G Is For Gods & Goddesses...

That's right. Gods and Goddesses rule the realm of fantasy more often than not. Sometimes it is just one higher being or a whole plethora. Well, pantheon, if you want to be technical about it.

Gods and Goddesses can play a significant role in your world, or they can just be casual mentions. Their involvement is entirely up to you.

They can either roam the world in avatars, walking, working, living side by side with their creations. Or, they can live high above the world, looking down on what they have created, pushing people through their lives like puppet  masters.

They can be cruel or loving. Generous or miserly. Full of wrath and hate for their creations or compassion.

Maybe the gods were at war and humans, Elves and Dwarves became their champions or they were just a nasty side effect of their magical battles.

In my world, their was one creator, Ioweth. He created the earth and everything in it. The other gods and goddesses came about through the power of prayer and energy. Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Ogres, whatever the race, if there was a significant need for something like protection from bandits while traveling, their plea would be heard and out of the energies of the world, a deity would be "born".

Some choose to remain apart from the world, others choose to interact. Fizanu is the goddess of Justice and her Champion is the Black Rose. She speaks to him, gave him longevity and special weapons and he makes the world a better place for those who seek justice but are unable for whatever reason to take care of it themselves.

So think about if you want your world to include deities or just one higher being and the role they play in the lives of those living on earth.

F Is For Fighting...

Just remember, that most of these topics are geared for Fantasy world building. So when I speak of fighting, I'm talking swords, baby!

Fighting, in fantasy, can be a huge endeavor. Especially if you are going to be moving towards battle scenes. This will consist of hundreds of people attacking at once. So remember, you don't have to give a narrative about every single soldier! Please, please don't. I'll have to put down your book, find where you live and when you answer your door, smack you upside the head.

Anyway...

Fight scenes can be very powerful and difficult to describe. You can see the movement in your mind's eye, but to capture that in so many words without boring the reader... don't tear your hair out.

First of all, you're going to be tempted to explain each tactic, stance, cool-ninja-fighting-move and by the end of it all, you're going to get so frustrated, you'll leave it out altogether. You WILL confuse your reader, who may not know all those technical fighting move names. So you are left with things like: twist, spin, reach, flick, snap and poke. Yes. Poke.

Which of these two fight scenes makes more sense?

Technical fight scene: "Kayta squared off with Trinara, each taking their favorite fighting stance. After a pause, they began. Kayta stepped forward and thrust her fencing blade towards Trinara's chest, forcing Trinara to parry and reposte. While the block was effective, it allowed Kayta to gain the upper hand, creating the botta-in-tempo. Kayta lunged again and Trinara executed a cavazione..."

Fight scene: "Trinara faced Hedric, her sword raised and ready. When Hedric gave a slight nod of his head, the two began to fight. They circled each other for a moment, not wanting to be the first to strike. Hedric decided to make a move. He took a large step forward, thrusting his fencing blade towards Trinara. She raised her sword, effectively blocking his attack. She forced him back with a shove, lightly stepped around him and flicked her sword towards his backside. Hedric spun around, twisting his blade to block her attack..."

Now, minus the added details, the second scene is "dummied down" for the reader. You're not questioning the reader's intelligence, you're just trying to make sure everyone understands the words, thus causing the story to flow. When people get hung up on words like "reposte" and "cavazione", it's going to break their reading stride.

So keep it simple when it comes to fight scenes!

Want My Book For Free?...

That's right! I said F-R-E-E!

I will be giving away my fantasy e-book, "Adversarius, Shadow of the Rose: Book One" for free this weekend.

So what do you have to do to get it?

Why, it's so simple!

Send me an e-mail here.

In the subject line, type in: Adversarius

That's it. Simple as can be! Check your e-mail inbox once you've sent it off and there you go.

Have a great weekend, everyone and keep on enjoying the April A-Z blog posts!

E Is For...

Well, at the risk of sounding cliche in this world building A-Z challenge, 'E' is for Elves!

The Elven race has always intrigued me. Even though I never read Tolkien's books until much, much later in life, his perception of the race is exactly how I imagined them.

Of course, I have my differences to the race. Every fantasy author will see them differently. But for world building purposes, let's take a look at some of the differences in the fantasy genre.

ElfQuest: Wendy and Richard Pini portrayed Elves as being smaller than humans, almost the size of a child. They didn't start off that way. The "High Ones" were not just the very first Elves, they were significantly taller in stature. They had a thumb and three fingers, they could speak telepathically, (called "sending") and if and when they discovered their true Life Mate, the term for discovering them was "Recognized". Each would Recognize the other's soul or "true self". Their existence was explained as a "spaceship" crash.

Tolkien: The Elves in Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" are magical beings. Fair haired, graceful beings. Some with dark hair. They didn't vary much in color or stature. They looked like any other human being with pointy ears being the only exception to their appearance. They did not feel cold or intoxication. They were light of foot, as displayed by Legolas' walking on top of snow or lightly leaping from the ship in "Return of the King".

Other depictions of Elves explain them as being as tall as humans and hair and eye color can be just about any color imagined. World of Warcraft shows Elves with long, pointed ears that flop when they run. I don't like many of those Elves. But their skin color is different, whether it is a Night Elf with glowing eyes or a Blood Elf with an arrogant attitude.

Personally, my Elves are as tall as humans, have just the right amount of point to their ears to indicate their race. They can't get drunk unless they consume at least ten times as much as a normal human and they don't age. They can be killed, of course. Any life can be taken. However, if an Elf lives to a ripe old age of a thousand years and has decided enough is enough, they can choose to leave their current existence and allow their energies to return to the earth.

How do you imagine Elves? What makes yours different from what people consider "The Norm"?

D Is For Dragons...

There are lots of typical creatures in fantasy writing that some writers choose to leave out for whatever reason. The one creature that is starting to fade from fantasy, in my opinion, is dragons.

Maybe I am not reading the right books. But George R. R. Martin's "Game of Thrones" is the first book series I have seen in awhile that even mentions dragons.

I remember back when I started writing, I casually mentioned I had never read any of J. R. R. Tolkien's books. I could feel the astonishment weighing heavily in the silence that followed before the person practically erupted, saying, "HOW can you call yourself a FANTASY WRITER if you have NEVER. Read. Tolkien!?"

Allow me to exclaim:

How can you call yourself a fantasy writer if you don't write about dragons!?

Some people think dragons are over done. I don't think so. I think dragons are as crucial an element of fantasy as the sword and shield. Kings and Queens, Knights, Dwarves, Elves, all of it. Lots of people are veering away from a lot of these things in fantasy writing because they're afraid of sounding cliche, but geez, man! Don't eliminate them altogether!

More often these days, I browse the fantasy section of books on Amazon and almost all of them seem to me better off in the paranormal or sci-fi section. A good majority of them involve werewolves, vampires and witches.

Oh. My. Gah!

If I am wrong, please tell me. But it seems that good old fashioned sword and sorcery is starting to go the way of the garden gnome.

Bring back the Dragons! Bring back their caves of gold and jewels, their fire breathing ferocity and their wise, honorable nobility. Make them fill the sky with the spread of their massive wings and block out the sun!

Insecure Writers Support Group...

IWSG is brought to you by the Ninja Captain himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh. We post the first Wednesday of every month, sharing our insecurities or support. So drop by Alex's place for details and a list of participants.

So two posts from me today! This and my post for the April A-Z blog challenge. Aren't you the lucky ones?

Well, since there is so much going on I will try to keep it brief. Ha, yeah... right. ::snorts::

I've been slacking in the book promoting area these days. Trying to get my book set up to give away for free for a day or two. I may have to take matters into my own hands and set up a form here with a link to an automatic download page. I know it can be done, but I have to research it a bit. I know Goodreads has a giveaway option, but it looks like it is for new releases only.

So if you know of a place that will show me how to set this up, please share in the comment section. Otherwise, I will figure it out.

Why the slacking, though? Well... life to be honest. We're getting more daylight here now that it is Spring. We're a bit more involved in activities. (We being me and hubby.) My son is about to graduate, my daughter is close to her due date. We're moving to Washington in July, but we're driving, so that means a huge purge has to happen. We spent most of the winter going through stuff, but there is always more.

It entails quite a bit of work, promoting a book. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You can flood all your social sites with links, but the best advice given to me was flood the market with stories. Get your name out there.

Thanks to all who shared that advice with me. I'm still working, still revising and nearly done with book two. Other stories have sort of blind sided me and I had to get the bare bones of them written down before they drove me crazy. Characters just don't have much patience, do they?

So there, that's my insecurity for the month. If it can be deemed as such. I'll be hopping around today, reading some of yours, so see you soon!

C Is For Creatures...

I have spoken of creatures before, when writing fantasy. This is where you want to think outside of the box, but you also don't want to confuse your readers. There are lots of cool creatures in fantasy writing. Gnolls, Goblins, Imps, you name it.

What about thinking outside of the box and coming up with new, exciting creatures.

I've talked about mine before. There is the Belching Scurvy Knave. He's a very ugly bird. Looks like an ostrich that is constantly molting. Blue feathers, probably cross-eyed if you looked him straight on. But he struts around like he's the most gorgeous thing in the world. His mating call gives him his name. It's a belch, followed by an "Oooh!".

I also have Morigwaiths. These are shadow wraiths that were created when Argisindya (the wizards city) magically destroyed itself. The blast leveled the land and when the shockwave struck people almost 500 miles away, it knocked their souls out of their bodies and into their shadows. So they drift around looking for a weary traveler to stop and doze in the shade so they can inhabit their body.

So think about things when you want to create creatures for your world. Pick a couple of animals, toss 'em together and give them a funny name. I mean, really, we have a platypus. Come on. Who thought that one up?

B Is For Bodies...

Got your attention, didn't I? Yes, yes I did.

But the Bodies I am speaking of today are actually Bodies of water and Body counts.

Before we get started though, here is a question I had when building my world:

What is the difference between an ocean and a sea?

Answer: "Many people use the terms "ocean" and "sea" interchangeably when speaking about the ocean, but there is a difference between the two terms when speaking of geography (the study of the Earth's surface).

Seas are smaller than oceans and are usually located where the land and ocean meet. Typically, seas are partially enclosed by land"

I had no idea when I first started building my world and throwing in a continent here, an island there. So I had to make sure I correctly named the oceans and seas. Your readers, if they know the difference, will look. Trust me.

And body counts... what do I mean by that?

Well, as writers, we tend to fall in love with our characters and wish them no harm. Some writers will create what I call "Cannon Fodder Characters". These are characters created specifically to kill.

While having a few of these CFC's is okay, don't just run your characters through some heavy stuff and expect them to come out at the end all shiny and new like they're still in the package. People gotta die!

So make sure you keep a good body count if you are writing stories that involve war or assassins.

C you tomorrow! (Ha! I know. I'm a dork.)

A Is For Arlee...

Ha! Thought I was going to say April or even some other... 'A' related... um... thing to do with world building.

Well, it IS April Fool's Day. I'm the biggest fool!

While it is the first day of April, it is also the first day of the April A - Z Blog Challenge and of course it was started by the Awesome, Articulate Arlee! Click the link to learn more or even join.

I couldn't think of any more 'A's.

Arlee, thanks for starting this challenge. Not only has it brought some wonderful people to my blog when I first participated, but I keep finding more and more and more! My first A-Z challenge was kind of scary, but I am so glad you invited me to participate when I was a little nobody, all scrunched in my tiny corner of the blogging world.

Made me feel all special. But it is you who are special, sir. Thank you for all you do!