The Colorless Dragon Thread (Page 8 of 15)

K's Formula of Threes lends itself to a certain pacing.  It doesn't seem to lend itself to the accumulation of different influences, or to multifaceted relationships, or to the sort of slow build that you've been doing.  In other words, it's likely to shape your style.  If your build is too leisurely for you taste, K's approach may speed it so much that you'll lose the color and flavor that makes your story and your telling special.

Sorry, K.

To the latter point, I agree.

Your story pace is measured.  Some will find it a bit slow, but I would be careful about cutting too much.  You could be a little more economical with words, but not with events and setting that the words make up.

I'm the opposite.

He's right. You will lose the pace that makes your story special.

It will be replaced by a pace that also makes your story special.

I need some assistance in coming up with appropriate curse words. I would prefer to save sh*t and f*ck for when characters are either really pissed off, or really screwed, so I kind of need some in-between curse words. Elementalism (This sounds funny. I might change it later.) is the main religion and they believe in reincarnation, so I can't exactly use "damn" and "Hell" when characters are cursing. All I've come up with so far is "by the Eternal" and "Eternal's breath", but even that was half-stolen from my favorite video game series.

-Elisheva

In my world, there are two types of magic: Runes and the Arcane Arts. There are specialties in each. Runes I haven't delved into too much since it isn't quite so relevant for The Colorless Dragons, but it is very common magic. The emberstone lanterns I keep mentioning are an example of Rune magic. Runes are carved into the lantern, imbuing the light with different hues or having the lanterns brighten as the suns set/dim as the suns rise. Rune magic is regularly practiced in certain professions (artificers being one of these).

The Arcane Arts are closer to actual magic as they involve the direct control of the Elements of Fire, Water, Air, and Earth without the use of inscriptions. Life and Death are also included, but they have extenuating circumstances. The Arts themselves are creation, manipulation, infliction, and communion. An Arcanist typically specializes in one or two Arts and one Element. For example, Braeik is a Water-infliction Arcanist, meaning that he can change his body's composition (or that of any other living thing) to water or ice. See Ch. 12 for a poorly described example.

On top of this, all magic uses Arcane energy, which comes from a Source (which constantly produces energy) or Reliquary (a temporary container for energy). Only some have the skill to manipulate Arcane energy and of those, few are tested and trained, which is why Arcanists are so rare.

I think you got me ranting, NJC... Hope that wasn't too much information.

-Elisheva

Personally, I'm super happy to be back in a universe where people can swear normally again.

You wouldn't believe how much pain it is editing out our swearing substitutes (like "Oh brother") and making sure that when my characters say sh*t they are actually talking about excrement. When someone describing his wife as having "uneartly beauty" doesn't make sense if your characters haven't heard of Earth.

Total pain in the neck!

Anyway, I notice you're headed in the direction that the characters cuss about magic. But you have other options.

Maybe they cuss about an animal that used to eat them at some point in their evolutonary history. For example, the Dingo. They might go "Holy bite from a Dingo" or "get out of town ya Dingo lover". (PS if you _bite_ into this idea, don't actually use Dingo. Use something cool like "kodo" (shortened from komodo) or "turt" (shortened from turtle))

Invent failed or corrupted magic, and use that for your curses?

I work in trauma. Swearing is like breathing.

Thanks, Amy & NJC. That helps a lot. The more I look into it, the more I realize that nearly all swear words have some sort of origin story. I have a feeling I'll be working on mythology this weekend.

-Elisheva

I didn't have a problem ... but you could give them proper names.  Or have hadae mention the Empress in the third person.

Or have one of those nobles mention the Empress in the third person ... and Madame say something that makes it clear that The Empress is indeed an absent third person.

It is morning and I am awake!!

So... I just switched to a morning shift, which is going to take some getting used to. My only free time lately has been my commute, so I keep making notes on plot ideas rather than writing. Hopefully I'll get used to this new schedule soon and pump out another couple chapters.

-Elisheva