It's just hard to find among the weaker stuff without specific advice. There is so much out there.
Fantasy which sounds like Tolkien rip-offs
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Primula Baggins
- Living in hope
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Oh, I know that, Alatar—I've been taking notes of names to check out!
It's just hard to find among the weaker stuff without specific advice. There is so much out there.
It's just hard to find among the weaker stuff without specific advice. There is so much out there.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Wait, how come no one mentioned Pratchett yet? Here's someone who is so much NOT like Tolkien (in spite of what the cover blurb says) that he almost is.
Prim, I do hear you about world building, and certainly Tolkien is unrivaled there. I've seen fantasy and sci-fi writers fall into the Tolkien trap in another way, too.- they produce an intricate world, with detailed history, religion, geography, but the stories they tell fall flat. And what I want from a book is a story, not a world.
Prim, I do hear you about world building, and certainly Tolkien is unrivaled there. I've seen fantasy and sci-fi writers fall into the Tolkien trap in another way, too.- they produce an intricate world, with detailed history, religion, geography, but the stories they tell fall flat. And what I want from a book is a story, not a world.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.
Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
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Primula Baggins
- Living in hope
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- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 1:43 am
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Yes, one does need both! But I think it's easier to tell a story than build a detailed and believable world.
Worldbuilding is highly addictive, though, and I know writers who have gotten so carried away with it that they never get around to writing the actual story at all.
Worldbuilding is highly addictive, though, and I know writers who have gotten so carried away with it that they never get around to writing the actual story at all.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Oh yes, Pratchett. Not only has he created a world, he tells it with a very unique flair. As Frelga said, foremost I need a story, and if the story has a world beyond it, it draws me deeper.
Not only that, I see that Tolkien created in me a person who has suddenly started noticing languages, names and the way characters speak. And I do an internal evaluation of the same. In the Terry book I just finished, a Dwarf, leader of a Council says to the other members "What say you?"
Yikes!
Not only that, I see that Tolkien created in me a person who has suddenly started noticing languages, names and the way characters speak. And I do an internal evaluation of the same. In the Terry book I just finished, a Dwarf, leader of a Council says to the other members "What say you?"
Yikes!'You just said "your getting shorter": you've obviously been drinking too much ent-draught and not enough Prim's.' - Jude