In this post, I share a research method you can use to write wildlife into your fantasy stories, and also a time-saving "cheat" for creating fantasy creatures.
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#worldbuilding #writingfantasy

https://cmurrayauthor.wordpress.com/2023/09/07/writing-wildlife-into-fantasy-stories-%f0%9f%a6%89%e2%9c%a8/

The #RSC #Macbeth programme says that the #Gaelic #underworld is made of three intersecting circles. The first is home to #faries and other #mythological creatures, the second is where the dead go where they remain in familiar places, and the third is home to #witches and #deamons. Lots of great #inspiration for #FantasyWriters.

#witchcraft #Shakespeare #theatre #mythology #CelticMythology #fantasy #WritingFantasy #WritingCommunity #WritingInspiration

"The Best Medieval Everyday Carry Sword" ⚔
In this video, he chats about what types of swords he believes are best for carrying around regularly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPzUhdCMRsY
#Medieval #WritingFantasy

Did you know that there are tools to make world building easier? In this post, I list several options; most of which are free.
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#WorldBuilding #WritingFantasy #FantasyWriter

https://cmurrayauthor.wordpress.com/2023/08/31/world-building-tools-and-resources-list/

Free #WritingResource Wednesday!
Orbis. It helps estimate different travel times based on distance and transportation type.

https://orbis.stanford.edu/
#writing #writers #writingtip #writingfantasy

"This medieval surgical device was invented to remove an arrow from King Henry V's face" 🏹🎯

👀 Hello, arrow puller. I will be saving you for future writing reference.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aob59Qu0OEI&feature=youtu.be
#writing #writingfantasy #amwritingfantasy

In this video, it is interesting and he does a great job, but he does get some things about mead wrong. He says "metheglin" is "honey and fermented fruit juice," but mead infused with fruit is a "melomel," where as a metheglin is mead with herbs and spices. There are some surviving medieval metheglin recipes you can look up. Also, mead is also not always wine-like. For example: a "braggot" is a beer-like mead.

https://youtu.be/CEOs5J4ECOM
#medievallife #writingfantasy #fantasyworld

Need some tech inspiration for your second-world fantasy stories?

Within Ukraine, the Hutsul people finish their wool blankets with a valylo. A Valyo is a river-powered wooden washing machine, which will beat the blankets until they are soft and lose their sheep-smell.

Learn More:
Video 1: https://youtu.be/pMinqwDy40c
Video 2: https://youtu.be/lgg_CkW-7Nc

🧵⬇️ (1/2)

#WritingFantasy #FantasyWriting #AmWritingFantasy

📽️Video Share:
"160lbs ENGLISH WARBOW shoots FULL WEIGHT MEDIEVAL ARROWS at reproduced MEDIEVAL ARMOUR."
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DBxdTkddHaE&feature=youtu.be
#medieval #medievallife #writingfantasy

Deck Lights (also called prism lights, or deck prisms) were prisms of glass that were inserted into the deck of a ship, in order to provide lighting below. 💎

They would be flat on top to be flush with the deck itself, but underneath, they were made to diffuse the light in multiple directions.

Since historical lighting often involved fire, having an alternative for wooden ships was important. (🧵⬇ 1/2)
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#WritingFantasy #worldbuilding #Fantasy

Image source: https://insightsaboutlightandglass.com/deck-prism/

#WritersofMastodon what are you working on?

I'm trying to edit a few chapters of my third epic YA Fantasy book on weekends. It's last in a trilogy, with multiple pov character's arcs needing tweaking and a few pov chapters needing switching to up tension. I also want to upgrade it with book 1 and 2's general beta reader feedback, before seeking beta readers.

#AmWriting #AmEditing #WritingFantasy #WritingCommunity #Writing

I write here about one of the challenges when writing High Fantasy.
https://www.michaelpryor.com.au/writing/anachronisms-and-the-okay-problem/

#writing #writingfantasy #writingcommunity #writingtips #Fantasy

With three fantasy series all set in the same world at the same time, somedays, I think my head might explode with all the information I keep in it. #authorproblems #writingfantasy #fantasybooks #bookstagram #booktok #writingcommunity #fantasyauthor #readingfantasy #fantasyseries

There are just those scenes that take almost everything you have to write. Don’t get me wrong, I like writing them, but then I need some time afterwards to step away before writing again. #writingfantasy #writingcommunity #amwritingfantasy #fantasyauthor #writinglife

New podcast episode!

The Nightmare Years continue when Yephen succeeded his brother Zalman. His cruelty was less severe, more whimsical but appalling nevertheless.
https://www.podbean.com/ea/pb-xidpm-142a4a6
#podcast #Fantasy #WritingFantasy #writingcommunity

Writer friends, does this ever happen to you? Do you fight the characters, or just give in and let them run amuck? #amuckamuckamuck #fantasybooks #writinginspiration #epicfantasy #writingcommunity #writingfantasy #writingjourney #writinglife #writingcommunity #booktok

Initially I got into outlining Young Swords (A Fistful of Daggers 5, Lincoln's last book) and I was just like, UGH. How do I even WRITE THIS ANYMORE.
I don't love it the way I love my gay elves? And I forgot how to write things I don't *love*, like pushing every single button I have. I spent three years finding ways to only write scenes that felt like drugs and orgasms and chocolate to my obsessive fantasy writer brain. Elise's books could be like that sometimes, but the majority of my UF is something...else.
I'm remembering what I got out of these, slowly. I don't get the dopamine from the content. I get it from the puzzle of it.
My urban fantasy universe is like...imagine an acrobat who has done the same death-defying routine ninety times in a row. She walks up to the plank, arms out, and smiles to the audience, and they gasp because there's no safety net, and she might splatter, but she goes out there and does the most insane performance anyway because she's *that* confident she can handle it. Somehow she does. Sometimes barely.
It feels like doing that routine. Can I repeat the tricks I did ninety times before, better? It's still hard every single time.
My outlines are puzzleboxes for urban fantasy. They're a series of questions. Like...
What is the hero's biggest flaw?
When did he develop that flaw, and how?
Why does he feel like it's saving him to protect that flaw?
How is that flaw keeping him from conquering the Problem presented at the beginning of the book?
There is a process of interrogating, challenging, and developing beyond the flaw that is structurally similar throughout books. When there's a romantic subplot, I pit flaw against flaw, and braid them together so that one character's flaw is exactly the strength the other person needs to get better.
And once I figure out how a character is broken and the process they have to go through to fix it and win, it becomes a process of coloring in the lines. I develop the flourishes in the greater vocabulary of my UF universe. Dramatic personal upheaval is often tied to physical transformation. Overcoming flaws may be rewarded with new supernatural abilities. Gods always embody the most central dilemmas of the universe. etc.
And then I have to write those scenes out - and it feels good, not because I am writing something that is *soooo* juicy, but because it feels *incredible* to write a scene that looks like stuff is happening semi-authentically with no sign of the skeleton that I built it around. It starts looking less like an eldritch machine and becomes beautiful.
It's different. I'm not getting my jollies from writing like the romantics in a gay gothic setting, pulling off beautiful linguistic, narrative, timeline backflips; I am out here in the trenches beating a formula into shape and making it dance for me.

#amWriting #writingFantasy

Do you ever devote #writingtime to #daydreaming?

#WritingCommunity #WritingFiction #WritingFantasy #AmWriting #AmDaydreaming

A good cover definitely peaks my interest. How about you? Wanna know more about Temple Commander? #epicfantasy #booktok #writingabook #foundfamily #femaleprotagonist #readingfantasy #writingfantasy #fantasyauthor #fantasybooks #fantasybookstagram #bookstagram

Oh, my muse! Why are you abandoned me? Please come back on Monday. #muse
#epicfantasy #writingabook #foundfamily #femaleprotagonist #readingfantasy #writingfantasy #heirtothecrown #dnd #fantasyauthor #fantasybooks #booktok #bookstagram