KhakiBlueSocks wrote:"I'm going to make you a prayer request you can't refuse..." Cue the violins.
bigsleepj (post: 1435890) wrote:Maybe at the start of each chapter you can have a small "entry" from an encyclopaedia (or maybe a history written years into the future)
bigsleepj (post: 1435890) wrote:Maybe at the start of each chapter you can have a small "entry" from an encyclopaedia (or maybe a history written years into the future) that give the information before hand in vague but definite detail and then just fill in the bits and pieces through dialogue in the actual narrative. If you really want to get post-modern then use it to play with the reader's perception of the story in order to surprise them and confound their expectations.
bigsleepj (post: 1435890) wrote:Maybe at the start of each chapter you can have a small "entry" from an encyclopaedia
the_wolfs_howl (post: 1436758) wrote:Generally, I'd say that unless your name is J.R.R. Tolkien, you shouldn't write a fantasy novel like that. I mean, I love LotR to death, and I think the writing is beautiful and engrossing rather than soporific, but I think there are very few people who could pull off something like that. I mean, in so many ways LotR goes against general guidelines of what makes a good, interesting novel, and I think the only reason it works at all is because Tolkien was a genius and an expert in language, which was after all his primary interest in creating Middle-Earth in the first place.
/pointless rambling
And I don't know how many people are like me, but I actually relish stories that don't feel the need to spell out every minute detail of the culture to me. In some ways, I prefer Narnia over some other fantasy books because there isn't this intricate map in the beginning. When I see a map, I always feel the need to keep looking at it, to make sure I understand every detail of where things are. It's the same way with culture - if every little thing is spelled out, I feel the need to remember it all. I actually like stories where it's assumed you know the way things work anyway, without bothering to explain the whole history]The Handmaid's Tale[/i] by Margaret Atwood was a very enjoyable experience because, even though it wasn't a fantasy, every piece of information was given to you out of order and barely explained, so you had to fit it all together yourself. And seemingly effortlessly, by the end I had a perfect picture of what Gilead was like.
Kaligraphic (post: 1436899) wrote:If your story as a whole requires people to understand a complex history and mythology, you may be trying to do too much at once. If you can get the people moving in realistic ways, then you can always fill in the history and mythology later, if you even need to.
Also, I recommend you try to avoid using made-up (fake foreign) words - it rarely works well.
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