3,326

(57 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

And are willing to construct more outrageous scenarios.  "I was born in 1085.  It was the worst day of my life ..."  Someone run with it if you want.

It's over 20 between meli2235's post here and mine.

It shouldn't work that way.  It shouldn't w............ .... ....  ....  ....   ...   ...   ...    ..    ..    ..     .     .

Well, as of about 40 seconds ago, I don't see it.

Your portfolio shows empty.  There's nothing for anyone to review!  Have you taken the 'publish' step on your works?  Have you published them to either the Premium or Free group where they can be widely seen?

As with everything else, it's study and practice.  Give yourself the time to do it.

Take a look at reviews by other people.  Read them alongside the work.  Do you agree with them?  Do you disagree with them?  Why?  What did the previous reviewer catch, or miss?

Feel free to use my work, or my reviews.  (The work is improving, I hope.  The reviews tend to be windy.)

3,331

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

They don't generally let tandems or larger near the city limits.  It's hard enough to get a single-articulation around a streetcorner.  I never saw a triple until I drove in Ohio.

It you can't find something to contribute, then maybe that kind of story or that author isn't right for you to review.  Maybe with practice you'll get better--indeed, you almost certainly will.

What genres do you like to work in?  What styles?

3,333

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Okay, you haven't seen any new work from me in a while.  I've been wrestling with Erevain, and with some plot shaping.  I need a better sense of where he found his tinfoil hat and what style he prefers.

3,334

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

The Wikipedia article says that Canada does use some tandems,

Janet, in the USA pintle arrangements are by far the most common.  Fifth-wheel-on-trailer is reserved for specialty traffic bacause you can't break them down rapidly into singles, and the biggest users are parcel and LCL shippers.

Why not look at a few longer works in progress and see the sort of reviews that people write--and the sort that people reply to, and hold discussions about?

Reviewing is a craft developed by practice and by emulating the best examples of others.  Nor will every reviewer necessarily review every work the same way.  It helps to be able to consider the work under review both as a reader and as a writer.

Writer and reviewer should share one purpose: to make the work as good as practicable.  They sometimes differ on the means.  It's unavoidable; the reviewer guesses at what the writer is aiming for.

Consider what the writer needs and asks for.  Some need more help with typos; some with disconnected ('dangling') modifiers, some with structure or other parts of the craft of writing.

If you're unsure, read the work of many reviewers.  See what they offer.  Find what you can offer.

3,336

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

amy s wrote:

Cleveland is in the middle of the state on the northern side.  Toledo is at the western part of the state.  Both border Lake Erie.  200 miles.  One hour and forty minutes by car.

200 miles.  100 minutes.  Garn, you guys drive fast.  Sure it's not 2 hours, forty?  That works at 75 mph.  As I recall, you folks have some stretches posted at 70, as well as triple-trailer lashups on the Tollway.

Triple-trailer lashups are also part of life in Australia, I believe, but I don't think you find them west of the Rockies or east of the Appalachians in the US.  I'm trying to recall if I've seen them on the western miles of the Pennsy Turnpike.  Not sure.

3,337

(66 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Will  review later.  Looks pretty good.

So ... why was Sosol poisoned, and by whom?

So Angry Man's mojo linked into Anver's staff ... but Anver's staff is linked into Zyrtec's presence in the Guildhouse?  Hmm.

I suggest you change the title of the chapter to Fish for Dinner.  If you give away too much, you lose the impact.  The creators of A Chorus Line found this out when the song they named T*ts and A** (from its refrain) fell flat in tryouts.  But as Dance Ten, Looks Three, it became a showstopper.

amy s wrote:

There is something in the US called 'hogging' .  Google it.  Idiots down south go hunting for catfish while using themselves as bait.  When I saw that, I laughed my butt off and ran to the keyboard.  I couldn't make that kind of material up.

In Russia, bait eat fish----  Wait!  Is not in Russia??

Check your one-too-many account.

So the Veil belongs not only to Behira but to The Player on the Other Side?

Does that mean that said Player can also have Conduits who act for him ... but are at most half-aware of it?

There is an art to faking jargon.  Call it The Art of the Self-Sealing Stem Bolt.
I need to think about how this derrick would be put together, to understand how to make it fall apart.

3,344

(3 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Basic)

Spammers can be warned and banned.  Their groups can be shut down.

But if protection keeps the thing from working well what good is it?

3,345

(3 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Basic)

A connection is a person-to-person link, and seems in that to be more selective than membership in a common group.  It would seem a natural progression for a less selective relationship to lead to a more selective relationship, but to require the more selective relationship as a precondition of the less would seem to reverse this naturally ordered progression.

My $0.02, of course.

3,346

(66 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

That previous observation is quitessential KH.  None but he would consider that aspect of the local food chain (by which I do not mean Food Lion).

3,347

(66 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Oh, yes.  Acreage to support a family depends on the soil, the climate, the size of the family, whether woodland game is available, or there is other land for grazing and pasturing.  But 5 acres sounds like numbers I have read as reasonable, given climate and soil like those of southern and central England in recent centuries.

3,348

(66 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

An acre is 43,560 foot*foot.  A standard 100' lot is 100 * 100 foot*foot, or 10,000 square feet, thus a bit under a quarter acre.

Generally, you don't know how much you already know until you move the bits around in your head.  The mathematical art of moving the bits around is called algebra smile

3,349

(66 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

And note that KH once turned his greatest protagonist into a kitten and now has a murderous protagonist who's just bet her freedom (against her husband's kingdom) on a duel her husband must fight -- all while her husband lays sleeping.

He's a heartless one where stories and characters are concerned!  You can read it in these threads.  So if you go to take it with the grain of salt, be sure there's no arsenic in it!

3,350

(66 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Since the first chapter has its protagonist turning into a berserker, or at least fighting like one, the second should either explain or show reaction to it--unless you're cutting away to another scene, which is allowed but should have good purpose.