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Tutorial - 10 Steps to Creating Realistic Fantasy Animals. By Ashley Lange Why do writers write?

Tutorial - 10 Steps to Creating Realistic Fantasy Animals

Because it isn't there. - Thomas Berger Arguably, the two most challenging aspects for fantasy/science fiction writers to conquer are originality and believability. In this article, I'll use the study of Ecology and animals (don't worry; it won't be a science lecture! Okay, so why use animals? The attraction to fantasy animals is obvious. The first question you need to ask yourself is why you are creating a creature in the first place.

To attack the hero (wild animal) To be guarding something/a gateway To be a feature of the environment (aka, hero sees a herd grazing) To be someone's pet To oppose the hero (aka enemy orc soldiers) To aid the hero (such as friendly elves) To set the mood (glowing eyes in a dark forest) For a mount (a variant of a horse/camel/donkey, etc.) To be hunted To work (such as on a farm) To be raised for meat/milk/silk/wool To race competitively To fight (such as in an arena) To draw (Who says you have to write about it?) Eyes see. Tutorial - Originality in Fantasy - Taking The Road Less Travelled. By A.R.

Tutorial - Originality in Fantasy - Taking The Road Less Travelled

George Think of all the fantasy authors you really like. The usual number is between 5 and 10 (though there's no accounting for 'usual', is there? ;). Now think of all the fantasy authors you've read and not liked, or felt neutral about. Tutorial - Villains: *Bad* Bad Guys and *Good* Bad Guys. By A.R.

Tutorial - Villains: *Bad* Bad Guys and *Good* Bad Guys

George 'Ah, Reader. So glad you could join me.' *strokes cat ominously* Destroyers of cities, killers of heroes' fathers/mothers/lovers, terrorisers of little girls with fluffy kittens; villains are unquestionably the axle upon which the wheel of fantasy turns. Let's face it - making a villain is easy. Here's another question. Villains can enrich your fantasy story beautifully, given some careful thought and even a little empathy. These guys are the standard fare of fantasy. Due to the difficulty in envisioning a demon's point of view - well, for most of us, anyway - Always Evil villains are probably the most difficult to characterise.

In the humanoid case - ravaging warlords, necromancers, and their ilk - fleshing out a villain can be surprisingly easy. In the case of darker villains - the type who enjoy pain, suffering and destruction - you should still be careful with the 'why? ' When it comes to the difficult demonic/godly enemy, things are less simple. Reality check - Could Mobile cities exist? - Worldbuilding Stack Exchange.

Hovering cities are too impractical, as my own answer to the link post goes into detail about.

reality check - Could Mobile cities exist? - Worldbuilding Stack Exchange

If your low to the ground you run into trees, mountains, etc. If your higher up you run into heavy winds. More importantly, the energy expenditure is just not realistic. However, one very similar idea is quite simple to do. Boat cities. Questions to guide you in worldbuilding for fantasy or science-fiction — Veronica Sicoe. Anti-Villain. Assimilation Plot.

Home. Your imagination has been captured by the roaring rockets from Heinlein's SPACE CADET or the Polaris from TOM CORBETT, SPACE CADET.

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But are such rockets possible? How does one go about defining the performance of these atomic-powered cruisers? This document gives some hints and equations that will allow back-of-the-envelope calculations on such matters. Though horribly simplistic, they are far better than just making up your figures. This site was mainly intended for science fiction authors who wanted a little scientific accuracy so they can write SF "the way God and Heinlein intended" (Arlan Andrews's Law).

The engine and the torchship pages explain how easily do some of the calculations using Nomograms. . While this site originally focused on rocketry equations, as you can see it has grown to encompass other topics of interest to SF authors and game designers. Welcome to the Orion's Arm Universe Project. Gods Debris.