3000 words to get to street level in The Rockpile. I'll put it up later and you can tell me where to cut.
1,001 2017-01-14 03:08:06
Re: The Sorcerer's Progress (1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
1,002 2017-01-14 00:03:22
Re: The Sorcerer's Progress (1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
LOTR is a Milieu story. MICE: Milieu, Idea, Character, Event (O.S.Card). What you describe belongs to a Character story.
1,003 2017-01-13 20:12:26
Re: The Colorless Dragon Thread (354 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Well, you know best. Since I'm pretty centered on my own story, I'm letting hard bits idle while I work on other parts. Regardless, I'll be eager to read your story as it comes.
1,004 2017-01-13 16:22:39
Re: The Sorcerer's Progress (1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Looking at the next brief part of their journey, I can see 1,000 to 1,900 words here as well. 19 short stages, estimate 55 to 100 words each. There's a huge amount of description, so Amy can come out with the machete. But remember, I don't want it to go to 3,800 words!
1,005 2017-01-13 16:20:08
Re: Hit or Miss (12 replies, posted in Alpha to Omega - Review Group)
More than interesting, it is valuable. If I read your publisher's web page correctly, you'll be doing publicity yourself. I think everybody here will be interested in your experience with that!
1,006 2017-01-13 03:49:53
Re: The Sorcerer's Progress (1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Fixed. Tnx. I fear it's more Bored than Lawd.
No Daylighters allowed.
1,007 2017-01-13 03:26:04
Re: I'm still alive but... (27 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
From Kate Paulk. USA politics, translated into Aussie. YMMV
1,008 2017-01-13 03:16:53
Re: Say the first word that comes to mind... (1,634 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Indie rights
1,009 2017-01-13 03:15:51
Re: The Sorcerer's Progress (1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
I'm reaching for 1,800 words, and I've just got Merran off that d***ed hill.
Pausonallie must have read the doubt in Merran's voice. "It was a new district they opened up about twenty years ago. Thorodeus can give you the whole history. They called it the 'Gold Stone Plat' but that name didn't stick. Then they called it the 'Hammered Stone District'. Then they abandoned it for another area they built, and now people use it for unofficial things, clubs and stuff, and we've started calling it the Rockpile. You'll see why."
1,010 2017-01-13 02:44:03
Re: Hit or Miss (12 replies, posted in Alpha to Omega - Review Group)
Oh, and congratulations. It's great to hear you made it!
1,011 2017-01-13 02:42:55
Re: Hit or Miss (12 replies, posted in Alpha to Omega - Review Group)
Sorry to hear about the semicolons. "They're not much used, so we won't use them," is a follower mentality that does not contribute to the wisdom of the crowd.
You might want to mention the dialog tag point in a more widely read group forum, for the benefit of people who want me to use more inventive tags 
.
1,012 2017-01-12 16:36:50
Re: The Sorcerer's Progress (1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
It's not that I want to ...
1,013 2017-01-11 15:37:48
Re: The Sorcerer's Progress (1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Time now to commit my prose, fragments and notes on The Rockpile to type. Putting it in order is probably four to six days work.
The chapter now called The Rockpile may become Seeming if the new stuff gets nesrly as long as I expect. Amy, I may out-wordcount your Catacombs jouney in one day of Merran's visit to The Academy.
1,014 2017-01-10 23:37:43
Re: Chicago Manual of Style (18 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
I hope one day to be able to use that line!
1,015 2017-01-10 19:07:04
Re: Say the first word that comes to mind... (1,634 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
A loping Trollope
1,016 2017-01-10 18:12:48
Re: The Sorcerer's Progress (1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
I take far too many words for description. Professor T. spent extravagently, but got his value. Even when I have a good idea, like the blood of stone, it drags for the reader.
We'll see what you think of the opening of The Rockpile, which won't go up in the next 36 hours. I keep getting all sorts of Very Good Ideas that need to be worked in to the parts already written, already sketched, and floating in my head.
amy s wrote:
You are writing an epic fantasy, with sundered fragments of worlds and patched dimensions. Melayne is gathering the power required to save a world. Merran's story is just beginning. ...
You say that adding description isn't your style. I cross my eyes. You parse your words. I point out that the best chapter you've written was the statues and monument to the Sundering. As far as I'm concerned, that is where Merran's story begins. That chapter was fucking GREAT.
Suck it up, buttercup. Your material is stronger with a mere couple more lines of description placed in the right couple of paragraphs.
Not everyone agrees with the GREAT, and you want more than a mere couple of lines. I, OTOH, am trying to get to my story, of which the elements listed are mere prelude, with the reader still following along. Heck, I'm trying to get to the prelude.
1,017 2017-01-10 12:40:46
Re: the kindle effect (19 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Are they a scam because they don't do what the promise, or because they are unnecessary? If the latter, are there people who could benefit from them?
1,018 2017-01-10 04:22:26
Re: Say the first word that comes to mind... (1,634 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
The deer and the ant elope.
1,019 2017-01-10 04:19:19
Re: the kindle effect (19 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Terrific link. You might send it to The Passive Guy.
1,020 2017-01-10 04:03:33
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
You could drop the 'r' in Chambers and start with Chi-a
1,021 2017-01-09 16:31:47
Re: New Writing Contest (107 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
The left-right line lies over the Tragic Vision line. Thomas Sowell has made a very strong case on the point. It also tracks the Plato/Aristotle split pretty closely. These are not new issues.
1,022 2017-01-09 15:30:43
Re: New Writing Contest (107 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Our society id highly polarizef now along the Rousseaen/Tragic split. The middle very badly frayed.
1,023 2017-01-09 14:51:00
Re: New Writing Contest (107 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Common sense does depend on your frame. If you believe in Rousseau's view of human nature, your commonsense solution to a human problem may be the exact opposite of what it would be if you took the tragic view of human nature.
Averaging 'go north' and 'go south' gets you exactly nowhere.
1,024 2017-01-09 12:23:12
Re: The Sorcerer's Progress (1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
As I work on The Rockpile I find more details to work in. I can hear the demands for description here, but if I am not careful you will have me describe not only Minas Tirith but all of Gondor.
1,025 2017-01-09 12:19:32
Re: New Writing Contest (107 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Without precedent, every case must be decided from first principles and without benefif of prior experience. No judge would be bound by the precedent of higher courts, and every case would be subject to appeal because no prior legal reasoning would apply to it.
English Common Law is a remarkable achievement and a crown jewel of civiliization, and I saw no evidence in The Federalist, or anywhere else, that the Framers envisioned rebuilding the principles of the judiciary ab novo. Rather, they chose to fit it into, and subordinate to, the Constitution.
They failed to address who would hear appeals against Acts said to violate the restrictions placed by the Constitution. It seems to me that this made Marbury v. Madison, or a similar case, inevitable in a government run by men and not by (unfallen) angels.
Sigh. Did we have a topic here?
