Ask a Question of Me

Caustizer · **Reply #40 on:** December 30, 2009, 04:40:30 PM

Well let's see... when I get stuck on what word to use it usually ends up being the beginning of a chapter or during one of the less exciting scenes of the story. What I do in this case is to just write something (even if you know it's total garbage) and then continue on until you finish.

Once you come back and proofread the story, certain sentances that made sense to you at first suddenly don't make sense anymore and maybe even the garbage line you thought you wrote turns out to sound pretty good. The key is to just finish first, and then edit once you are done.

Often when I'm writing I'll go on a reverie where I sit there for 20 minutes frantically writing away in an exciting scene only to come back later and find half of it doesn't make sense.

Nobody does perfect work the first time.

Caustizer.

Mirumoto_Kenjiro · **Reply #41 on:** January 15, 2010, 03:00:51 AM

What are your plans for the near future?

Caustizer · **Reply #42 on:** January 21, 2010, 10:19:15 AM

I plan to finish Far Away Home of course, provided computer problems stop interfereing with my progress

I also am painting an army of minatures for Warhammer 40K that is taking a while to complete, but is vastly rewarding.

Thank you for asking

Caustizer

Serris · **Reply #43 on:** February 05, 2010, 02:45:00 PM

What exactly was your inspiration for making the Wingtails skilled in glassworking?

Still, imagine what would happen if paleontologists found their artifacts? Can anyone way "World's Greatest Discovery"?

Caustizer · **Reply #44 on:** February 05, 2010, 03:34:10 PM

I wanted to create a Land Before Time story that was completely atypical, intriguing, and at times a little bit scary (similar to the first movie) without resorting to the simple devices like magic and time travel which have no place within the universe.

Far Away Home began very similarly to Future Wars, as a small idea that over the course of weeks gradually grew into a larger and more complex one.

The goal was to leave everything from the first 13 movies completely behind, and explore the realms that existed far outside of the places the gang has visited thus far (after all the prehistoric world was still pretty massive). Moving onto the Wingtails... I came to the conclusion that in order for Sky to characterized the way I wanted him to be he needed a 'tool' that was iconic. It is perfectly feasable for one to say that glass existed in some form back then, but it was entirely another to say that it was 'forged' within a universe of dinosaurs.

The most famous of Wingtail glassworks took generations to make, and they are the Occular, the Cordian, the Sonicron, and the Eye of the World.

My main inspiration for including them came from 2 reasons:

1) The Occular (eyeglass) and the Cordian (glass bell) represent visual and verbal perfection that says something important about Wingtails - they are intelligent, enlightened, a bit showy, and very mindful of their past. The Occular is also extremely useful as a plot device, for numerous reasons from distant sight, polarized vision for catching fish, and focusing light.

2) Destruction. In my story I wanted to give the wingtails something of a weapon that they could feasably use to take on someone like Tyron's sharpteeth without violating the 'no magic' rule. The Sonicron represents the extreme end of sound - sonic resonance. If your voice is just the right pitch, it resonates and cracks the earth causing massive earthshakes. As for the Eye of the World... I haven't got to it yet.

I hope this explains it well enough as I tend to wander a bit.

Caustizer

Serris · **Reply #45 on:** February 05, 2010, 03:43:18 PM

Quote from: Caustizer,Feb 5 2010 on 02:34 PM

2) Destruction. In my story I wanted to give the wingtails something of a weapon that they could feasably use to take on someone like Tyron's sharpteeth without violating the 'no magic' rule. The Sonicron represents the extreme end of sound - sonic resonance. If your voice is just the right pitch, it resonates and cracks the earth causing massive earthshakes. As for the Eye of the World... I haven't got to it yet.

Cool!

Let me guess, the Eye of the World is a focusing lens for turning the sun into a beam of light similar to that of a laser?

Caustizer · **Reply #46 on:** February 05, 2010, 04:13:44 PM

Yes!

But it doesn't work without one key piece - the Occular.

Pangaea · **Reply #47 on:** February 05, 2010, 05:36:16 PM

Gaaaahhh...Caustizer!

You realize you just gave away a major spoiler to your own fanfic!

If you had to answer Serris's question at all, couldn't you have done it by PM?!

P.S. I'm not really mad, just disappointed that I now know a major part of the plot of Far Away Home waaaaayyy before it's been revealed in the story.

My suggestion: delete your response before any other FAW readers see it.

Caustizer · **Reply #48 on:** February 05, 2010, 06:41:12 PM

Quote from: Pangaea,Feb 5 2010 on 04:36 PM

Gaaaahhh...Caustizer! You realize you just gave away a major spoiler to your own fanfic! If you had to answer Serris's question at all, couldn't you have done it by PM?!

P.S. I'm not really mad, just disappointed that I now know a major part of the plot of Far Away Home waaaaayyy before it's been revealed in the story. My suggestion: delete your response before any other FAW readers see it.

I think I'll leave it up. There are many, many things that haven't been revealed yet and compared to them the nature of the Eye of the World is not significant. Now if I would have told you that _____ was going to be mauled killed by _____, then that would be a major spoiler!

And besides... who is to say I won't suddenly change it to something else? It is not officially written yet... so who knows

Pangaea · **Reply #49 on:** February 05, 2010, 07:13:18 PM

Quote from: Caustizer,Feb 5 2010 on 05:41 PM

There are many, many things that haven't been revealed yet and compared to them the nature of the Eye of the World is not significant.

That wasn't the impression I got. It sounded to me like it would be a much more momentous revelation. :blink:

Quote

And besides... who is to say I won't suddenly change it to something else? It is not officially written yet... so who knows

Again, my interpretation was that it was already set in stone (and if you weren't conjecturing, please don't change it just to prove me wrong; admittedly, I find the truth about the Eye of the World rather interesting), and your response to Serris's guess sounded pretty affirmative. (You also revealed the bit regarding the Occular; that could count as two spoilers.)

At any rate, to me, a spoiler's a spoiler, and since I prefer to remain blindfolded to upcoming plot developments, I'm going to completely avoid looking at this thread (in case of any more incidents like this) until Far Away Home is finished. I should stress that the sole purpose of this is to keep myself in the dark; I am not intending to spite you or anything by refusing to post questions. To express my sincerity, I'll even ask you a last question before I go:

As someone with an interest in geology, do you know anything about agates? If so, have you ever collected them?

Caustizer · **Reply #50 on:** February 05, 2010, 07:39:23 PM

But if you're not viewing this thread anymore, then how will you ever see my answer?

Pangaea · **Reply #51 on:** February 06, 2010, 04:03:47 AM

One, I was planning to come back one last time to see the answer to my question before I began my abstention. (That's why I'm here and writing this message; I assumed your recent post was a response to my question.)

Two, even if I did not return immediately, I would eventually come back once Far Away Home was finished and spoilers were no longer an issue. Upon doing so, I would simply read the posts that had been made since I was last here, and see the answer to my question.

Three, if you didn't think I was planning to come back to see your answer, then why did you ask me a question?

EDIT: Four, whose question thread is this, anyway?

P.S. That was rhetorical.

Littlefoot1616 · **Reply #52 on:** February 06, 2010, 08:08:21 AM

What do you think are the key elements to writing a truly immersive story? (Figured I could ask you as one fanfic writer to another

)

Caustizer · **Reply #53 on:** February 06, 2010, 03:29:31 PM

Pangaea:

I have taken some courses in Geology but my main interest lies in weather and atmopsheric phenomenon. That being said we haven't really got into Agates yet until next year so apart from them being gems formed of biological material I don't really know too much about them.

Littlefoot1616:

When you are writing a story, you have to keep these things in mind:

1) Developing all the characters who are important to the story, expressing their personal feelings and emotions as the tale goes on. In this case where you have a ton of characters, you have to make sure you give every important character in your story a 'moment in the sun' so to speak. Obviously the more forerunning ones like Littlefoot, Sky, Ruby and Chomper will get a larger role in the story but don't forget to acknowledge and develop your background characters.

2) Too many characters is a bad thing - if you have too many characters then typically confusion riens as nobody can remember who each one is. This can get especially binding when you don't describe their race or colour, so your reader is left completely in the dark.

3) Meaningful and Motivated Villians - while at one point they were acceptable, nobody likes Cliche villians anymore and readers will be a lot more interested in your story if you take characterizing your villians seriously. Even perhaps inciting some debate as to who the real villian is generates interest.

For example, compare these two: "Devilron the sharptooth is invading the great valley, and Littlefoot and the Gang has to stop him" to "The sharpteeth of the mysterious beyond are suffering from near starvation, so their leader Devilron expands the hunting grounds into the nearby Great Valley only to be opposed by massive herds who defy natural selection and jeopardize survival of the sharpteeth."

4) Multiple Villians and Anti-heroes can also add to the story, provided they aren't too cliche and predictable. For example, Thudd isn't really a bad guy in my story but he certainly isn't good either.

5) Flowing Conversation - when characters talk to one another you have to repeat the entire converstation in your head and recognize what sounds right and what doesn't. Make sure everyone is in character and that all talk is productive in some way or another, either to plot development or character development.

6) A Well Planned and Intrigueing Plot - nothing grabs a reader more then a mystery, as demonstrated by the success of Sherlock Holmes in the theatre. If you keep secrets and opt to reveal them later in the story,

Caustizer

Sky · **Reply #54 on:** May 02, 2010, 01:05:59 PM

Hmm... the answer you gave to Littlefoot1616 helped me a bit.

Anyway, how do you come up with names for your characters? Like Thylo, Cinceel, Kepsla and others?
I'm having a hard time to come up with names so maybe you could give me some advice.

Caustizer · **Reply #55 on:** May 03, 2010, 01:37:45 AM

When I come up with new names, normally start with a prefix that I like the sound of and experiment with the endings.

For example,

Let's say I'm creating a new fast-biter character.

I'll start with the prefix Car- ... from there I experiment with endings based on sound.

Carnel - sounds and looks too much like 'caramel' so no
Carwen - sounds to mystical and light so no here too
Carvon - hmm, it includes the sound 'carve' as in carving up a meat loaf, which could produce some interesting imagery. I'll take it.

Coming up with good names can be a bit of a process and sometimes you just got to feel it belongs with the character.

Caustizer.

Sky · **Reply #56 on:** May 03, 2010, 10:09:13 AM

That sounds good! Thank you for the advice.

Caustizer · **Reply #57 on:** June 05, 2010, 02:31:37 PM

Bump.

Normally im opposed to this sort of thing, but nobody has asked me a question in months, so i figured I'd bring it to attention.

Pangaea · **Reply #58 on:** June 05, 2010, 06:17:24 PM

Oh, what the heck? I've already broken my promise to avoid this thread (so that I wouldn't be accidentally exposed to any more FAH spoilersóin retrospect, a pretty hair-brained reaction; apparently frustration makes me lose my mind

) by looking at it;

I might as well ask a question.

It's not much, but how are you doing with the latest chapter of Far Away Home? Have you come up with a solution to the issue you requested reader suggestions on? (If you have, don't tell me what it is.)

P.S. Technically it's been one month, three days since your last question.

Still a long time, though.

Caustizer · **Reply #59 on:** June 05, 2010, 11:05:08 PM

I know exactly what I'm going to do for the next few chapers, and your ideas really helped. You can look forward to funny moments, interesting interactions between characters, nuclear missiles, and the same quality of writing from me you have come to expect every two weeks or so.

...Okay, maybe not with nuclear missiles

I found it disturbing that there was a 'pattern' in my writing that you mentioned, as predictable entertainment quickly becomes boring. Hopefully you enjoy the change of order.

Caustizer.