Fantasy novel - Page 2 - Writers Forum

PageOfCups · 03-21-2008, 06:21 PM

Some sort of explanation for why your character has a book of medevil porn is definitely required. If you didn't explain it the reader might end up thinking he's either weird or a pervert. Perhaps you should say where he got it from and mention his reaction as well.

Oh, and the first post by Non Serviam is the funniest thing I've come across all week XD

mi is happy · 03-22-2008, 12:51 AM

Your general audience is a round 16/17 or is it higher? Most of the time authors tend to age their charactor around their targeted group. So I am ausiming you are aiming towards late teenagers.
With me assuming this, the smartest thing to do would not to go into the gorrey details of sex. Insinuate it maybe, but don't go in too deap.

Jax1108 · 03-22-2008, 11:17 AM

I've thought of something like this before. I always wondered in books and such when they are traveling etc "Hey, when the heck do they go to the bathroom?!" But as I've been writing, I've learned that you don't put anything in there that doesnt enhance your story in some way or is irrelevant.

HOWEVER, if you can make it both enhance and be relevant, perhaps you are on to something new! If you really want to, experiment with it, put it here (man I love this place it is SUCH a good resource!) and see what happens and what readers say!

Good Luck!

jon_snow · 04-13-2008, 04:55 PM

Yeah, like most people said, if something important happens in one of these scenes, put it in there. Also, about the sex scenes; don't put them in kids books (kinda a given). For YA adults, probably the "they kissed passionately on the bed....next morning" works best. For adults, you can go explicit if you want...

kidstaple · 04-13-2008, 09:13 PM

Well, I don't know if you've ever heard of an author by the name of Ed Greenwood or not, but you should check out a series written by him called 'Shandril's Saga'. It's the first trilogy that he wrote that takes place in the Forgotten Realms universe, which I think is quite important, considering he and Jeff Grubb are the two people who created it...

Enough of the back story, I digress...

Check out 'Spellfire', 'Crown of Fire', and 'Hand of Fire'. He uses the idea of making his story more interesting and more normal I suppose you would say, (by making the characters actually have to take a pee, or use the latrine) than almost any other writer, and he pulls it off exceptionally well.

Hope this help!

dejudicibus · 04-17-2008, 07:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Annanan1

is there any reason why i cannot get more 'real' than normal with my charecters and world. by real i mean using the scenerios that other writers tend to leave out, the eating, using the lav, sleeping, making love etc. provided they are kept tactful.

not sure how far i can take things and it still be exceptable.

cheers

You must. Do not think that since your novel is a fantasy one it should not represent a real world. Heros need to eat, sleep, pee, make sex, cry, lough, behave as any normal indivuduals. Heros have defects, make errors, are tired, and sometimes are also bad. The perfect book is the book where nothing is perfect.

seigfried007 · 04-17-2008, 04:27 PM

Quote:

For the past five days, Ivan had made the most of every opportunity to smile threateningly. The tall black man never let Peter out of his sight. Regardless of the number of beds in any given shelter, whichever Peter chose, Ivan always picked a bed next to it. If Peter lagged in the back of the group, Ivan would be here to tell him to hurry up. If Peter walked ahead of the herd, Ivan was there to tell him to slow down for the women. If Peter needed to squat in the bushes, Ivan was always there to hand him a leaf. Whenever Peter needed to take a leak, Ivan was shaking himself off nearby. He half-expected the warmonger to play swords with him on these at least twice-daily occasions.

Peter's following the intended of Ivan of the Nine Lashes (aka Ivan the Terrible) despite her repatedly needing to stop the group to puke her guts out or go potty because she's preggers with Ivan's kid. Needless to say, Ivan's the jealous type.

I wrote that ages ago but am continually reminded of its irreverance for common high fantasy.

The readers loved it, but I never tried to publish it because the ending dragged on forever and it had no clear climax despite being 200K (of it was a roller coaster, alright, and some hills were bigger than others, but none really towered, so to speak).

Despite having lots of sex in it, I never really made any graphic mention of it--wasn't necessary until the almost-rape scenes vs MCs (always got foiled by one circumstance or another in that particular story). Bathroom scenes often had some stinky detail but I only mentioned it when something was particularly interesting (say, the a character's first time visiting a public restroom, or the stalking case I mentioned above, or the time when Ivan's gal had to make a potty break in the middle of a rock tunnel and a druid had to shape a bowl out of the stone so no one coming after them would have to walk through it).

Rowan Hart · 05-03-2008, 05:28 PM

Bakkar has his characters go to the toilet - there's at least one scene I can remember where two of his characters urinate into an open latrine and joke about their wedding tackle. george R. R. Martin mentions one of his characters ' making water ' often. Both help propel the plot though, especially how a girl can disguise herself as male and still pee in company.

cellochick7 · 05-05-2008, 10:07 PM

Write about what would be intersting to read... we don't want to hear what they have for a midmorning snack unless it's crucial to the plot.