10 Steps to Creating Realistic Fantasy Animals. By Ashley Lange Why do writers write?
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.) Epic Sea Monsters Comp. English 50 Exercises for Story Writers.
English 50 – Intro to Creative Writing: Exercises for Story Writers Basic Theory: What is a short story?
As soon as someone delivers a definition, some good writer will write a story that proves the theory wrong. About the only thing we can say for sure is that short stories are short and that they are written in what we call prose. Some attributes, however, seem to show up more often than not. Short stories have a narrator; that is, someone tells the story; have at least one character in them; have some action occur (or perhaps fails to occur); take place somewhere; that is, there is a setting for the action; and someone either learns something or fails to learn something (theme).With these five characteristics in mind, we can create an almost endless supply of exercises to help sharpen our techniques of story telling.
Narrative Voice Twenty or so years ago, voice was the "rite of passage" into a successful writing career. If you've written a story in third person, try it in first. Christopher Vogler's "Hero's Journey" (Revised July 2007) I spent nearly sixteen years avoiding reading anything of substance by (Hollywood) story theorists such as Syd Field, John Truby, Christopher Vogler, Robert McKee and others.
As co-creator of the Dramatica theory of story, I didn't want to influence my development of Dramatica so I avoided direct interaction with competing theories. In 2006 I decided to lift my self-imposed ban. I figured my understanding of Dramatica was mature enough that I didn’t have to worry about "contaminating" it by exposure to the competing theories. It was past time that I figured out how other story theories are similar and dissimilar to Dramatica, why they are different (assuming they are), and what those similarities and differences mean. Originally written as a series of articles, I’ve reworked my findings into this single paper. There are dozens of “how to” books on story structure, especially in the screenwriting field. SYD FIELD: I watched Syd Field's video, "Screenwriting Workshop. " Mayer-Bernadette_Experiments.
Book Ideas for Young Writers. The Endicott Studio Journal of Mythic Arts, Summer 2003. 55 Epic, Weird and Totally Awesome Images. There are some incredibly talented and creative minds in the field of graphic design.
Combining 3D, photomanipulation, and digital painting can result in some pretty incredible effects. However, designers don’t always create serious images for clients, sometimes, they just like to goof off. Today, we have 55 epic, weird, insane, crazy, neat, confusing and just all around freakin’ awesome images that you have to see. If you glance at one and don’t get the idea, be sure to click and see the fullsize image, because there’s some hidden tricks in some of the images. A lot of these are a perfect wallpaper size, too. I hope you all think this post is as cool as I do, and if you do, please Stumble, Digg and share it with your friends. Thanks for reading, everyone! This child may be a future candidate for teen alcohol rehab.