This is fun (explanation inside)

[zedlav]

A couple of days ago, I came across a collection of blog posts thing that some, if not most, aspiring fantasy writers might find useful and should at least try to read. It is an a series of long rants, written by some annoying nerd who apparently has read a lot of crap (beats me why anyone would willingly subject himself to that) and has a lots of strongly worded opinions about world building, believable characters, plots and that sort of thing. He makes a lot of points, with some of them being just as misguided as the ones he rages against, but most are very good and relevant, especially, if you don't have a habit of reading a lot of crap from cover to cover.

I will confess that I occasionally try to write something or other myself and usually end up destroying it in disgust, sometimes even on the next day, so I did find this an interesting, if annoying read.

Oh, here's the link.

SF&F Critters References

Discuss.

[pyan]

Just read a couple, zedlav...very funny!

Excellent link, thanks.

[Yeoman]

Thanks for the link!

Some good points in those rants, but i'll take a while to work my way through them all.

[Giovanna Clairval]

The author is a graduate student (Oxford??) in creative writing, if I remember well.
So, those are her strongly expressed personal thoughts, but also have some serious ground.

Unfortunately, the page is no longer updated (since mid 2007). To get to read recent posts, one has to befriend the lady here:

Arin i Asolde

[chopper]

interesting stuff. obviously too much to go through in one go, but i picked "dragons" and "strong female characters" to start with, as i have a vested interest there....
much of this is common sense, of course...

[The Curious Orange]

Blimey, I spent most of yesterday afternoon reading some of those. And my own novel is guilty of 99% of those sins (many intentionally, mind).
Ho hum.

[jenna]

Great site, I agree with a few of the rants (didn't have a chance to read them all), and some of what they've written are my pet peeves too, that I made a decision long ago not to abuse in my own writing..