"The mouse, he left our house. To ease the pain, he's down the drain!"
Joined: Aug 2007 Gender: Female Posts: 5 Location: In the unknown. Karma: 0
Re: Help with names « Result #1 on Mar 5, 2008, 7:49pm »
I typically mess around with sounds and letters as well. Sometimes I'll have a basic idea of what I want the name to sound like and I'll work off of that. Another thing I'll do is take a word that describes one of the character's characteristics and either switch around the letters or add/subtract a few onto the beginning or end. I tend to overuse a letter as well, the letter 'a'.
Joined: Aug 2007 Posts: 10 Location: I am a ninja!!! Karma: 0
Shurikens « Result #2 on Dec 15, 2007, 11:38pm »
The shuriken is a traditional concealed Japanese's weapon. Though in the west it is often called things such as "ninja star" or "Throwing star" There are actually several different types of Shurikens. The main two are as follows:
Bo-shuriken:
The Bo-shuriken was generally a long pike, usually made of iron or brass, with an average length of 12-21 cm. It generally was used for stabbing and sometimes slashing at the opponents arteries.
There are two major forms of throw. The jiki da-ho (direct hit method) Which does not allow to blade to spin before hitting the target, and the han-ten da-ho(turning hit method) which required that it spins before hitting the target.
The Bo-shuriken was often made of things such as needles, nails and knives, though other things could be used if needed.
Unfortunately due to the fact that shuriken-jutsu is a secret art, little is known about the origins of this weapon.
The one on which the stereo type is based, the Hira Shuriken was made of things such as coins and tools, which look nothing like the stereo type. Though often they had a hole in the center, it was only because the base items (coins, washers, etc) had holes in there natural design. However this proved to be quite useful, as it aloud them to be carried on a string, as well as a nice aerodynamic bonus.
Contrary to popular belief, Shurikens were not used as a killing weapon, but rather as a distraction or a nuisance. Sometimes they were half submerged in the ground to cause pain to thoes that steped on them, or at close quarters for stabbing. There are rumors of them being covered in poison, which then, if it penetrated deep enough, would give them the then incurable disease Clostridium tetani
Re: General info on Dragons « Result #4 on Dec 3, 2007, 1:38pm »
Traditionaly the 'common' Dragons are either overly wise and noble creatures, or greedy self-centered bastards. The only dragon in my novel is one of the latter, although he's been serving the ruling family of Teriafa for years(for profit at first, but later because he actually got close to them. He'll never admit it, though).
Re: Help with names « Result #5 on Dec 2, 2007, 5:04pm »
I just mess around with sounds and letters most of the time, but sometimes I actually find the scientific names for stuff the things I'm naming reminds me of and play around with that. I usually find it easy to come up with names, but for some reason I tend to overuse the letter 'v'.
Munchkin Magical Zoologist Head Specialist member is offline
Joined: Aug 2007 Gender: Female Posts: 6 Location: I wish i was in Washington Karma: 0
Vampires « Result #6 on Nov 23, 2007, 10:13pm »
*WARNING!* All information is correct to the best of my knowledge if you find something creditable that contradicts any information given on this page please PM, or Email me, and i will change it as soon as possible.
To create a vampire in your story you must come up with what you want for them. Every author, playwrite, or movie producer writes their vampire diffrently. Dracula was the first vampire book ever PUBLISHED, but stories about vampires have been around since the stone age. since Dracula is our first known subject i will start with him.
Let's take a little history lesson first shall we?
The first issue of the book on our good friend Count Dracula was releised in the year 1897 by Archibald Constable and Company. The Author, Bram Stoker, was the first to publish a book on the folk lor that surrounded the count. In 1996 the movie titled "Dracula", staring Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder was releised in theaters.
Vlad III the Impaler, also known as Vlad Dracula was Prince of Wallachia, a former polity that is now part of Romania. His three reigns were in 1448, 1456–62, and 1476. While In the English-speaking world, Vlad is best known for the exceedingly cruel punishments he imposed during his reign and for serving as the primary inspiration for the name of the vampire main character in Bram Stoker's popular Dracula novel, in Romania he is viewed by many as a prince with a deep sense of justice and a defender of Wallachia against Ottoman expansionism. (all information on Vlad III is given by Wikipidia)
Ok history lesson over, now lets get to the good stuff.
Seeing as Count Dracula was the first, all vampires are based off of him in one form or another. for instance, all vampires in any book on vampires drink blood. it is the one common factor between them all. (not including their looks.)
So, to begin writing a story with a vampire you need to chose a few things. 1. How are they created? Vampires have to come from somewhere right? It's your choice how they're made. is it a genetic fault, or magic? You chose. In Bram Stoker's, Dracula, Vampires all started out with Dracula. A person must be bitten, then suffering from the illness, killed to become one of the "Undead." Like i said before, your vampire can be created however you chose. there are millions of possibilities out there. be creative
2. how do they feed? Well, everyone has to eat. Vampires in most books can only feed off of human's. however, in other books such as the ever popular Twilight, ANY type of blood will suffice. You also have to take into acount what happens when they feed. Does the person need to die, or can they live without becoming "undead"? Once again most of this will be your choice. however Most vampires in books keep the symilarity that they drink blood.
Joined: Aug 2007 Posts: 10 Location: I am a ninja!!! Karma: 0
How to Teach Others to Write. « Result #7 on Sept 10, 2007, 10:30pm »
I did not write this, A friend of mine did, but it made a few good points:
How To Teach Others To Write
Now listen closely, those of you with the urge to teach others the art of writing (or those of you who want something more from my How To Write Tutorial). I will now divulge the few key things you absolutely must do when teaching others how to write.
+ Never, ever, tell them what your personal style is, or give examples in your style. + Never tell them they can't do something. + In the case of Essay Writing, tell them that "Essay" comes from the French verb "Essayer" which means "To Try", so they should try to write one. If we didn't enforce such useless B.S. like a funnel method in our Essays maybe they'd be worth reading one day. + Because the people you're teaching don't know how to write (or else they wouldn't be reading/hearing your lesson), always stress the importance of reading. Tell them to read everything they can (good and bad), and from reading they will gain a grand array of words, style, and ability to spell things correctly.
I see all sorts of 'ideas' on how to write better over the web. 'Ideas,' 'tricks,' 'proper things,' and more. The most uncommon suggestion I see, which is really a shame, is that we as writers should never use the "to be" verb if it's possible to avoid (is, was, were, being, be, become, are). I think this is the best tip anyone trying to teach proper grammar can give, but I think it should be limited to just that. Proper grammar. Tell them they shouldn't use sentence fragments, the "to be" verb, and run on sentences, but keep in mind that you're telling them how to write boring essays and luring their mind into the most restricted area that is the bounds of grammar. (If you really want to stress grammar, tell them to learn French instead of English.)
You'll notice how many times I used the "to be" verb in the above 'paragraph', and I've used several fragments already. That's because it's how I naturally write, and I'm not about to take more time out of my life to proofread everything before I post it.
Your English class doesn't teach you how to write, it teaches you proper grammar so that you can format a proper essay. Don't be like the English class when teaching others; they get enough of that already. Teach them open-mindedness and creativity, teach them to absorb literature--not essays.
Look at the fantasy books by Terry Brooks. He's a bright guy, yet he uses the "to be" verb quite often, as do most authors. The "to be" verb isn't bad, and while if it's used in every sentence you speak or write then you may need to check your laziness radar, or think before you speak.
I'd personally rather see more Terry Brookses and other authors as opposed to more high school and college grads thinking that perfect grammar is everything. I'd like to see English teachers assigning projects such as "Write me a 30 page short story about a subject of your choice" instead of "Write an essay to try and explain Emily thingyinson's 12 or so line poem 'Hope is the thing with feathers.'" The world can live without essays, I think. If you want to try to explain something, try to yourself or a few other people before finally coming up with a complicated proof or man page about it. That way you can save the complicated crap for where it's needed: in a manual.
"Never use the words 'I think.'" Wrong. Unless you're quoting something, the phrase "I think" is completely acceptable because it's true. Call it unnecessary if you must, but a lot of things in all languages are unnecessary that we use every day. Most of them aren't even boycotted against (yet) like 'I think.' I think that it's good to exercise the word "I", for without we would be a collective incapable of individual thought.
"Never use contractions." Wrong again, unless it's a formal essay. Extremely proper grammar is more of a dressing rather than the salade, and anyone trying to teach writing should know that. It's nice to know what a contraction is, or a gerund is, but it's not nice to forbid the use of anything for whatever formal boundary has been set.
Brobdingnagian expressions and words often impose a sense of intelligence. However, small and simple words usually get the job done. Rather than looking for the intelligence in either using a thesaurus or just knowing the big words, one should look at the ulterior intelligence behind the small words. Ideas are more important than language, for language is just the transportation. Would you consider cars more important than the people inside them?
If you are writing a formal paper for school, never use the informal 'you', and use the formal 'one.' 'One' sounds smarter anyway. If you are writing a formal paper, toss out the right side of your brain for a while and abide by the most strict grammar you know of. Frankly, I think the grammar necessary for a decent essay is covered thoroughly in school, so non school teachers shouldn't be teaching the same stuff again. My English 10 Honors class couldn't even grasp what a dependant clause was, let alone distinguish "who" from "whom." (Even though that our Summer Packet was full of such grammar.) Does that mean that they were stupid, or does that mean that they were resisting the unnecessary complications of knowing what the little area of a sentence "because the farmer wept" was in grammar terms?
Foreigners learning the language should speak, write, and read. But writing should be the least of their initial worries (unless the language is full of accents and silent letters that need to be addressed in the mind). Take learning a Programming Language, for example. If it's something like Python, you're going to learn a lot of the syntax (in fact, you're going to learn most all of the significant syntax before you even write anything significant). You will write a little bit, of course, merely to get the idea in your head, but you're not going to go write a killer game in PyGame the next day. Heck, you won't even use all of the syntax. (I've used Python for a pretty long while now and I've yet to make use of lambda.) So, after you get the basic syntax down, you go off into the world of code and see what other people have written. This will affect your own coding style, as well, for you may see something that you would do differently but this new way makes more sense. This should be the case with spoken language: learn the syntax, or basic grammar, speak and write a little bit to put it in your head, read it, hear it, speak more, and eventually write. Think about the process of your native language: you talked long before you knew how to read or write, and talking is just using the basic syntax you have gained from hearing.
I'll close with a quote from Ernest Hemingway that I like: "Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don't know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use."
Joined: Aug 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 2 Location: Here Karma: 0
Land and Society « Result #8 on Sept 9, 2007, 6:41pm »
Land and Society
Society is one of the hardest things to make your own. You have to take several things into account, such as the climate, the area of land they live on, what the people look like, eat, their religious habits, their cultural habits…and most of that revolves on the way the land looks.
The very first things you do before ever doing anything else is start out with a basic layout of the land. This could be as extensive as creating an entire world of your own, or just making a mental image of the setting that surrounds the place your story takes place in. This is the most important thing. If you have a society living on an Island in the middle of the ocean, chances are they will be expert boats men, and eat mainly fish and the island plants. The way the land around them is also affects their religious beliefs. Most likely an Island Culture will worship Deities of the ocean. Also the way the climate is around the general area of your story is a big factor. It its icy and cold, the People will probably be in the northern or southern parts of the world, meaning that their food would be similar to whales seals and penguins. Also if it’s cold then the people will probably wear heavier clothing than they would in a more tropical environment. Holidays, Spiritual events, the recourses and traded goods in a area all are important parts in society, and with out the way the features of the land around your society, it just doesn’t seam to fit together. Over all the way the Society functions depends entirely on what the land around the characters look and feels like.
General Tips for Land vs Society
Costal/Island
Fishermen, Strong Navy, very advanced Irrigation and ships, Worship some sort of Water god (depending on Religion, may be Christian or something like that.)
Mountainous
Hunters/Gatherers, Strong infantry/weaponry, Advanced miners, Worship some sort of Earth God (once again depending on religion.)
Plains
Farmers, Medium army (better at defensive things) Irrigation is advanced for farming, Worship some sort of Air or Earth God or Goddess (depending on religion)
Swamp
Hunter/Gatherers OR Parasitic people (thieves), Live in either floating cities or Mud huts depending on swamp, Light army; Navy would be slightly stronger, Worship a God or Goddess of Mischief OR God or Goddess of Earth AND water (depending on Religion)
Jungle/Rainforest Hunter/gatherers, big cities with massive temples, primitive barbaric people, Strong Armies good at ambushes, Worship a Forest God or Goddess, or a God of the Sun (depending on religion)
Forested (mountain forest, high altitude forest)
Hunter/gatherers, Hidden cities in mountains or on mountainside, Strong Infantry, Lumberjacks and Miners, Worship a Mountain God or Goddess (depending on religion)
Tundra
Hunters, Strong Navy, Live in Ice Cities (igloos), Worship god or goddess of Water (depending on Religion)
Desert
Barbaric race depends on Trade and Desert animals, Strong Army no navy, live in large concentrated cities, Worship God or Goddess of the sun (Depending on Religion)
This is just a very basic out line, and can be changed to be however you want, but this is the way most people have their society based on the land around them. Once again it is a very basic layout and can and probably will change for everything.
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