How I Became a Fantasy/SF Writer

On December 29 2009 12:46 Fixed wrote:
OP sounds very arrogant and pretentious just like the professor you had. That line about you wrote, something about the no talent ass clown students that had to read your super good paper? what was that about? maybe they are chasing their dreams also...what makes you so much better than them?

On December 29 2009 12:54 Fixed wrote:
Ya thats great when the valiant hero is humble and easy to like. Maybe its just me, but i got the vibe that this kid comes from a super rich asian family that values material things and thinks they are better than others. I'm not trying to put down the OP at all because its great that he won this award and looks to have a promising career. He just doesnt seem to have that humble vibe and the I overcame all odds living on the streets type of deal, thats all. He seems like he had so many opportunities that many other dont have.

On December 29 2009 13:20 KissBlade wrote:


I got the vibe that you got dropped on the head as a child. I am surprised you care about what anyone who wishes to go into the writing field thinks about since it's obvious you have no reading comprehension ability at all.

On December 29 2009 13:35 Fixed wrote:


why do you need to be so negative? I think its great what the OP has done and what he has accomplished. I thought this was a public forum? all i did was post the vibe i got while still saying basically congrats to him. You on the other hand are acting like a child.

On December 29 2009 12:46 Fixed wrote:
OP sounds very arrogant and pretentious just like the professor you had. That line about you wrote, something about the no talent ass clown students that had to read your super good paper? what was that about? maybe they are chasing their dreams also...what makes you so much better than them?

On December 29 2009 12:54 Fixed wrote:
Ya thats great when the valiant hero is humble and easy to like. Maybe its just me, but i got the vibe that this kid comes from a super rich asian family that values material things and thinks they are better than others. I'm not trying to put down the OP at all because its great that he won this award and looks to have a promising career. He just doesnt seem to have that humble vibe and the I overcame all odds living on the streets type of deal, thats all. He seems like he had so many opportunities that many other dont have.

On December 29 2009 13:35 Fixed wrote:


why do you need to be so negative? I think its great what the OP has done and what he has accomplished. I thought this was a public forum? all i did was post the vibe i got while still saying basically congrats to him. You on the other hand are acting like a child.

On December 29 2009 13:41 Nosmo wrote:



Do undo others?

Anyway, congrats on winning, OP.

On December 29 2009 14:22 Emlary wrote:
Nice read You look like one of my colleagues from US. Are you an ABC?

Wonder what Tian Zi means in your award-winning story title. When I saw it, this came to my mind first. 天子? 田子?

On December 29 2009 13:26 Athos wrote:

Also, you kind of look like Stork.

On December 29 2009 13:50 Fixed wrote:


Did you catch the 2 posts i made saying that i thought what the OP had accomplished was awesome? I guess this is the 3rd. Congrats OP. However, apparently unless your are strictly saying congrats in a thread its best to stay out of it. bye.

On December 29 2009 14:56 KissBlade wrote:


This is where you prove my points exactly about being an idiot and failing reading comp huh? Or did you catch the fact that BOTH your posts are quoted and nowhere did you say anything close to that. But hey keep making things up and maybe you can write fiction too.

Anyway my apologies to the op for mucking this thread up by actually even responding to this retard of a troll.

On December 29 2009 13:59 Matoo- wrote:
Got lured here from the original thread, when this "The Dragon and the Stars" anthology comes out PLEASE MAKE A BLOG POST I really don't want to miss out on this.

2. Anyone who wants tips on being a writer are MORE than welcome to ask. Really, don't hesitate. I had a bitch of a time coming up and I'll give anyone a leg up when I can.

On December 29 2009 16:19 IskatuMesk wrote:


I'll take this opportunity.

Although I won't go into detail, my world is also a combination of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Perhaps a double coincidence is that it also involves swords, dragons, and stars (mostly stars that get blown up by tremendously large weapons).

I want to know how you approach the descriptions of characters and events. I struggle with all forms of English, but it is descriptions I find the most challenging, doubly so because my vocabulary is extremely limited. You did not want any examples, and my examples would be a little confusing when just pulled out of a novel containing 526k words and 1207 pages... so I won't bother with that.

For example, let's say I want to describe a very complicated ship.

(Warning: very big image!)
http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/3351/glecterormainxj5.jpg

How would you approach this task? Where would you begin? What would you opt to leave to the reader, even though you want to establish a very clear vision of what's in your head?

On December 29 2009 15:53 Warrior Madness wrote:
Cool story bro.... Really

So how DO you improve your writing? I'm not a very clear thinker and I think the two go hand in hand. I'd like to improve both. What exactly was it that made you "fucking good" all of the sudden? Did you model after authors whose writing style you particularly liked? Is there a certain method or technique that helps you learn as much as you can from these authors? I personally really like J.M. Coetzee's style. I'd love to learn how to write like him. His prose is not only clear and economical but he also comes up with the most incisive analogies.

A good description IMO:
It was a terrifying starship, sleek and predatory with a cockpit that thrust forward like a falcon's beak and sharp-edged wings that splayed out from its body like a flower of death.

Ofc there are other stylistic variations you can do:
eg. It was a heavy destroyer built for deep-space combat with six unobtanium alloyed wings carrying a payload of fusion warheads powerful enough to make a new sun. It had the thrust capacity to go from zero to infinity with the flick of a switch and when the Grey Falcon's profile came up on the HUD, every pilot's suit within half a light-year would be venting turds into the waste disposal system.

On January 02 2010 01:30 StorkHwaiting wrote:
Hmm, I think you've got a very good idea of how to go about description then. If the problem is that you just lack a large vocabulary, my only recommendation is to read a lot of books and learn a lot of new words. That's really the only way to learn words properly.

I'm not a big fan of dictionary/thesaurus because people who use those to try to up their diction end up with horrible syntax. They use the words incorrectly or in a way that the connotation is just plain wrong. It takes reading books and seeing a word used 10-15x to really understand the context/connotation it's suitable for.

Best of luck in your endeavor and 14 years is a very impressive investment of time. I hope everything turns out well

On January 02 2010 05:23 IskatuMesk wrote:


Thanks :D

I do use dictionary/thesaurus now whereas before I never did. But I mostly use it to research unfamiliar terms. I try to avoid throwing in "big words" in sections where I normally do not, because they sound forced and ultimately detract from the writing.

I really do need to just read some more. That's what everyone says. It's hard for me to sit down and read, though. I need something interesting to read on the computer. I should read those wh40k novels I have in pdf format.

On January 02 2010 05:04 starfries wrote:
I saw this in the other thread so I came here to say congrats. and I have a question: how do you write convincing character development? I have no problem coming up with a plot but I always have one dimensional characters. If I try and work it in it ends up being painfully cheesy.

On January 02 2010 02:05 LordWeird wrote:
I really enjoy your writing style. You're also a Stork fan and that gives you 10/10 in my books. As somewhat of a writer myself, this is a particularly interesting blog. I am looking forward to hearing more about your endeavors. StorkHwaiting Hwaiting!

On January 02 2010 04:08 Xeris wrote:
i totally understand where you're coming from, I'm a writer myself and it's fucking hard T__T! i just submitted a manuscript of poetry for a book contest, i'll find out in march if I'm getting published oo!

On December 29 2009 14:21 Xeofreestyler wrote:
You should read the finals report on So1 OSL by manifesto. It's still in my mind as one of the most awesome battle reports because he visualized the 'story' of the game so beautifully.
I bet if you'd combine your skills similarly with a bit of sc a lot of us would enjoy it greatly maybe if you ever have any time or just wanna 'warm up'

On January 02 2010 07:14 StorkHwaiting wrote:


Haha WH40K is probably not the best place to improve your diction. (I know the writers who write half of them LOL. Well, rather I know the guys who's name is on the book >.> I won't say any more than that about the WH40K stuff hahaha).

Some great authors with strong diction in my opinion are:

Guy Gavriel Kay
China Mieville
Melanie Rawn
Peter F Hamilton
Steven Brust
Storm Constantine
Jacqueline Carey

In my opinion, most women authors are better in terms of diction when it comes to fantasy. Literary fiction is a whole other ballpark so I won't try to talk about that because I don't know enough.

So, I would look at writers and ask "hey, what do I think he's doing that's effective?" Also ask "what feelings do I have when I read their work?" And try to examine why you think the writer's able to evoke that reaction in you. That's the best you can get out of another writer in terms of writing technique and style.

OK, descriptions can be a tricky thing. The first thing you gotta remember is that writing is VERY different from the visual mediums. A lot of people have trouble converting words into images. Specificity is not important, what's important is communicating the general idea to your readers.

For instance:

This would be a bad description of the ship in my opinion:
It was a massive starship with six wings that fanned out from the middle in a geometrical pattern and angular designs were carved into the surface of them. There was also a cockpit encased in sharp hard edges and a main thruster in the back.

A good description IMO:
It was a terrifying starship, sleek and predatory with a cockpit that thrust forward like a falcon's beak and sharp-edged wings that splayed out from its body like a flower of death.

On January 02 2010 09:00 IskatuMesk wrote:


I'll have a look into those. It's hard enough for me to start reading things. I haven't read a novel start to finish in about eight years, now. But I'll have to try.

On January 05 2010 12:44 StorkHwaiting wrote:
Yeah experimentation is key. I definitely would not be so precise as to copy down what other writers do and then try to do a replica of it. That's a bit much imo. Although my faggy professor in college said she did stuff like that. Personally, I think it's too much of a rip off. That makes your writing style into a jigsaw of other people's work AKA gay.

I'd just read good writers and get a general feel for their writer's voice, how their flair is, etc. Writing voices are personalities. No need to copy the nuts and bolts of what they do.

On vocab and precise emotion, yeah... that can't be taught. In fact, that's the essence of what writing is. You gotta have good taste, unique taste, your own brand of what you think works perfect. And you're def going to have to be able to on the fly consistently make choices in how and why you want to say something a certain way.

P.S. NP on the advice. It's fun to talk about writing .

On January 09 2010 07:13 Fzero wrote:
I just read your story man, pretty good. I really liked your characterization of the little girl Tian Zi was with.