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Reminds of Dogs of War by Frederick Forsyth: literally 95 percent of the book was about the preparation of the coup (how they set up a fake company, sent money and equipment to the African state, recruited soldiers and the action only lasted 5 pages or so

Most important: use your fantasy!

U were an architect before a writer?

Amusing that all the suggested limitations were the hardliners rules in DnD 1e/2e. As WotC moved into 3e, all that got tossed, so a whole generation or two of writers just... don't get it.

I'm curious what the percentages of senses are for Brian Jacques book "Redwall". He originally wrote it for the blind, but his publisher loved it so much that he was convinced to not exclude those not blind from reading it.

Wasn't the wind hard to use its name because it is so ephemeral and changing constantly?

14:07 so being bored as a motivation for the antagonist isn't logical? The antagonist doing it for the funny isn't a logical motivation?

"Too often, magic in fantasy is used like technology is in sci-fi. As a tool to expand the narrative possibilities and nothing more. Too often, magic is robbed of all its magic." There is a reason why Tolkien didn't explain his magic system.

"new writers are reluctant to give their characters alot of strife" meanwhile here I am pushing my main character further into depression and addiction because, even when he gets the job done, he still manages to lose

Pig shit. Pig shit reminds me of growing up on the farm and feeding the pigs before and after school.

An interesting limitation I came up with. You can use Death Magic for awesome things, but you grow steadily insane. Blood Magic costs body parts. You can regrow them with White magic, but it hurts like hell and takes time. To cure insanity you can take a sanity potion. Side effect, you cannot eat or drink for 7 days. So you have to be hospitalized. Sanity can also be restored naturally at a very slow rate. Reviving someone will drive you either completly insane or you have to make a Deal with a Spirit, which can demand your body for years, force you to do a difficult task (usually in the spirit world, while the spirit uses your body) or demand your soul in return. Depends on the person revived and the one reviving as well as the spirit called.

I can say that just starting can work. I doubt I will ever break my record, but I'd like to share it just to show how much can be done. In college I was writing my 2nd book, one day I woke up and just started writing, I kept writing until it got dark. By the time I finished, I wrote 50 pages! out of a 400 by the time I was done. I was proud of it and got a lot of good reviews when I had paperbacks made and sold them in my hometown (I wasn't 100% confident if my story was good and be liked.) I haven't broken my record since, but I still try everyone now and then and it keeps me motivated, so this trick of keeping track is golden! For any that were curious, I did self-publish the book a couple years ago but decided to take that book down from amazon recently so I could rewrite it as I feel like I'm a much more skilled writer after creating more stories. I just need to get better at getting my books out there as I am horrible at marketing myself, lol.

I once read a novel in which magic could only be done by a few very special people, but these were so rare and difficult to find that governments and groups stopped looking for them, and instead put resources into developing a way of perform magic in a trained and external way. Centuries later, we hardly hear about natural magicians anymore. The novel showed the pros and cons of both types, with the natural ones being more powerful and the educated ones being more precise. The protagonist was natural, but he lost his powers because of a demon, so he dedicated himself to learning the external method.

Flat characters with regards to story arcs can continue to be interesting if you learn more about them as you read. And it doesn't necessarily make sense to have everyone change who they are, especially in a short span of time. Some people change very slowly and stick to their guns in the face of conflict and a changing world. But it doesn't mean they're necessarily one dimensional.

in my book the main character has never met her father and when she gets to her private school she meets a professor who at first seems moody and almost evil but is actual very kind and they become close, it is not until much later dose the main character and the professor find out that they are father and daughter as the professor did not know he had a daughter

This video made me realize I can’t visualize smells in my mind

Dont repeat sounds, tolkien 😅

So no common American English, but they don’t want medieval Europe tropes. So how are my characters meant to talk? Personally if my universe is removed from our own then the fact that they speak English is a miracle itself, so it’s within suspension of disbelief that my characters speak like you and I do

I'm working on my first real attempt at writing a longer work, I feel like my characters, setting, magic system, etc... are great I just can't seem to organize my thoughts into a larger narrative and have it feel interesting. But at least watching this video did increase my confidence in my magic system within my story, I have always been worried the main character is too powerful but I feel it kind of works since the conflict mostly revolves around the effects of her incredibly powerful magic on others , and eventually herself, where at the start of the story she levels several kingdoms and creates a tyrannical monarchy with her in charge but by the end of my first book her overelience on her power causes her to lose the one thing she cared about most, her daughter, which drives the rest of my theoretical series (I have many bits written down in smaller stories I just never knew how to connect them into one cohesive long narrative, but I'm trying) anyways writer ramble, good video

"Overly Horny Characters" I hope this person doesn't read the Dresden Files. Those books were unbearably horny. I got all the way to book 6 or 7 before I just couldn't take it anymore.

Personally i like just picking one aspect to basing a naming convention on. My current work just has an emphasis on how many syllables a name has. The more you have, the higher up in society you are. Four syllables being the max and one being the most common. And some people try to sneak in an almost extra syllable to be clever, like Kanz.

It can be very difficult to write a fantasy or scifi that takes place in a different star system because its impossible to describe some things to earth readers without using earth based ideas like time intervals. a second, a minute, a year, a day. You can make up your own new units of measure for your planet, but if they are not just an analogue to earth intervals then your readers will never know what it means. Some things can only be described by modern earth words because all of your readers are modern earthlings, regardless of where your story takes place.

I dont know how to outline BEFORE i write the first draft. Takes the journey out of writing.

When i first started wanting to write my very own novel, i wanted it to have world building that was unique like how Tolkien did his books. Then i realized i will never complete a book within my life time if i had that mindset. Since its my first book, i decided to focus on writing the story itself so that ill get used to it.

That one guy read Lightbringer and just thought to himself "How can I literally copy this but put a very slight twist on it so no one accuses me of plagiarism?" lmfao

My favorite magic system is the one in Light Novel Mushoku Tensei. At first it's described as generic mana based 4 elements + healing magic, you cast by shaping mana by chanting or drawing a magic circle. But later you realize that: 1. It can do anything as long as you have enough mana, understand the effect you wanna make and know how to shape mana to achieve it. 2. It's functionally simple elemental system because of a cultural framework around it, making it easier to understand and learn + magic is relatively new branch of science so it's still not fully developed.

to me the most ingenious names are, Tom Ato Po Tato

There is another way to deal with an op protagonist: make an enemy who is just as strong or even stronger. Jujutsu kaisen does this with saturo gojo and sakuna for example, where gojo was so op that his mere birth changed the balance of the world, and then when he and sakuna have their fight sakuna shows that he is almost on the same level of strength as gojo but with far more experience to level out the playing field

If these books were ever to be adapted into a movie-TV series, this would be my ideal casting: 1. Arlen Bales-Kellan Lutz. 2.Renna Tanner-Hannah Marks . 3 Leesha Paper-Kristen Bell 4. Rojer Inn-Samuel Barnett 5.Ahmann Jardir-Eric Balfour 6. Inevera-Fiona Dourif 7. Abban Haman-Kenan Thompson 8. Thamos- Matt Letscher 9. Elona Paper-Nancy Travis 10. Ernal Paper-Chip Zien 11. Harl Tanner-John Lithgow 12-Geral-Alan Ritchson 13.Hasik Kez-Manu Bennett 14.Rhinebeck III-Martin Clunes 15Duke Euchor-Vincent Pastore

When people say Plot vs. Character driven story, they don't actually mean a story with a Plot or a Character, they're often really referring to whether the character is actually a protagonist or a victim. Does the character have a goal or objective beyond survival? Is the character driving the plot through their actions, or is the character reacting to the situation they're in? A thief deciding to sneak into a castle and steal the royal crown would be a character driving story, the thief has decided to steal the crown. A thief being told he has to sneak into the castle and steal the royal crown or his best friend will be murdered by the evil crime lord is a plot driven story, if the thief goes through with the stealing of the crown anyway, because the thief is doing the stealing because of an outside force not an inside force. Is the inciting incident the result of the protagonist's decision or outside of the protagonist's control? That's what people usually mean by Plot vs. Character. At least, in my experience.

Magic system where you need to know the true NAME of something was a huge part of the Earthsea cycle from Ursula LeGuin (first publishing in 1964), probably among the first to bring that idea into modern fantasy genre. But it's been a thing of the folklore and mythologies for millenias, as one can read here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_name 😉🙃😶‍🌫

In regards to romance being disliked. Throughout history, men have been willing to do insane things for love. War, betrayals, suicidal endeavours and more. With that said; bad romance or romance between character who has NO chemistry or bonding experiences can feel detrimental to a story in my experience.

"I don't like characters with flat arcs" may I introduce you to Uncle Iroh? His arc was complete before the show started

Is it okay to give my characters struggle without ending their life ? I just can't handle losing my main cast. I just can't. I am part of the people who cryed at the injustice of Ace's death and was relieved beyond myself when Makarov opened his eyes after the battle against Zelef and co. I can make my characters suffer and I can kill secondary characters and other canon fodders. But my main cast ? Over my dead body. I hate it in stories I read/watch and I won't have it in my own stories.

This is like me giving advice on how to better construct a better rocket to enter space. I’m not a rocket scientist. A hack giving advice. Gotta love main character syndrome.

The "Strong female character" archetype is actually usually worse than the damsel in distress. Quite often, those damsels in distress, actually have some degree of interesting features, and sometimes, although not always, have character growth. "Strong female character" cannot have character growth, because there's nowhere to grow. They are already "perfect".

Best... Dialogue... EVER: "Lan told me once that Malkier lives so long as one man wears the hadori in pledge that he will fight the Shadow, so long as one woman wears the ki'sain in pledge that she will send her sons to fight the Shadow. I wear the ki'sain, Master Aldragoran. My husband wears the hadori. So do you. Will Lan Mandragoran ride to the Last Battle alone?"

I’ve always been a fan of magic tattoos and magic cards or basically a way to like add magic to yourself in some way. For cards it could be a figurative thing or a mental image of a deck and once you know the card you draw it to cast the spell. Or for magic tattoos it lets specializations become more important since if you had say fire magic tattoos it could interfere with water magic tattoos. The idea of someone’s torso and arms covered in runes and symbology of their element or skill wether that’s depictions of gods or animals or natural events painted onto their skin to channel the magic and strengthen it

I love the trope of “The Collector” and its derivatives. Someone or something whose purpose is to just gathers things magic or otherwise. It gives you a good way to convey lore but also gives your plot an extra step the characters can take to further explore the world but also put the main goal to the side for further development if need be.

If you look at slow scenes that are done well, they're not about gathering nuts, or how to set up camp. It's about the character interactions at that moment. I'm reminded of David Edding's Belgariath series where all the way in the last book the 'hero party' is traveling to the final fated encounter and they have been foretold 'one of your group won't return with you'. Just sailing things. All the characters come to the MC one by one to reminisce and say goodbye. So the fighter doing maintenance on his armor may talk about how doing this saved his life more than once, how a well maintained sword will serve you truly. Someone can draw a comparison to maintaining relationships, and now you have a set-up to deepen the characters.

Here's one of my favorite fantasy magic systems- see if you can figure it out from the description! Limitations: 1: Specific categories/uses of equipment ( *ahem* musical) can cause it. 2: Yes- of course, there's a duration to every spell, and the effects only typically last as long *as* the spell. 3: Mostly, no! This leads me to... 4: Definitely, but it's complicated- especially depends on the difficulty of the spell: some go to a 6-year boarding school starting in 7th grade and can't play higher-level spells before graduating high school, but they don't *have* to. However, even if they don't go to boarding school they can *potentially* use it. 5: Largely, yes! Well, mostly- depends on the talent level: inventing them can either be really good or really bad, but it's relatively rare to have *that* talent. 6: Really only a simultaneous counterspell (or lack of focus, see my bonus 4: 1 and 3) can interfere. 7: In some cases, it varies- you may think, "What’s the point of using that spell here?" Sometimes specific spells can be pointless! 8: Rarely applies- rarely need to in the first place! Bonus 4 limitations (the "rules" of the magic system, they're called) can help with identification if the main 8 aren't enough: each is a couplet in original phrasing (1 & 3 here explain why I labeled 6 as I did) 1. Clear your mind before you start, or things can go sideways! 2. If a spell is left hanging, that's also bad news. If the one who started it can't finish, you're good as long as someone else can. 3. True magic comes from within. 4. The more who play a spell, the stronger it'll be. Even non-users *can* understand it, but they don't always. And yes, the "focus on one aspect" idea holds true!

1:40 I have been learning how to drive for quite a while (a couple years), I understand and accept the patient that comes with writing and publishing a novel and I will always keep that in mind whether I’m driving or writing a novel😂❤ I appreciate you sharing your happy with us and will be sure to use it in my future as a writer

One thing I noticed when writing is that I get a lot more attached to the side characters than the main character.

The way you glance at the camera while reading "not yet" 😂 I'm sold on whatever you're pitching!

I'm writing a sci-fi with magic in it. My favorite limitation for magic i have is that it cannot be mass produced outside of sweatshop conditions, while conventional technology can be far more readily automated.

Im writining a story with the two main mcs afe going to be in a lesbian relationship and imnglad to see people are enjoying that and accepting that more!

12:27 When it comes to miscommunication, I have to wonder if the dislike here is that it reminds them too much of real life. The sheer number of arguments and conflicts in real life that are a result of miscommunication is staggering, to the point that businesses will send their executives to expensive seminars all about how to better communicate with their employees and coworkers.

Something as big as a dragon would be a pest unless it does something very useful with how much food it would need. Maybe it guards against some kind of threats. Like how the Egyptians worshiped cats as they ate mice .

I mix up random words like tale or something into place names

3:25 It doesn't bode well that my mind immediately went to Oathbringer when you started talking about filler. I haven't even cleared the first quarter...