… All of these things invoke images for me. Images of things long lost, magical things, mystical things. Yes, I’ve been researching for a new fantasy book. I have a lot of cool ideas floating around in my head for it. I’ve even been researching archaic words to use – I found a list on the Internet. I’ve also been researching dance styles in the Baroque, Renaissance and Middle Ages. I find all of this fascinating.
Anyway, back the name thing. I think names are super important not just for your character but for things, too. Since I’m writing a fantasy book, I’ve discovered that naming places and things has become almost as important as naming characters. As far as places go, I think the name has to be easy to pronounce and easy to remember and not resemble any other place in the book. As far as things go – like weapons – I think they need to sound cool and well, sort of give you a hint as to the wielder (such as good or evil).
So I’m having a lot of fun with this. I’m enjoying the revision process quite a lot and I feel like I’m finally doing the book justice. It’s been a long time coming. There’s so much planning that goes into a fantasy book – not only do you have to build your world, but you have to know your culture. How do they track time? Do they use our hours, and weeks? Or do we call it candlemark, sennight, fortnight? Are the seasons winter and summer? Or dark and light? What is the royal hierarchy? Who is good and who is bad?
It’s really an interesting process and I’m loving doing the research for the book. This is somewhat of a deviation off course for me and I’m starting to think there will only be romantic elements involved, instead of a full blown romance. I think I totally love that, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that fantasy is MUCH harder to write than romance.
Why, you may ask? Because not only are you creating characters, but an entire world. Culture, society, royal hierarchy, trade routes, countries, evil tyranny! hehe
So, readers – do you read fantasy? And if so, what are some of you favorite aspects of the genre? Do you like it for the magical/mystical characters? Or do you read it to fall into another realm you’ve only imagined? Also, what authors do you enjoy reading the most?
Hi Michelle. Cool topic. For me, fantasy opens up my imagination. I especially enjoy magical characters who exist in our world and seem like everyday people. The idea of having a secret, magical life behind the normal exterior life is one of my favorite fantasies!
Best wishes with your current wip!
Misty
I love just about any genre as long as the book is well written. My best bud Kally Jo Surbeck was the first one to get me interested in fantasy. I have had to learn how to world building for my futuristics, and OMG I have such respect for fantasy writers now. They definitely make it look easy.
Hi, ladies! Thanks for stopping by. Fantasy is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever written. And I thought it would be easy.. bah! ;)
Hi Michelle!
You know, I haven’t read that much fantasy. I’ve tried but tend to get lost in the unfamiliar words and what not. Ergo, I’m with you that the names, time keeping, etc. are important!
The thing is that I love fantasy art and would love to read fantasy novels more than I do. I’ll most surely be on the lookout for yours!
Light,
Nancy Haddock
La Vida Vampire
I’m not a big fantasty reader, but I do enjoy them when I do read them. World building isn’t easy and I have a real respect for authors who can pull it off and make it orginal.
Good luck with writing your new fantasy book.
Michelle,
Lovely article. You have a vivid imagination, so I’m looking forward to reading your fantasy. I like new worlds, but don’t want to create one. As you mentioned, there are a lot of things to name and conceive. Good luck.
Nancy – I love fantasy art, too. It’s beautiful and sometimes frightning. LOL But I’ve found fantasy art to be very inspirational.
NJ – Thank you! I hope I can to the genre justice. hehe
Carolyn – waves! HI! I’m glad you stopped by. :)
Sounds like you have a wonderful grasp of writing a fantasy. It is not easy to build worlds or cultures, but I bet once the book is written you will make it look so easy!
I started out as a wee lass reading fantasy. Tolkien of course. But even the silly ones like The Borrowers. There was also some robot in outerspace series. I think reading those made me want to create me own words even if contemporaries where I determined what happened.
good topic… hadn’t thought in years about where some on my wanting to write came from
I’ve learned to truly enjoy the world-building, thanks to the workshops I took with Karina Fabian and Christine Amsden last year during The Muse Online Conference.
I read more fantasy now than I used to; I also think you can put a lot more social commentary into fantasy than into regular literary fiction at this point.
Sandy J – I can only hope! LOL
Dense – HI! I know you, oh fellow Samhain author. hehe I love science fiction and fantasy and grew up on it. I think that’s truly what I want to write (with a smidge of romance of course!)
Devon – thanks for stopping by! I have GOT to get into one of those workshops this year…
Michelle,
Good luck! We need good fantasy writers.
You now call it fantasy. I learned it as “Fairy Tales”. I have read them all.
Grimms Brothers, Anderson’s Fairy Tales, AEsops Fables, Greek, Roman and Norse Myths.
I suggest you read the above. They all follow a pattern. The names are all pronounceable. Everything comes in threes. There is always a moral to the story. Good always triumphs over evil.
Try the SCA for history and quick and easy research. Just put SCA into the address bar and follow the website for pictures and information. The combat sections will give you historical information on armor, weapons and methods of fighting. The SCA has books for sale on certain subjects.
Beledei Dancing (Belly Dance) is popular right now and is an ancient dance and has rules and regulations such as why it is done, how it is done, where it is done and items of rule such as the dancer must not show the bottoms of her feet to the audience. Mary Magdalene in Jesus’ time was a Beledei Dancer. Lots of Beledei Dancers in the SCA.
Michelle,
You mention trade routes. I know of a couple of ancient ones.
In the Country of Turkey, which used to be called Lydia, which before that was the Peninsula and Country of Anatolia, there used to be a large and famous seaport by the name of Miletus on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It sat on the mouth of the Meander River. Now the ruins can be found about 5 miles inland.
This is the route that Marco Polo took to China.
He went East up the Meander River and over the mountains where Noah’s Ark is located and down again into the Tigris-Euphrates Valley and through Baghdad to the Indian Sea. There he took passage on a sea vessel to China. It was a common route and used for centuries before the Cape of Good Hope was discovered and before the Suez Canal was built.
Maria Montez was a very beautiful movie star of the 1940s and made many Arabian Nights types of movies with lots of magic in them such as Genies and magic lamps.
In your research you might try to see some of her movies. They were always in color.
The other main trade route that has a fascinating history is the overland Viking trade route from Norway and Denmark, through Kiev and down the Asiatic-European Rivers to the Caspian Sea and to the Mediterranean Sea and to Miletus.
Lyd
Lyd – Thank you so much for all the information. You’re a virtual wealth of it. ;)
You are welcome, Michelle.
Signed,
Leedja, Al Has Zar
and
Lady Armilda Astyages of Lydia