K.dot - you once posted a great discussion on characters/words. It was destroyed with the crash! Can you possibly repost it? Would it be more applicable to the Writing Tips forum? Thanks.
276 2023-11-10 18:34:27
Re: Welcome to the Fantasy/Magic & Sci-fi group (19 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
277 2023-11-06 17:24:31
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Are you still looking for power names? How about using the Carnot Cycle in a name? The Carnotron! It's not used that I could fine. Just a suggestion.
By Carnot's theorem, it provides an upper limit on the efficiency of any classical thermodynamic engine during the conversion of heat into work, or conversely, the efficiency of a refrigeration system in creating a temperature difference through the application of work to the system.
278 2023-11-03 20:27:51
Topic: What's this about? (0 replies, posted in Who wants to get published?)
I'm new to this. So, what is this forum about? I know everyone wants to be published but how is that to be achieved? Please let me know what this forum hopes to help me with this noble goal. Thanks.
George FLC
279 2023-11-03 13:56:08
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
njc wrote:
Look up heterojunctions, strained silicon, strained GAs (gallium arsenide), and quantum dots. Also angled (rotated) graphene layers.
Oh, heck, look up resublimated thiotimoline. Maybe you can use it
.
I used to work in the GaAs field. Be careful how you spell it. :-)
And then you have aluminum gallium arsenide (AlGaAs) pronounced al-gas
280 2023-11-02 21:10:08
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
LENR is a power generator, but it's based primarily on Weak Nuclear Force. Fusion is based on Strong Nuclear Force.
Hypercapacitor. A hypercap. But that's been taken. So, get fancy. Hypercapbat or Hyperbatcap can be used but I only did a very limited search.
Because of the abundance of hydrogen you have to use some fusion devices. But, what's beyond that? A possible futuristic system might be a black hole generator. That could explain the implosion and explosion. Fusion reactors generate a very tiny black hole.
A hyper-hole-generator?
Perhaps create 2 black holes that circle each other at incredible speeds. The immense gravity waves are converted into usable energy.
A paired-hyper-hole-generator?
281 2023-11-02 14:42:43
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Dirk B. wrote:
A further wrinkle is that interstellar drones have stardrives, meaning they need something powerful enough to charge their atreidite. If I were to say that a fusion generator could charge atreidite, then all spaceships could presumably be fitted with a stardrive since all ships have either a fusion generator or a powertron. I don't want that, though, since I definitely need ships that don't have a stardrive and, therefore, can't jump.
My head is beginning to spin a little. I will try explaining what I think might work. This will work if the fusion system drives the entire ship including the powertron which is step up mechanism. There are step down power transformers. Why not have a step-up power system power the powertron which powers the stardrive? (I used 'power' 4x in that sentence!) It takes up so much volume that smaller ships can't have a complete system.
I don't know if this makes sense but in the spirit of brainstorming, I'll post it.
282 2023-11-02 14:27:13
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Dirk B. wrote:
Thing is, I had intended to use two kinds of power generators in my ships and flying vehicles. I figured huge ships should have a different power generator than starfighters and Leonardo's taxi, which use fusion. For one thing, the big ships are supposed to implode-explode when a powertron is ruptured in battle. I had therefore envisioned powertrons to be big enough to power warships and big enough to make them an important target in warship-on-warship fighting. The power source in small vehicles can't be that dangerous since the cab gets damaged a lot in Leonardo's chapter, both from enemy fire and his crazy driving. Remember suicidio mode?
Fusion for spaceships is great.
You mention fusion for cars. Let me get really techno picky on this one. Fusion implies huge temperatures like the sun. You might want to refer to it as Cold Fusion (CF). Or call it Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR). Both these concepts are being struggled over internationally. It's not made up. I like LENR, however, you will need to somehow really establish the name. You'll probably have to define it a couple few times. Or call it the LENR Drive or LENRD (pronounced Leonard). I was trying to figure out LENRDO (Leonardo!!) but failed.
If this is too much then fine.
283 2023-11-02 14:14:37
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Dirk B. wrote:
Since I needed a scarce resource in my story that eventually leads to war over New Bethlehem, I added the mineral atreidite, which functions like a hyperbattery, a type of battery that can release an enormous amount of energy in milliseconds, which is required to power jumps using a stardrive. The quantity of energy and the speed with which it needs to be released rules out simply using a vessel's powertron directly to power a stardrive. The atreidite gets energized from the powertron over a period of many minutes to hours. This has the advantage that military fleets can't simply jump as far as they want in zero time using just a powertron. They usually need multiple jumps, which eventually drains the atreidite's charge, requiring time to recharge. And atreidite can only be recharged so often, which requires the Republic and Imperium to constantly search for more.
I like this description. I would suggest mentioning that minerals have crystalline structure. I remember once Star Trek using the crystal structure of dilithium crystals as part of the plot. Go Scotty! From Wiki: In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.
Powertron is a trade name for a battery.
You device more like a capacitor than a battery since you need a rapid discharge.
I'm going to break your post down into bite sized chunks.
284 2023-11-01 19:35:29
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,461 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Did you test pass?
285 2023-11-01 19:35:23
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,461 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Did you test pass?
286 2023-10-31 20:42:03
Topic: Hello! (0 replies, posted in Historical Fiction)
Hey fellow historical writers. I just posted a story about Native Americans knapping arrowheads set in 1600ish. It's called 'The Knappers". Are there any current members of the group? The last posting was done in 2020.
George FLC
287 2023-10-27 13:36:11
Re: Group Cleanup - Mopping Up - See List of Surviving Groups Inside (38 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
I joined this group 'The Fantasy/Magical Realism/Folklore Group', made 2 posts and had no replies, but had 14 views on each post. So, I don't know if it should be combined with the 'The medieval fantasy/ magic Group'. The titles seem pretty similar.
Thanks for doing this, Dirk.
George FLC
288 2023-10-25 19:26:29
Re: Door or hatch? (2 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
That's a good way of defining it. Thanks njc.
289 2023-10-25 18:46:38
Topic: Door or hatch? (2 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
For a spaceship should I use door or hatch. It feels like doors are interior hatches. Or hatches are doors on the outside of a spaceship?
290 2023-10-21 20:30:29
Re: The Archangel Syndrome (309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
I agree with your conclusion since Star Wars is such a dominant story. People would simply be used to that style. It would be easier to segue from SW to Arch Syn.
291 2023-10-19 14:48:08
Topic: Brainstorming (0 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magical Realism/Folklore)
I enjoy brainstorming. This is different because it's online. However, I want to come up with a brief list of brainstorming rules.
This is the Osborn method:
1. Go for quantity: The more the merrier.
2. Withhold criticism: Never say - that's stupid. Be respectful.
3. Welcome wild ideas: You never know what will work.
4. Combine and improve ideas: The person who started the post should really do this. But everyone is welcome to help.
And at the end, thank the people for their ideas.
And of course, it you want to add to this list or modify it, then feel free to do so.
292 2023-10-19 14:29:58
Topic: The Tribe (0 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magical Realism/Folklore)
Hey everyone,
I've spent the last two and a half years learning how to write and now almost all of what I wrote was lost. I do have the original stories and books but all the vital input from reviewers is lost. So, I start again.
This post will center around a book where I have Protestant pastor and Catholic priest working in a wild west town. Both are new to the town, and both are good friends. There are you typical players like a sheriff, saloon, smith, etc. But I will also have a couple/few churches, a school, and a tribe of Cheyenne Indians.
There will also be lots of spirits, demons, and angels. This has been tricky for me. I've often used too many characters and would appreciate it if K.dot would repost his summary on how many characters to use per word count. The one I remember is that you should only have 2 characters for every 600 words. That revolutionized what I was doing. I had a chapter of about 2000 words and 19 characters. Bad. So, I operated on it.
I found these posts invaluable. Please join in.
293 2023-10-17 15:17:35
Re: Thank you, Sol (8 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
I agree. Thanks, Sol, for putting it all together. Only two old chapters survived that I know about. I have the pre-commented originals so it's not a complete loss for me. I now have to go back and see if my writing mechanics have improved.
George FLC
294 2023-10-12 14:44:44
Re: Updating previously posted work (11 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Hey Sol,
Glad the site's back up and at 'em. I was close to 200 points, I think. What comes to mind is 189 points. I only have 2 old short stories remaining. I'm not sure I've posted enough to get 500 points, but I'll take what you can give me. How about 300-400?
Thanks. You must have gone through some heart burn.
George FLC
295 2021-03-27 21:26:00
Re: Editing posted works (2 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Thanks. That makes sense! I go back to the story correct it and then hit Next a few times like I did before! You responded to me once before. Thanks for that! I will get used to this site!
George FLC
296 2021-03-27 19:43:14
Topic: Editing posted works (2 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
I entered a contest and got some great comments/reviews. I will edit and update the story. Do I need to delete the original posting? Will that remove the story from the contest? I will then have to re-submit which will cost me points I assume. My goal is to upgrade but not spend tons of points. Any thoughts?
Thanks,
George FLC
297 2021-01-16 22:09:05
Re: Time for a new contest (34 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
I like that idea. We could really mix and match. Storm troopers and orcs fight against Elves, and Hobbits. And the Cartels eventually join in on the Dark Side. Whilst Romulans and Klingons... hmmm, I like it but I also like the Generic Contest. Narrow or broad, which is best?
298 2021-01-14 23:41:05
Re: Time for a new contest (34 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
How about any subject in the range of 3000-5000 words max? You can use whatever language that you want. It's pretty generic but not everyone likes sci-fi and not everyone wants to write mythological things. Let's have a Generic Contest. As a contest within a contest lets give a prize for the best insult. I saw something like this done decades ago.
299 2021-01-14 23:07:09
Re: Time for a new contest (34 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
vern wrote:
George FLC wrote:How about writing stories or poems so that kids and grand kids can read it. Made up cuss words would be funny but I can see them morphing into similar renditions of current cuss words.
A word by any other name is still a word, no better or worse than it's ability to put forth your message. If you called the rose a bastard, it would still be a rose. Cuss words only become cuss words because people decide they are, not by any inherent evil. And please don't answer with some pretense of the Bible condemning them or such; you will lose that argument of taking the Lord's name in vain. But to each their own. Take care. Vern
Good points, however, if I call my boss a bastard then he interprets it badly. He's still my boss but now an upset boss. We can leave the Bible out of this if you want. I just like writing to generally be classy. Granted that talking about the Inquisition and Holocausts doesn't leave much room for class! But I like being uplifted by the words that I read. The biggest problem in what I'm saying is that most everyone swears and how realistic do I want characters in my writing to sound? But I just don't think that it takes tons of talent to sound like everyone else. It takes work to lift up, build up, elevate the the environment around you. I'm new to this website and I do find it entertaining and this discussion has been interesting as well. Thanks for your honesty, Vern. I've enjoyed this. I feel good about this discussion! George
300 2021-01-14 12:58:58
Re: Is it just me... (5 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Hmmm, or the person is brilliant and can make a romance out of that!!!
