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 Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:04 pm
Okay, I don't want to repost the entire thing but I can tell you what ones I said yes to:
28. Is this the first book in a planned trilogy?
Yes, and there shouldn't be a problem with that. Trilogies occur all the time. :) (But I think mine is going to have 4 anyways, which would make the next question a yes.)
37. Do any of your main characters have names longer than three syllables?
They aren't main characters, but even so, most of them have nicknames...
48. Do your characters spend an inordinate amount of time journeying from place to place?
Yes and no, not necassarily, but I'm considering doing a part in the story where they travel mindlessly for a couple weeks, waiting for this garden to appear. It hasn't happened yet, but I'm thinking about it.
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Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:35 pm
1. Does nothing happen in the first fifty pages?
No.
2. Is your main character a young farmhand with mysterious parentage?
No.
3. Is your main character the heir to the throne but doesn't know it?
At the beginning she doesn't have any memory of her past so yes, but once it comes back no.
4. Is your story about a young character who comes of age, gains great power, and defeats the supreme badguy?
No, my main character is 10001 years old.
5. Is your story about a quest for a magical artifact that will save the world?
No.
6. How about one that will destroy it?
No.
7. Does your story revolve around an ancient prophecy about "The One" who will save the world and everybody and all the forces of good?
If you took out "save the world, everybody, and all the forces of good" then yes.
8. Does your novel contain a character whose sole purpose is to show up at random plot points and dispense information?
No.
9. Does your novel contain a character that is really a god in disguise?
No.
10. Is the evil supreme badguy secretly the father of your main character?
No.
11. Is the king of your world a kindly king duped by an evil magician?
No, there is no evil magician.
12. Does "a forgetful wizard" describe any of the characters in your novel?
There is no forgetful wizard in my story, but there is a character who forgets her past.
13. How about "a powerful but slow and kind-hearted warrior"?
No.
14. How about "a wise, mystical sage who refuses to give away plot details for his own personal, mysterious reasons"?
No.
15. Do the female characters in your novel spend a lot of time worrying about how they look, especially when the male main character is around?
Yes.
16. Do any of your female characters exist solely to be captured and rescued?
No, but she does get captured a lot.
17. Do any of your female characters exist solely to embody feminist ideals?
In a way but but not solely.
18. Would "a clumsy cooking wench more comfortable with a frying pan than a sword" aptly describe any of your female characters?
No.
19. Would "a fearless warrioress more comfortable with a sword than a frying pan" aptly describe any of your female characters?
Yes but she would also use the frying pan to attack someone.
20. Is any character in your novel best described as "a dour dwarf"?
No.
21. How about "a half-elf torn between his human and elven heritage"?
No.
22. Did you make the elves and the dwarves great friends, just to be different?
No.
23. Does everybody under four feet tall exist solely for comic relief?
No.
24. Do you think that the only two uses for ships are fishing and piracy?
No.
25. Do you not know when the hay baler was invented?
No.
26. Did you draw a map for your novel which includes places named things like "The Blasted Lands" or "The Forest of Fear" or "The Desert of Desolation" or absolutely anything "of Doom"?
No.
27. Does your novel contain a prologue that is impossible to understand until you've read the entire book, if even then?
No.
28. Is this the first book in a planned trilogy?
It was planned to be longer than three novels.
29. How about a quintet or a decalogue?
Probably.
30. Is your novel thicker than a New York City phone book?
I don't think so.
31. Did absolutely nothing happen in the previous book you wrote, yet you figure you're still many sequels away from finishing your "story"?
No.
32. Are you writing prequels to your as-yet-unfinished series of books?
No.
33. Is your name Robert Jordan and you lied like a dog to get this far?
No.
34. Is your novel based on the adventures of your role-playing group?
No.
35. Does your novel contain characters transported from the real world to a fantasy realm?
No.
36. Do any of your main characters have apostrophes or dashes in their names?
Yes.
37. Do any of your main characters have names longer than three syllables?
Yes.
38. Do you see nothing wrong with having two characters from the same small isolated village being named "Tim Umber" and "Belthusalanthalus al'Grinsok"?
No.
39. Does your novel contain orcs, elves, dwarves, or halflings?
Yes, it contains all of them.
40. How about "orken" or "dwerrows"?
No.
41. Do you have a race prefixed by "half-"?
No
42. At any point in your novel, do the main characters take a shortcut through ancient dwarven mines?
No.
43. Do you write your battle scenes by playing them out in your favorite RPG?
No.
44. Have you done up game statistics for all of your main characters in your favorite RPG?
No.
45. Are you writing a work-for-hire for Wizards of the Coast?
No.
46. Do inns in your book exist solely so your main characters can have brawls?
No.
47. Do you think you know how feudalism worked but really don't?
No.
48. Do your characters spend an inordinate amount of time journeying from place to place?
Yes.
49. Could one of your main characters tell the other characters something that would really help them in their quest but refuses to do so just so it won't break the plot?
No.
50. Do any of the magic users in your novel cast spells easily identifiable as "fireball" or "lightning bolt"?
No.
51. Do you ever use the term "mana" in your novel?
No.
52. Do you ever use the term "plate mail" in your novel?
No.
53. Heaven help you, do you ever use the term "hit points" in your novel?
No.
54. Do you not realize how much gold actually weighs?
No. I do realize.
55. Do you think horses can gallop all day long without rest?
No.
56. Does anybody in your novel fight for two hours straight in full plate armor, then ride a horse for four hours, then delicately make love to a willing barmaid all in the same day?
No.
57. Does your main character have a magic axe, hammer, spear, or other weapon that returns to him when he throws it?
No.
58. Does anybody in your novel ever stab anybody with a scimitar?
No.
59. Does anybody in your novel stab anybody straight through plate armor?
No.
60. Do you think swords weigh ten pounds or more?
No.
61. Does your hero fall in love with an unattainable woman, whom he later attains?
No.
62. Does a large portion of the humor in your novel consist of puns?
No.
63. Is your hero able to withstand multiple blows from the fantasy equivalent of a ten pound sledge but is still threatened by a small woman with a dagger?
No.
64. Do you really think it frequently takes more than one arrow in the chest to kill a man?
No.
65. Do you not realize it takes hours to make a good stew, making it a poor choice for an "on the road" meal?
No, I do realize that.
66. Do you have nomadic barbarians living on the tundra and consuming barrels and barrels of mead?
No.
67. Do you think that "mead" is just a fancy name for "beer"?
No.
68. Does your story involve a number of different races, each of which has exactly one country, one ruler, and one religion?
No.
69. Is the best organized and most numerous group of people in your world the thieves' guild?
No.
70. Does your main villain punish insignificant mistakes with death?
No.
71. Is your story about a crack team of warriors that take along a bard who is useless in a fight, though he plays a mean lute?
No.
72. Is "common" the official language of your world?
And this language would be? I don't think so.
73. Is the countryside in your novel littered with tombs and gravesites filled with ancient magical loot that nobody thought to steal centuries before?
No.
74. Is your book basically a rip-off of The Lord of the Rings?
No.
75. Read that question again and answer truthfully.
NO! The answer is no.
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Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:11 am
Hmm... I think I will redo this thingy but with my new current project. Mainly because I am very entirely bored. So, um, off we go...
1. Does nothing happen in the first fifty pages?
Um, not from what I had written but I might have just, um, lost because my stupid laptop broke. But, then again, I do write very short chapters. I think that might be because I like organizing everything in the exact right chapter, with the exact event in without anything else in the chapter. Gosh, I must stop writing such short chapters. But, anyway, no.
2. Is your main character a young farmhand with mysterious parentage?
No.
3. Is your main character the heir to the throne but doesn't know it?
No.
4. Is your story about a young character who comes of age, gains great power, and defeats the supreme badguy?
No. He dies, like, an hour before he becomes thirteen. And he doesn't even know it.
5. Is your story about a quest for a magical artifact that will save the world?
Well, he thinks it will save it, but... *cough* No *cough*
6. How about one that will destroy it?
*cough* How did they know?! *cough* Um, maybe. But that will all be in the sequel if it happens.
7. Does your story revolve around an ancient prophecy about "The One" who will save the world and everybody and all the forces of good?
Well, there is a prophecy. About 'The One' who will save one of the worlds of the afterlife but destroy the rest. And, um, the main character doesn't know that he can't decide which one he saves. And it will turn out rather bad for him. Because he's a nice guy. So, remove all the 'forces of good' rubbish, and it will be a yes.
8. Does your novel contain a character whose sole purpose is to show up at random plot points and dispense information?
No. Jack's actually rather in the dark about everything, to be honest.
9. Does your novel contain a character that is really a god in disguise?
No.
10. Is the evil supreme badguy secretly the father of your main character?
No, but this cute little 'firecat' thing which Jack looks after is a shapeshifter spy type dude. Because they all know about the prophecy. And Jack doesn't. Poor guy. But, um, no.
11. Is the king of your world a kindly king duped by an evil magician?
No.
12. Does "a forgetful wizard" describe any of the characters in your novel?
No. Basically, most every character has magic.
13. How about "a powerful but slow and kind-hearted warrior"?
Hmm... no. Mainly because Jack has never touched, and probably never will, a sword.
14. How about "a wise, mystical sage who refuses to give away plot details for his own personal, mysterious reasons"?
Nope. They're not a sage, and they have perfectly good reasons not to give away plot details ^-^
15. Do the female characters in your novel spend a lot of time worrying about how they look, especially when the male main character is around?
No. Jack's anorexic, who would worry about their looks for him?
16. Do any of your female characters exist solely to be captured and rescued?
No.
17. Do any of your female characters exist solely to embody feminist ideals?
No.
18. Would "a clumsy cooking wench more comfortable with a frying pan than a sword" aptly describe any of your female characters?
Aptly? No.
19. Would "a fearless warrioress more comfortable with a sword than a frying pan" aptly describe any of your female characters?
No.
20. Is any character in your novel best described as "a dour dwarf"?
What dwarf? I have no dwarves.
21. How about "a half-elf torn between his human and elven heritage"?
I have no elves to make it possible.
22. Did you make the elves and the dwarves great friends, just to be different?
I don't see any elves or dwarves.
23. Does everybody under four feet tall exist solely for comic relief?
No.
24. Do you think that the only two uses for ships are fishing and piracy?
You've forgotten travelling wink . And a great many other things. So, no.
25. Do you not know when the hay baler was invented?
Yes. ^-^ I really don't know when it was invented. But my story doesn't involve hay balers -_-
26. Did you draw a map for your novel which includes places named things like "The Blasted Lands" or "The Forest of Fear" or "The Desert of Desolation" or absolutely anything "of Doom"?
No. But about two years ago I would have biggrin
27. Does your novel contain a prologue that is impossible to understand until you've read the entire book, if even then?
No.
28. Is this the first book in a planned trilogy?
Now I think about it... yes. But nothings wrong with trilogies. There are a great many wonderful trilogies out there.
29. How about a quintet or a decalogue?
No.
30. Is your novel thicker than a New York City phone book?
I don't know. It's not been written yet. But I doubt it.
31. Did absolutely nothing happen in the previous book you wrote, yet you figure you're still many sequels away from finishing your "story"?
No. I'm writing the first book.
32. Are you writing prequels to your as-yet-unfinished series of books?
No.
33. Is your name Robert Jordan and you lied like a dog to get this far?
No.
34. Is your novel based on the adventures of your role-playing group?
I've never roleplayed. Still >->
35. Does your novel contain characters transported from the real world to a fantasy realm?
No.
36. Do any of your main characters have apostrophes or dashes in their names?
No.
37. Do any of your main characters have names longer than three syllables?
No.
38. Do you see nothing wrong with having two characters from the same small isolated village being named "Tim Umber" and "Belthusalanthalus al'Grinsok"?
Oh god, no.
39. Does your novel contain orcs, elves, dwarves, or halflings?
No, it doesn't actually.
40. How about "orken" or "dwerrows"?
No.
41. Do you have a race prefixed by "half-"?
No. Really, there are just the Demons, the Angels and then all the unmentioned people in Purgatory.
42. At any point in your novel, do the main characters take a shortcut through ancient dwarven mines?
No.
43. Do you write your battle scenes by playing them out in your favorite RPG?
No...
44. Have you done up game statistics for all of your main characters in your favorite RPG?
No.
45. Are you writing a work-for-hire for Wizards of the Coast?
No.
46. Do inns in your book exist solely so your main characters can have brawls?
No. There aren't any inns. Though there is a lot of fighting down in Hell.
47. Do you think you know how feudalism worked but really don't?
No. I don't know how it works ^-^;;
48. Do your characters spend an inordinate amount of time journeying from place to place?
There isn't any travelling, really. So no.
49. Could one of your main characters tell the other characters something that would really help them in their quest but refuses to do so just so it won't break the plot?
No. They know about the prophecy thingy, but they won't tell him incase he destroys their world right there. Perfectly good reason.
50. Do any of the magic users in your novel cast spells easily identifiable as "fireball" or "lightning bolt"?
No.
51. Do you ever use the term "mana" in your novel?
No.
52. Do you ever use the term "plate mail" in your novel?
No.
53. Heaven help you, do you ever use the term "hit points" in your novel?
No.
54. Do you not realize how much gold actually weighs?
No.
55. Do you think horses can gallop all day long without rest?
Unless they're superhorses... which they're not.
56. Does anybody in your novel fight for two hours straight in full plate armor, then ride a horse for four hours, then delicately make love to a willing barmaid all in the same day?
No.
57. Does your main character have a magic axe, hammer, spear, or other weapon that returns to him when he throws it?
No.
58. Does anybody in your novel ever stab anybody with a scimitar?
No.
59. Does anybody in your novel stab anybody straight through plate armor?
No rolleyes
60. Do you think swords weigh ten pounds or more?
No. And why give information, then people will just answer from there.
61. Does your hero fall in love with an unattainable woman, whom he later attains?
No.
62. Does a large portion of the humor in your novel consist of puns?
No. I'm not good at humor, so I avoid it.
63. Is your hero able to withstand multiple blows from the fantasy equivalent of a ten pound sledge but is still threatened by a small woman with a dagger?
No.
64. Do you really think it frequently takes more than one arrow in the chest to kill a man?
Nooo. But lucky person who does, they just have to suffer more pain.
65. Do you not realize it takes hours to make a good stew, making it a poor choice for an "on the road" meal?
No.
66. Do you have nomadic barbarians living on the tundra and consuming barrels and barrels of mead?
No.
67. Do you think that "mead" is just a fancy name for "beer"?
No.
68. Does your story involve a number of different races, each of which has exactly one country, one ruler, and one religion?
No.
69. Is the best organized and most numerous group of people in your world the thieves' guild?
No. Even though the main character was a thief for most of his life.
70. Does your main villain punish insignificant mistakes with death?
No, but lots of villians do that. The Adderhead from the Inkheart trilogy for example.
71. Is your story about a crack team of warriors that take along a bard who is useless in a fight, though he plays a mean lute?
No.
72. Is "common" the official language of your world?
What? No.
73. Is the countryside in your novel littered with tombs and gravesites filled with ancient magical loot that nobody thought to steal centuries before?
No.
74. Is your book basically a rip-off of The Lord of the Rings?
No, I've still never read those books.
75. Read that question again and answer truthfully.
No, I've still never read those books.
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Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:29 pm
You know, I read this and I have to say, I don't like the way the questions are presented. They're making them sound much more derogatory than they actually are. Has anyone read The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones? It kind of reminds me of that, but in a much more accusatory, less laugh-out-loud way (that and DWJ's book was made of win). Here are the questions I answered yes to:
10. Is the evil supreme bad guy secretly the father of your main character?
Yup. And it seems like he works with just about everyone else's parents, too. Bwahaha. But really, everyone is someone's relative in real life, why not in a book?
28. Is this the first book in a planned trilogy?
Yes. The thing is, though, unlike those who say their book is part of a trilogy and find out that their pacing is all wrong, I actually have the entire plot planned that far. If it goes further, great. If not, I'm perfectly happy with three. If I decide in the end that it should only be two books in length, whatever! I'm open-minded. I know it's going to be at least two, though; the first book's done already and there is no way that plot is finished. razz
37. Do any of your main characters have names longer than three syllables?
Sure. My female MC's name is Alanora Calaran. Hasn't anyone ever had a four-syllable name before? How about Arianna or Olivia? Booyah.
72. Is "common" the official language of your world?
That's what they call it, yes, but since my story is actually more science-fiction and they came from the northwestern United States to colonize another world and all of their secondary languages basically died out, it's actually English. Go figure.
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Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 2:46 pm
Wow! I can't believe Habiku and Vaporeae took the time to fill that long thing out, he-he. sweatdrop
So Alanora, you actually planned a Trilogy then? I don't think any of my stories were planned as trilogies but one ended up that way and I haven't felt like finishing it yet. sweatdrop
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