I do have something to add to that blog. When you are creating a fantasy world, I do agree that if it doesn't play a role in the story, don't use it. An ecconomic system is not necessarily important to a culture unless it plays a role. Star Wars hardly uses any currency and when it does, it is mentioned when it is relavant. So when you are creating your fantasy world, do write down everything that relates to the world and culture, but on a separate file/paper. In the story, put in the little details when they become important. Don't introduce a castle's unique leadership ranking system until you have a character go there and encounter it. Otherwise it is a painful amount of stuff the author has to remember.

I would be willing to critique stuff, but I am starting my graduating year at college next week, so I will only do short excerpts. Otherwise, I just won't get around to doing it. One chapter is fine.

And as for music, I have three types of music I listen to, contemporary Christian, Christian worship, and move/game soundtrack. What I pick at a time may depend on what I am writing. If I am doing a battle scene, I want something epic. But otherwise, it's just background noise.

7chronicles, I'm glad to hear you're feeling motivated to write. That's awesome! And that music is EPIC. Thanks for sharing! I especially love the first one. Is it on iTunes?

I've been meaning to make a playlist of songs to listen to while writing. I'd like to make a soundtrack for my book, as well as playlists to listen to depending on the mood. For example, I'll put intense music for battle scenes, slow music for quieter scenes, and sad music for, um, sad scenes.

Narnian_Archer, I'd be happy to take a peek at your first chapter if you'd like. Since I've been developing my world for a while now, I've thought up all sorts of information that might never make it into my book. I even made a complex family tree for one of my characters simply because I felt like it. I like being able to know my world and its history because it makes my world more real to me. And as long as it's real to me, I'm able to write about it more realistically. (Does that make sense? ) When I come up with ideas about economy, geography, rank systems, history, etc. that don't seem to have a proper place, I write little "articles" about them. I come back to them later if I find a place where the information might fit. Articles are also fun to write when I'm stuck on my main project and need to take a break for a while.

On Friday I'm finally able to attend the writer's group I was invited to (I'm never able to make the meetings). Since they critique each other's work, I'm going to bring along three pages that might serve as a good beginning and see what everyone thinks. I'm a little nervous because I know I'm going to be the youngest there by far...oh well. Here goes nothing!

Ah, I would LOVE to go to a writer's group. I wish I knew of some in my area!

I'm glad that some of you guys like certain types of music for different scenes. I do too. I have to have fast music/intense music for similar scenes, sad music for sad scenes, and so on and so forth.

Right now I'm putting together a portfolio of my best writing for applying to Film School. It's supposed to represent who I am as a storyteller. Needless to say, I'm a little nervous.

About the details: I agree that its a good idea to have everything about your world planned out, and put it in when it becomes relevant. Or if you want to give more details, you can put it in an appendix.
And about planning: I plan almost everything out beforehand, for the whole series. My plans may change, and in many places they have, but I generally want to know everything that happens, what everyone looks like, what their personalities are, ect. I also have several family trees, and nearly everyone in my current story is related.
The main problem I'm having right now is how sad my story is. Its a prequel, so if the people are already dead in the first book, they have to die in this one. But a lot of characters, mostly minor but several major ones, die in this book. It is getting rather depressing. Also, I can't have a siege, two major battles, and a plague of madness, without a lot of people dying. But I can't really change things. So it will just have to be a sad story. Does anyone have any suggestions for how I can write this without all the deaths becoming repetitive?

7chronicles, I'm glad to hear you're feeling motivated to write. That's awesome! And that music is EPIC. Thanks for sharing! I especially love the first one. Is it on iTunes?

Thanks! Yes the first one is my absolute favorite!
It is on Itunes, the artist is Immediate Music, the album is called trailer head.
I really Love their Music!

Does anyone have any suggestions for how I can write this without all the deaths becoming repetitive?

Perhaps not have all of them die in this book? Just kill the top five or so major characters that have relevance in the next book. You can refer to the others' deaths through dialogue or recounting of history. So many deaths may indeed get monotonous. I hate long, carnagey scenes.

Well, my brain is a little fried right now. In four days, I just went through my entire novel (118k words) and did some major editing to fix a few things to make my story more unique to some others. Now with just a few days before I move to my college apartment, I'm going to let it sit for a little. Then I am going to go through it one last time, checking for anything I missed before submitting it to Lighthouse Christian Publishing. I know God has a publisher lined up for me and this might be it. If not, I will wait patiently for the one that is down the road.

Well, I did have the heroine only be told about some of them. Lots of people still die, but we don't see them all die, we just get told about some of them. I'm reconsidering the last two (at the very end, in the epilogue that happens after the first story that this is a prequel to) anyway, at least for this story. They could be mentioned in another story. Yes, I think that would be better. I was getting tired of the deaths myself.

7chronicles, I just bought that song, and I've been listening to it constantly for the past twenty minutes!

Awesome job, Fencer!

It's blog post time! (Again! ) Lady Haleth, maybe this one will help you? Your question comes at a good time because Gail Carson Levine just wrote about death and dying last week.

Thanks for that link, Silver! Lots of good advice there. One recommendation she makes is (if your story seems to suggst it) to try your hand at writing a death scene - even if you don't end up using it, it's a good writing exercise.

As it happens a recent work in progress prompted me to try writing the death of a character - even if I wasn't sure she was actually going to die in the story. It was interesting to write, and right now I'm not certain whether she'll die or not (though I'm still too attached to most of my characters to 'off' them without good reason).

Remarks on other recent topics of discussion here:

Fencer, thanks for the helpful suggestions regarding writing combat scenes.

Names: a good real-life friend works hard to come up with names that fit the fantasy settings in which she writes. I guess I'm lazy...my current works are set in a universe very similar to our own, so "ordinary" names (like Erik and Abby) seem to work for me. Nevertheless, some of the names I've used have special significance to me; for example, I've honored a few friends by using their first names. In fact, this has influenced how I write those characters, sometimes working in some of my friends' personality traits (like being adventurous, nurturing, etc).

World: I agree that in-depth development of the world setting is a great idea. It can be fun to develop physical, economic, political, and other settings for your stories. Even if those things aren't blatantly spelled out in the story, doing this helps me to get into the right mindset for writing.

But, like others, I suggest avoiding massive exposition - especially early in a story - to showcase all this. Some of your hard work developing a background may only be hinted at in how the characters behave or the choices they make. It shapes the world - and your characters' worldview - even if it isn't spelled out in detail (though certainly it makes sense to include enough information to allow readers to track what's happening).

Setting my stories in a world much like our own allows me to use an already-developed setting, and to focus on the details of how that world differs from our own. But there's a different requirement here: making sure my descriptions of the setting are accurate. If my characters are in Manhattan, for example, it adds some realism to mention the Chrysler Building or the George Washington Bridge - but putting these structures next to each other would distract a reader familiar with the real setting. (It's like the movie Fargo, which implied locations actually several hours apart were right next to each other ).

In my story I have four characters die, two good guys and two bad guys. And all die different deaths, intentionally to set different emotional responses. I've had at least two readers of my novel tell me I brought them to tears at one of them. That means I nailed it.

One good character is murdered. This is the one that brought tears. This moment is what really sets the plot into motion. The other good character gives his life in a self-sacrifice. It's a sad moment but not one filled with grief. One bad character is killed in battle by his own weapon. The reader should loath him from the beginning and rejoice when he goes down. The other bad character commits suicide and that should leave the reader with 'what-if' questions.

I have a fifth character that doesn't die but his role ends with big question marks.

So as an idea, if you are going to have multiple characters die in your story, have them die different deaths with the intention of getting different reactions. You don't have to pull a Shakespeare who kills everyone along with thier second cousin in almost the same manner. (murder, revenge murder, more murder, etc) It is difficult to do a death scene, especially with a character you love. One of the ones I love the most dies, essentially not by choice. I really wanted him to keep going but the character's time was up. So for the sequel, I had another character take up his mantle. Not every story needs a death but there are times where only a death will drive a character forward. These are tough scenes but sometimes they are the most effective. Play with it and if you think you are at a potential death scene, write it out and see what happens. If you don't use it, it is good practice.

7chronicles, I just bought that song, and I've been listening to it constantly for the past twenty minutes!

I'm glad you like it! I've had that song for two years and I don't think I've gone a week without listening to it at least once!
It's just great, great music!
I've actually thought up scenes for my story from listening to trailer music!

I’ve been attempting to write for an hour a day (so far I’ve managed ) and I started to wonder how long do you guys write for? Or what do you think is a good amount of time to write?

I was also wondering does anyone have any advice on writing walking scenes?
My group of characters do a lot of travel on foot and I was wondering if there was a certain way to write those scenes? Should they be short, long, full of dialogue?
I honestly have no clue and would be very Thankful for any advice anyone might be able to give me.

I have a very different writing style than most people. I am the kind of person that once I get started on a project, I do not like to put it down until it is finished. I'll take breaks of course, but when I get a chance, I get right back to it and press through. That is how I was able to go through my entire draft in four days. I did my first draft at 250 pages in six weeks. Once I get going, I don't stop. Getting started is usually the biggest challenge.

Other people work differently and need to have the regular schedule for writing. If it works for you to write for an hour every day like a discipline, that go for it. My problem is that really doesn't work for me. If I don't know what to write or what to do, I won't do it.

Traveling scenes. I had a few of those in my medieval novel that I did for fun. These are challenging to not get monotonous or to put in too much action. My travel scenes took place during an empire invasion so I always had the suspense that someone could be out there. If nothing happens, skim over it. Don't put pointless dialogue in there. Dialogue should be like action scenes. It needs to either reveal something about a character or set up advancing the plot. Just remember that you can use casual conversations to reveal character traits. This is not my forte, at least yet.

Lord of the Rings has good traveling exposition. I remember one point when the Fellowship leaves Rivendell, they go 40 days without incident and it is done almost like a montage (sp?). But there is another point where Frodo and Sam are just leaving the Shire and Sam stops cold. The dialogue reveals that Sam has never travelled far from home. There are other times where casual dialogue reveals things about character or leads to decisions on where to go. The best advise for travelling scenes is to read books that have them. Lord of the Rings and Narnia are two good examples.

^I agree about LOTR and Narnia travel scenes.
Thanks for the advice! And I really like the Levine blog. I also like the advice about making multiple character deaths different. I'll have to see how I can do that. Of all the deaths in the story I'm working on now, the saddest is probably that of one of the heroine's cousins, whose wife has just died. Their son is missing and presumed dead. Its the middle of a siege, and a terrible fire-throwing monster appears, that no one has ever defeated without being killed. So the cousin goes up and fights it, and he ends up defeating it, but it throws him off a tower and he dies. I meant this to be a sort of redemptive death for him, since he'd acted like a jerk for most of the book. ( He manipulated his older brother and tried to murder a major character for making prophecies he disagreed with.) I sort of like redemptive deaths anyway.

7chronicles:

Back when I was still writing my first draft, I challenged myself to write two pages a day. (This seemed reasonable, considering it was in the middle of the school year.) I was able to do at least that, sometimes more. Once in a while, I'd get hit with some miraculous burst of inspiration and write for hours and hours. I think twelve pages is my record (which is pretty good considering I was handwriting, my notebook is college-ruled, and I write very small). I also discovered that setting a goal for myself (like a date to finish by) is a good way to stay motivated. Now I'm plodding through editing, and I haven't found my rhythm yet. I guess it's time to set another goal and see what happens.

My story has a lot of traveling scenes too. At first, most of those scenes read something along the lines of, "They got up early in the morning, ate breakfast, walked, stopped for lunch, walked some more, set up camp, ate dinner, and went to bed." It was monotonous, and I found myself writing for the sake of filling up pages to make it sound like they were traveling longer. There was a lot of dialogue and events that did nothing to better my story - they just dragged my traveling scenes out longer than they needed to be. Now, after some major editing, I think I'm much better off.

Some thoughts on writing traveling scenes:

If your story takes place in a fantasy world, it'd be good to have some idea how long it takes to go from X place to X place. For example if your characters are living in a tiny country, they might be able to cross from one side to the other in three days. But if that country is big, it might take months instead. Either way is fine, just make sure that distance is consistent with traveling time. It'll make your world more believable.

Dialogue during your traveling scene should help the story move along. Don't make your characters talk just for the sake of passing time. But perhaps X character has been to this place before. Along the way, he points out the ditch he spent the night hiding in, the pond he fell into while fishing, etc. You're passing time, but you're learning more about X character and his experiences at the same time.

The same thing goes for events - they should help the story in some way. In my story, my characters see a bunch of warships sailing down a river while they're traveling. This leaves the reader wondering why the ships are there and where they are going. The ships come up again about two chapters later as part of a plot twist.

Make your environment interesting. During one of my traveling scenes, my characters go from a forest, to an open field, to some hills. They have to adapt to their environment. In the forest, they're wading through underbrush and left wanting to see the sun. In the field, they travel faster because they're afraid of being caught out in the open. It's windy there, making it harder for them. In the hills, they walk through the valleys instead using energy climbing up and down slopes.

Some more points to think about: How are your characters going to eat? Do they have supplies, or do they have to scavenge as they go? Are they going on foot, or do they have transportation like horses? This will effect your distance-to-time relation. Do your characters see any animals while traveling? What time of year is it? In the summer, your characters might be sweating and/or complaining about the heat, while in the winter, just the opposite might happen. Do your characters like traveling? Do they hate it? How might this effect the way they act?

Hope this helps you!