Book Maps.

[Badger]

Can you give short description what the book is about? I am writing a fantasy novel myself so I am very interested. And no, not to steal your ideas
(finishing book 2 right now of the first trilogy - my book is in Dutch as that is my native language)

Also, how do you write a book with two people? I want to write a fantasy story with my fiancee as well, but I am not sure how to make it work. Do you both write different chapters or characters?

Oh, and congrats on your soon to make 1000th post

Let's see.... I've been sitting here for longer than I need to, trying to write a short summary. BUT I CAN'T!!! ... there is just so much I want to go into. SOOO, I will get my wife to write one up, she's the one in charge of writing a summary anyway for the back cover, this will give her a reason to get motivated about it. Fair enough? I think I'd just muck it up and give away too much.

As for writing together. The world was my little brain child... the gods, the places, the races. My campaign world for the last 23 years with enough history and color to choke a bull wyvern. She wrote a fantasy romance novel based on this world. When it was evident that we were going to be able to publish a book, this is the story we chose. Originally it was just going to be her name on the book, but after the process of editing and rewriting, I had put so much of my style in it as well, it became a joint effort.

Funny thing is, I never thought I would be able to write with someone else, but the more we worked together, the better it got. I pretty much write all the scenes that involve battle and action, she writes the rest. For this book, I've written the prologue and several chapters involving side characters.

It's kinda hard to explain how we do it. We work best though in the editing process... I read the story and she edits as I prattle on.

?? make any sense at all?

[mmmmmpig]

when it is published, you will have to let us know how to acquire it

[Badger]

Definitely. If Amazon's requirements for selling through them weren't so steep, we'd do it through them as well as selling them from the website... but we will have it available there at the website. (The website isn't all that great... I designed it using dreamweaver) I'll let you know as soon as we get it

It's part one of a trilogy. And... it's goood....

[Badger]

I'm doing this one as a wip, its taking a little bit to get done. This is digital and I decided to work on it at 300% of the size it will have to be... so its 13.875x22.875 inches @ 300dpi. The wips I'll show will be at 33% of that.

I can't/don't want to get into too many specifics (that would give stuff away!) but you should know that this these two worlds are actually separate. (one way is to see it as a before and after picture)... the other major point is that they are disc worlds. (more like a saucer) with a ring of mountains encircling the edges. So the oceans don't connect or wrap around to the other side.

I laid down the edges, and the oceans, gave those water ripples along the coasts. Put in all the mountains and mountain ranges. They still need to be fleshed out and cropped, so that will be what comes next.

The good thing is that there won't be hardly any labels on it, there won't be a need for much detail on the map. That makes me grateful .. and keeps the work down. No scale either, but to give you an idea... its about 23000 miles along the diameter of the circle...


WOOOT! ... 1000 posts!!!

[Badger]

Aye... time and again I've had to stop and make sure things make sense, because i'm so familiar with the world, I write sometimes as if the reader should already know what/who I'm talking about... many times I have had to cut chunks out of the story because the history and flavor just don't move the plot... colorful, yes... but not good for story development...

[Gandwarf]

Aye... time and again I've had to stop and make sure things make sense, because i'm so familiar with the world, I write sometimes as if the reader should already know what/who I'm talking about... many times I have had to cut chunks out of the story because the history and flavor just don't move the plot... colorful, yes... but not good for story development...

The double-edged sword of not wanting to confuse your reader, but not wanting to give away too much either. As you want to keep them hooked and coming back for more

[jfrazierjr]

Aye... time and again I've had to stop and make sure things make sense, because i'm so familiar with the world, I write sometimes as if the reader should already know what/who I'm talking about... many times I have had to cut chunks out of the story because the history and flavor just don't move the plot... colorful, yes... but not good for story development...

That did not stop Tolkien... and we all know how that turned out...

[Gandwarf]

That did not stop Tolkien... and we all know how that turned out...

Well, Tolkien's world obviously has lots of depth and flavor. But there's also a pretty fast moving and still epic story I think.

Now take Robert Jordan: in his later books he gets really bogged down, because of all the information he wants to share with his readers and lots of it is not really that relevant. I think one of his books took like 800 pages to describe the events of one day. That's bad
Still I think the Wheel of Time is one of the best fantasy series.

[Steel General]

@Delgo & Gandwarf - I envy you both at even attempting to write a novel (with or without someone else). Ever more so if you're anywhere close to publishing. I've been told many times that I have some talent as a writer, but I just can't imagine trying to write a novel. I get bogged down after 4 or 5 pages

[Badger]

SG ... Ya quit too soon. That's the hardest part.... the rest is all downhill from there... just get through that first chapter of the story and the rest will just fall into place