Anyone trying to contact me would do better going through my Elfwood page or directly through my livejournal. I keep forgetting to check back here!

Hello, this is my house

I have started a Writer's Diary (using my Elftown diary) to show people how I'm progressing with my writing and to share ideas and tips that I have used. It will also help me to order my ideas and will be an incentive for me to get down and write. Have a look if you are interested and let me know what you think. The diary will contain spoilers for my stories.

In my real life I live in Cheltenham and I work in an entertainments venue, I sell tickets and I also stand on the door saying 'Can I see your ticket please?'. Do not talk to me about tickets! Life could be better at the moment but I have plans and an English degree and I write fantasy :-) 

I write all kinds of fantasy from traditional to absurd to humourous and with a little cyberpunk thrown in. Vist my Wyvern's shelf to read some, there are a couple of new things there already and plenty more arriving soon, I'm trying to write and update my shelf as often as I can.
My main story is called The Citadel and most of my writing is linked to that project which you can learn more about at my shelf or in my Writer's Diary.
I am especially interested in creating fantasy worlds and races and generally spend more time creating backstory than writing the acctual story.

I'm an Elfwood Elftowner and I hang around the Elfwood livejournal groups too. And I wander around Wyverns Library cursing at the limit on comment length mostly but I will leave comments pretty randomly wherever I feel the need.

"Holy typos Batman" That has been making me giggle all day so I thought I'd share it and get it out of my head.

Fantasy Theory

I am also interested in fantasy theory (in fact I do most literary theories since I've studied them and find them exciting - might be because I have no life!) and I want more people to know about it so for all who would be fantasy writers here are the three basic rules:

1. A fantasy story is a story therefore it must have a beginning, middle and conclusion (conclusion is a better word than end for the end since conclusion suggests something neater and more final, where all the threads of the story are tied together; therefore open endings such as cliffhangers are not really part of fantasy). The story must be coherent and one event should lead to the next unlike in some surreal or dream narratives which are a collection of unrelated visions.

2. A fantasy story that is set in this world should be impossible according to the rules (scientific rules) of this world as we percieve them.

3. If the story is set in an otherworld then that world will be impossible but the world should have a set of its own rules which affect the story in some way.

Any story which claims to be fantasy but which can have the plot moved from the alternative version of our world/the otherworld to this world as we know it and still remain coherent is not strictly fantasy (I call them antifantasies since I believe that they can not be classed as fantasy since a fantasy story should depend on the rules which the author has created).

Anyone interested in fantasy should have a copy of The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (ed. John Clute and John Grant, published by Orbit).

P.S For those who want to know science fiction is more confusing but my favourite definition is that it uses the scientific method of observation, hypothesis, experiment 'to examine some postulated approximation of reality, by introducing a given set of changes in to the common background of "known facts"' (Judith Merril) which reveals something about humanity. Also read The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction(ed. John Clute and Peter Nicholls, published by Orbit).

P.P.S I did not have a hand in writing either book, I just think they are great and that everyone should concider reading them
:-)

If you want to ask me anything about fantasy theory, or just say hi, please sign my guestbook - I'll be happy to answer any questions or just say hi back.

My Language

I'm making my own language (it's called Dragonian, Estelthea come from this language, it means Lady - 'estel' is the genderless title and 'thea' denotes anything female) as part of the world creation work behind my epic The Citadel so I was wondering if anyone else is doing the same. I know some good sites that might help if you are thinking of creating a language - basic ones and more in depth stuff - feel free to send me a message or put your request in my guestbook and ask.

These are the first two paragrpahs of the Dragonian Babel text - it's a piece from the Bible about how all the langauges of the world were created; people who create languages like to translate it as a way to show other people their work (Genesis 11:1-9, if anyone has a Bible and wants to know what it means in their own langauge):
'Is cianny is atsny is jard llam ffandaef eä aewllilaffh.
Islaffh caedlaffhe gan bhensas ffanddaefnis eä firhilaffh ffandaef eä syilaffh edelar, caedlaffh dairgwil eä ellilaffh is daire nid Shinar, caedlaffh nid Shinar dairelind eä cedilaffh.'

A few of things for writers to try

Write an essay:

Take a short story, or extract from a novel, of 1,000-1,500 words that you have written. Imagine that this is the first time you have seen this piece and write an essay of equal, or greater word count, on it as if you were studying it in a literature class. Look at the ways meaning is conveyed in the piece and be very specific in your analysis.
A simpler option would be to write the essay as the author describing the effects you intended to achieve and how you tired to do that. And if you wanted a quick option you could take a couple of sentances and explain what each words adds to the overall maening.
Hopefully this should get you thinking as a reader and will give you some idea of how you can used language in your story. My Writer's Diary shows some of my own self analysis and so is an example of this technique if you want one.

Write prose like a poet:

Poets use structure to convey meaning as much as the words. A prose writer can do something similar to bring your sentances alive. Before you try this you must have a good understanding of grammatical rules, there is a big diffrence between someone who knowingly breaks the rules and someone who does not understand them.
Write a very long sentance and think about how the rhythem and pace of reading it affects the meaning. Do the same with a very short sentance and one with lots of punctuation. Play with ideas such as repetition and use similar sounds in a single sentance. This should give your writing an extra spark and make it more interesting and exciting for the reader.

A couple of tips that I apply to my own work:

Unless it is for an effect, I try not to start consecutave sentances and paragraphs with the same word or letter. It looks very awkward on the page and does not make a good reading experience.

I look at my writing and try to see myself as a reader comming to it fresh. They only know what the writer tells them about the story so make sure you give them enough information. However try to ristrict yourself from pages and pages of infodumping, give the reader the information they need at that point in the story and then drip feed more detail as the need arises.

When discribing a scene remember to use all the senses to give a good picture in the reader's mind. Discribe the sounds and smells as well as what is visably there.