Magic Systems

[Draginon]

32 minutes ago, CarolaDavar said:

Yes indeed. You seem to understand it spot on.

I really hope I get to writing this story. One thing I want to try is having a character who is a  outlaw for his use of Dubstep. In the current war going on, this character lived in the place where classical music is how they fight. Using things like pianos, violins, and stuff like that. However, the people of this country doesn't think that the classical musicians and the jazz musicians and the tech/rock musicians should mix. There is basically a three-way war going on between these groups, so if you are born in the country of classical music but you have powers for music's like dubstep or rock they either kill you, banish you, or force you to stop using that kind of music.

My years of playing fantasy games has come through  Seriously though I understood it mostly because that's something I'm planning on doing for the main character of the epic fantasy I'm writing. He's a farmer but he's not going to be the type where he's used farm equipment all his life and 'obviously' knows how to use a sword. I'm having it where when he does get into battle he uses sickles, scythes and other sharp implements that a farmer would use on a regular basis. This was done kind of as a subversion of the 'inexperienced farmer becomes greatest sword master ever!' trope.

I like your idea and hope you get to publish it someday.

[CarolaDavar]

18 minutes ago, Draginon said:

My years of playing fantasy games has come through  Seriously though I understood it mostly because that's something I'm planning on doing for the main character of the epic fantasy I'm writing. He's a farmer but he's not going to be the type where he's used farm equipment all his life and 'obviously' knows how to use a sword. I'm having it where when he does get into battle he uses sickles, scythes and other sharp implements that a farmer would use on a regular basis. This was done kind of as a subversion of the 'inexperienced farmer becomes greatest sword master ever!' trope.

I like your idea and hope you get to publish it someday.

That sounds like an amazing story idea.

Thanks for helping me out and thanks for the support

[Draginon]

23 minutes ago, CarolaDavar said:

That sounds like an amazing story idea.

Thanks for helping me out and thanks for the support

Well my story ideas tend to go in the same category as Brandon does, except much more subversive. I try coming up with stories where fighting isn't the point of it and the heroes try to be smart about it. But pretty much this one is supposed to look like the typical fare but I try not to go the typical route by building them up to be something larger than life and instead don't go on to become kings, unless they were royal to begin with, so expect more of a macguffin quest, like Frodo's story, instead of something like Rand or Aragorn. Heck I even have a fake out ending planned for the middle book that will be resolved in the third book.

[CarolaDavar]

2 hours ago, Draginon said:

Well my story ideas tend to go in the same category as Brandon does, except much more subversive. I try coming up with stories where fighting isn't the point of it and the heroes try to be smart about it. But pretty much this one is supposed to look like the typical fare but I try not to go the typical route by building them up to be something larger than life and instead don't go on to become kings, unless they were royal to begin with, so expect more of a macguffin quest, like Frodo's story, instead of something like Rand or Aragorn. Heck I even have a fake out ending planned for the middle book that will be resolved in the third book.

Storms, that sounds fantastic. One of my favorite things to do is read/write stories that go along with some kind of stereotype, but with a twist. One story I am writing actually has the main character as the villain, thlough also includes some from the point of view of the protagonist. I take a prophecy and mess with it and it is so much fun. What you are doing here is definitely something I would read and most likely love.

[Draginon]

1 hour ago, CarolaDavar said:

Storms, that sounds fantastic. One of my favorite things to do is read/write stories that go along with some kind of stereotype, but with a twist. One story I am writing actually has the main character as the villain, thlough also includes some from the point of view of the protagonist. I take a prophecy and mess with it and it is so much fun. What you are doing here is definitely something I would read and most likely love.

Well you'll be getting three books of that one. I also have a prophecy, but the person who sees it doesn't see the full picture and is unsure who it was depicting, but assumes that it's the main character since they meet during the first book and he sees other things involving him, but you know what they say about assuming

I always try for a twist or alternative POV, like one where the time of war between the races has long since passed and is a relatively peaceful time so the world is closer to Victorian times than medieval, while another I got an inkling of an idea is to tell the traditional hero story but have it seen from the eyes of the people he meets so one chapter would be from a shopkeeper who sells him his first sword, another chapter would be from a mystic who heals the hero, etc... I even posted one of my story ideas in the creators corner where I defy the 'mighty whitey' and 'here comes America to save us all' tropes by having the 12 main characters be multinational and multiethnic. One other story I have is an ice planet where I plan on writing 10 books for it with each book shown from the POV of a different character and all of them are different races, yes I did 10 races for the story and most are brand new for it, and the story involves the planet starting to warm up and the heroes are trying to stop the planet from melting completely since the 10 races have adapted to life on a cold world. There will also be an extra book showing the whole story from a character who is kind of like Hoid where he manages to show up wherever the heroes are but always looking like a different race altogether.

[CarolaDavar]

1 hour ago, Draginon said:

Well you'll be getting three books of that one. I also have a prophecy, but the person who sees it doesn't see the full picture and is unsure who it was depicting, but assumes that it's the main character since they meet during the first book and he sees other things involving him, but you know what they say about assuming

I always try for a twist or alternative POV, like one where the time of war between the races has long since passed and is a relatively peaceful time so the world is closer to Victorian times than medieval, while another I got an inkling of an idea is to tell the traditional hero story but have it seen from the eyes of the people he meets so one chapter would be from a shopkeeper who sells him his first sword, another chapter would be from a mystic who heals the hero, etc... I even posted one of my story ideas in the creators corner where I defy the 'mighty whitey' and 'here comes America to save us all' tropes by having the 12 main characters be multinational and multiethnic. One other story I have is an ice planet where I plan on writing 10 books for it with each book shown from the POV of a different character and all of them are different races, yes I did 10 races for the story and most are brand new for it, and the story involves the planet starting to warm up and the heroes are trying to stop the planet from melting completely since the 10 races have adapted to life on a cold world. There will also be an extra book showing the whole story from a character who is kind of like Hoid where he manages to show up wherever the heroes are but always looking like a different race altogether.

Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun! You have a lot of great ideas. All my other story ideas are really just tiny tidbits I hope to throw into some story or another one day.

See about the prophecy in the story I am writing though, is, everyone is able to guess who it is telling of almost immediately, which actually is what makes the characters make these choices. To explain it better: people find out who the "villain" is and so starts to shun him, and that is what makes him turn evil in the first place. It is one of those things where, if people had ignored the prophecy, it would never have come true

[Draginon]

2 hours ago, CarolaDavar said:

Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun! You have a lot of great ideas. All my other story ideas are really just tiny tidbits I hope to throw into some story or another one day.

See about the prophecy in the story I am writing though, is, everyone is able to guess who it is telling of almost immediately, which actually is what makes the characters make these choices. To explain it better: people find out who the "villain" is and so starts to shun him, and that is what makes him turn evil in the first place. It is one of those things where, if people had ignored the prophecy, it would never have come true

A lot of my stories are still just ideas at this point, like Mistborn Era 4 is at this point.

To kind of clarify mine prophecies in the story aren't a well known thing, usually just something the prophet themself knows and no one else. In this case it's a world saving one, but when he saw it he was just a child so it didn't mean a lot to him. Now that he's older and things start heading towards that vision he shares it with the resistance and everyone immediately assumes it's the main character because the person in the vision has a very specific hair color, the people of this world have exotic hair colors, and the main characters hair was affected by the magic of the world to never settle on one shade. You can figure out why they think it's him at this point.

Also have another story where I've written first drafts for and there is a prophecy there as well, but I had that one suffer translation error because it was originally spoken in Ancient Greek and transliterated into different languages over the centuries to the point each has a different wording and meaning so no one is sure which wording is right, not even the villains are quite sure. Because of circumstances by the time the story happens the male lead is seemingly the only person it applies to, pretty much this is an alternate earth where angels are evil but demons are good but the angels have manipulated events and records to the point that the reputations of the two races is how it is in real life, because he's the last demon. Technically he was born human but inherited his demon powers from an actual demon that saved his life as a kid, effectively making him half demon half human. The prophecy says something about one born of human and demon will save the world. So because he's the only demon around he has to be the one... until his girlfriend becomes pregnant  If I get this story published you will be shocked by the ending of the second book since it's shocking and nearly made me cry when I first thought of it. It was hard to do it but the story needed a harsh ending to that part.

[CarolaDavar]

56 minutes ago, Draginon said:

A lot of my stories are still just ideas at this point, like Mistborn Era 4 is at this point.

To kind of clarify mine prophecies in the story aren't a well known thing, usually just something the prophet themself knows and no one else. In this case it's a world saving one, but when he saw it he was just a child so it didn't mean a lot to him. Now that he's older and things start heading towards that vision he shares it with the resistance and everyone immediately assumes it's the main character because the person in the vision has a very specific hair color, the people of this world have exotic hair colors, and the main characters hair was affected by the magic of the world to never settle on one shade. You can figure out why they think it's him at this point.

Also have another story where I've written first drafts for and there is a prophecy there as well, but I had that one suffer translation error because it was originally spoken in Ancient Greek and transliterated into different languages over the centuries to the point each has a different wording and meaning so no one is sure which wording is right, not even the villains are quite sure. Because of circumstances by the time the story happens the male lead is seemingly the only person it applies to, pretty much this is an alternate earth where angels are evil but demons are good but the angels have manipulated events and records to the point that the reputations of the two races is how it is in real life, because he's the last demon. Technically he was born human but inherited his demon powers from an actual demon that saved his life as a kid, effectively making him half demon half human. The prophecy says something about one born of human and demon will save the world. So because he's the only demon around he has to be the one... until his girlfriend becomes pregnant  If I get this story published you will be shocked by the ending of the second book since it's shocking and nearly made me cry when I first thought of it. It was hard to do it but the story needed a harsh ending to that part.

Wow. I seriously enjoy reading these. It isn't even the full book and I am already excited.

Some of my othe r ideas consists of : Dragon pirates, a video game character that is brougut to life by some brilliant millionaire(think iron man, but instead of the suit, an army of video game characters), and a girl who has the childish dream of being able to fly by basically jumping super high, but then finds out she can

[Mestiv]

Anyone else thinks this topic fits better in creative corner? 

[Hemalurgic Headshot]

2 hours ago, Mestiv said:

Anyone else thinks this topic fits better in creative corner? 

Aye.

[Draginon]

9 hours ago, CarolaDavar said:

Wow. I seriously enjoy reading these. It isn't even the full book and I am already excited.

Some of my othe r ideas consists of : Dragon pirates, a video game character that is brougut to life by some brilliant millionaire(think iron man, but instead of the suit, an army of video game characters), and a girl who has the childish dream of being able to fly by basically jumping super high, but then finds out she can

I'm also writing a short story, planned to be a series of short stories, about a merchant. The main intent is to show his world evolving the same way the people from the turn of the century experienced it, like seeing the introduction of the telephone, less dependence on magic (something he laments since his niece is a witch) and other technological advances.

Speaking of pirates, after seeing the new Pirates film I remembered a character I created years ago named Captain Stubble. I'm thinking of reviving him for a children's book series. I'm thinking the world is a world made of islands so boat travel is the main mode of transport, though these are more sci-fi style ships that still look like traditional pirate vessels, because there isn't enough consistent land for other modes of transport. I want him to be a kind of Robin Hood of pirates, meaning he's more honest than the other pirates, and his crew is unconventional like having a woman as his first mate, a man doing the clothes repairs, bringing in those who have miserable lives, etc... But my little twist on these people is they look half human and half animal. Captain Stubble and his first mate are part monkey, that's because they're siblings, and the crew would be different species as well like a chameleon, a snake and even a wolf. I want it fun enough for kids to enjoy but risqué enough for older readers as well since these are pirates. If I get around to this series I would have each book have a flashback showing how each member of the crew came to join.

[CarolaDavar]

5 hours ago, Draginon said:

I'm also writing a short story, planned to be a series of short stories, about a merchant. The main intent is to show his world evolving the same way the people from the turn of the century experienced it, like seeing the introduction of the telephone, less dependence on magic (something he laments since his niece is a witch) and other technological advances.

Speaking of pirates, after seeing the new Pirates film I remembered a character I created years ago named Captain Stubble. I'm thinking of reviving him for a children's book series. I'm thinking the world is a world made of islands so boat travel is the main mode of transport, though these are more sci-fi style ships that still look like traditional pirate vessels, because there isn't enough consistent land for other modes of transport. I want him to be a kind of Robin Hood of pirates, meaning he's more honest than the other pirates, and his crew is unconventional like having a woman as his first mate, a man doing the clothes repairs, bringing in those who have miserable lives, etc... But my little twist on these people is they look half human and half animal. Captain Stubble and his first mate are part monkey, that's because they're siblings, and the crew would be different species as well like a chameleon, a snake and even a wolf. I want it fun enough for kids to enjoy but risqué enough for older readers as well since these are pirates. If I get around to this series I would have each book have a flashback showing how each member of the crew came to join.

Fantastic ideas, both of which I would love to read as books.

I always wanted to write a short story, but for some reason all my writing goes super long

[Draginon]

1 hour ago, CarolaDavar said:

Fantastic ideas, both of which I would love to read as books.

I always wanted to write a short story, but for some reason all my writing goes super long

Funnily I have a hard with short stories as well. I had one turn into a novella when I finished the draft so I couldn't submit it to the short story contest I was going to enter at the time. That was a story about holidays personified and the main character was based on All Hallows' Eve. That one is another subversion by having the people around him change since he's already a nice guy, the others just don't see it because of his nature.

[CarolaDavar]

39 minutes ago, Draginon said:

Funnily I have a hard with short stories as well. I had one turn into a novella when I finished the draft so I couldn't submit it to the short story contest I was going to enter at the time. That was a story about holidays personified and the main character was based on All Hallows' Eve. That one is another subversion by having the people around him change since he's already a nice guy, the others just don't see it because of his nature.

I did something similar with a sci-finger story I was writing. I tried to make it short but it ended up being too long for a short story.

Oooooh. One story idea I had once had to do with a magic system based on gloves. These gloves could give you magical person to do different things(like writing, drawing, fighting, studying, teaching, etc.). However I had the idea like 3 or 4 years ago and really butchered it in my attempt to write it.

[Lindel]

There's this weird magic system I've been tinkering with recently that's tentatively named "lumatics". I don't know if I'll be able to make this make sense to anyone else, but here goes. The concept is that there exists a collective unconscious, a network of the thoughts and perceptions that humans have regarding the world around them. These mental perceptions cluster together into mindscapes, which are expanses within the mental landscape that represent a core concept. Mindscapes are filled with thoughtforms, visible features of the mindscape that represent specific thoughts, ideas, and beliefs that people have about a concept. Most mindscapes are effectively infinite in scope, containing expansive regions grouped around different facets of a core concept. Each of those concepts is layered. So, the scape associated with a specific hat is really just one region within the larger scape associated with hats in general, and the scape associated with hats in general is only a small part of the scape associated with clothing or fashion. The largest, or most abstract, scapes that have been discovered, are called the Metascapes, and every smaller scape is nested within one of the three Metascapes. The Metascapes are Society, Nature, and Soul. Society is a representation of humanity, civilization, technology, relationships, nations, and so on. Nature contains ideas regarding the physical world, and Soul contains ideas that are based on mythology, religion, the metaphysical, and emotions. It has been argued that there probably exist only two Metascapes, the Intangible and the Physical, where what we call Society really exists between these, as an overlap of those two higher scapes, but so far this theory has yet to be proven. 

Lumatists are individuals who have trained their minds to access the mindscapes. Entering a mindscape requires clearly visualizing the core concept, which is much easier to do with a physical object to tie it to. Extremely talented lumatists are able to enter more abstract scapes, but most are limited to scapes associated with specific objects, and generally need to see the object in order to project themselves into its scape. For the purpose of this discussion, I'm sticking mostly to mindscapes associated with specific objects, because more abstract scapes are a lot harder to understand. So, these concepts can be applied to an abstract idea, but it's harder to visualize how that works. Just remember that when I say object, that's because it's the most common scape that lumatists access. The same principles can be applied to a scape representing an less concrete idea or concept.

When a lumatist enters a mindscape, their physical body is rendered unconscious, and they find themselves in an abstract landscape of thoughtforms, which appear as objects and features that represent ideas that people have had or are having regarding that object. Some thoughtforms are common enough ideas that they become a consistent feature of the landscape, while other thoughtforms represent a specific thought that someone had at a certain point. The meaning behind a given thoughtform isn't always obvious, and it requires some practice to interpret them. By exploring a mindscape carefully, a lumatist can uncover clues about what thoughts others have had around a concept. As a concrete example, if a lumatist entered the scape of a knife that was used to murder someone, they could look for thoughtforms that would give them clues about the identity of the murderer. They'd have to know where to look, though. Movement through mindscapes can be accomplished on foot once you're in the right general area, but since each scape is infinitely large, it could literally take forever to reach the region you're looking for. Fortunately, lumatists aren't limited to physical forms of travel within mindscapes. With practice, lumatists learn to "think" themselves into the region they're looking for, projecting their mental self instantly across the scape. Scapes aren't strictly mapped in three dimensions, either. The same thoughtform may be found in multiple "locations" within the scape. For example, there are "regions" within a scape where thoughts that happened at a certain time are clustered, but one of those thoughtforms could also be found in a region associated with the person who thought it, and in the region associated ideas that are similar in nature. 

Exploring a mindscape can allow a lumatist to uncover secrets and "read" people's thoughts, assuming they correctly interpret the thoughtforms they find, but that's not the only thing they can do within the scape. By removing or altering key thoughtforms in a scape, lumatists can change the way people perceive an object. As a simple, concrete example, by stripping away the thoughtforms from their gun's mindscape that make the weapon stand out and seem dangerous, a lumatist could temporarily make it seem harmless. However, over time the core concept of that object will bleed through, repopulating its scape with the thoughts of danger and harm. As another example, if a thoughtform representing a specific memory is destroyed or moved to a different scape, it will alter the person's memory of the event. You can't completely destroy a memory this way, because it's only one piece of that memory that you're effecting, but by altering that piece you can drastically change the emotion or context of the memory in interesting ways.

Every mindscape has a sentient inhabitant, called a Jinn, that is the embodiment of the core concept of the scape. The Jinn is represents the consensus belief of the central idea of the object that the scape is associated with, and Jinn have a create deal of influence over their mindscape. Bargaining with a scape's patron Jinn can help a lumatist to find what they need or alter thoughtforms on a large scale, but getting on a Jinn's bad side can be dangerous. It's possible for a Jinn to leave behind its own scape, but that's easier said than done. Most Jinn are extremely loyal to their mindscape, as it's their identity. To get a Jinn to cooperate, you have to understand its essence, its purpose, and convince it that what you want aligns with that purpose. If a Jinn leaves its mindscape, the source object becomes deadened; it doesn't stand out, people don't really notice or care about it, and they have difficulty recalling it as soon as it leaves their sight. But in order to leave a mindscape, the Jinn needs to enter another one. This generally causes problems, as most Jinn aren't very friendly toward these trespassers. After entering a new mindscape, a few different things can happen. Either an agreement is made, and the two Jinn inhabit the mindscape together, or they compete for control. If two Jinn end up coexisting equally within a mindscape, the source object permanently takes on concepts associated with the foreign Jinn's domain in the minds of those who interact with the object, but maintains its original purposes as well. If the foreign Jinn is permitted to stay, but isn't allowed to graft into the mindscape, then it continues to exist within the scape, but has no effect on people's perceptions of the object. If a foreign Jinn overpowers the patron Jinn, the foreign Jinn's traits completely take over, and the original Jinn is either destroyed, or drifts into a larger, more abstract scape. Replacing a mindscape's Jinn can be far more permanent than altering or replacing thoughtforms, because the Jinn's influence spreads across the entire scape. The effects of Jinn displacement can be extremely unsettling to the mind of an observer, as it creates a strange dissonance where an object innately triggers thoughts and associations that have nothing to do with its nature, if that makes sense. It's actually very difficult to subtly graft a Jinn into a foreign scape, because it usually just doesn't fit. For some purposes, this works perfectly. For example, by grafting a Jinn from a horror movie into a mask, that mask will trigger heightened terror in those who see it. It's easier to create subtle effects on perception, ones that aren't necessarily noticed by the observer, if you can convince the two Jinn, the original and the foreign, to work together, thus maintaining the normal associations while adding some of your own. 

Soulscapes are extremely abstract mindscapes that are manifestations are a person's own internal thoughts about themselves, their identity, and so on. They are extremely difficult to access, and require a deep understanding of the individual before they can be entered. Those who are capable of traversing soulscapes can be extremely dangerous, because they tamper directly with the essence of who a person is. 

Certain lumatists have discovered a way to create mindborn, beings that exhibit self-awareness and appear essentially as hallucinations within the natural world. They're similar to the aspects in Legion. To create a mindborn, the lumatist must essentially convince themselves on some level of the reality of their existence. The character must become real enough to the lumatist that they begin to feel independent from themselves. Once a mindborn is created, the illusion of their existence must be maintained. Anything that breaks this illusion threatens to destroy the mindborn. Unlike Legion's aspects, mindborn can actually see and know things that their creator wasn't present for, but they're incapable of effecting the actual world. Anything they "do" can be seen by the lumatist, but no one else. Some lumatists claim to have created mindborn that can be "shared", seen by more than one lumatist, but this has not been confirmed. 

A theoretical mental landscape exists in the study of lumatics called a paracosm. A paracosm is an independent, mental world, like an extension of the process of creating a mindborn. Their existence has yet to be proven, and the difficulty is that even if they can be created, accessing them would be extremely difficult, because by definition they're not associated with any thoughts directed at the world around us. If Brandon Sanderson were a lumatist, his worlds would theoretically exist as paracosms, but even then, accessing them would be another matter entirely. Entering the mindscape of an idea that inspired a part of a paracosm is not the same as entering the paracosm itself. Many lumatists have attempted to create paracosms. Most have failed, or at least failed to prove they actually exist, but those who have come closest have all fallen into a permanent trance, lost somewhere in the expanse of the mindscapes.

The Anomaly is a theoretical catastrophe that could happen if the general population knew about the existence of the mindscapes. This is the reason, in my world, why only a select few know about the magic, and why they maintain secrecy. The Metascapes are based on public perception of the way their world works. If knowledge of the mental landscapes become widespread, this could create a fourth Metascape, one associated with the mental world itself. There are a number of theories as to what would happen in the event that this happened. Some argue that nothing bad would happen, that the new Metascape would behave similarly to the other three. But others argue that a scape associated with the mindscapes could cause distortions in the fabric of the mindscape with unpredictable results. It might become dissociated with the natural world entirely, plunging anyone who's mind touched it into a mental abyss, it might create ripples throughout every mindscape that infinitely warp and distort the mental landscape into a tangled mess, driving everyone insane, or we might all just die. Depends who you ask. Everyone pretty much agrees that they'd rather not find out, though, and so the lumatists remain in the shadows. 

EDIT: My main setting for this includes a version of myself, not a lumatist himself, within the setting, who thinks he's the real me from the normal world, and so has inadvertently has created an infinite number of nested paracosms, each with a little mindborn version of me thinking that he's the one who came up with the whole concept, totally unaware that he's actually living inside a paracosm himself.  

Edited August 2, 2017 by Lindel

[Draginon]

42 minutes ago, CarolaDavar said:

I did something similar with a sci-finger story I was writing. I tried to make it short but it ended up being too long for a short story.

Oooooh. One story idea I had once had to do with a magic system based on gloves. These gloves could give you magical person to do different things(like writing, drawing, fighting, studying, teaching, etc.). However I had the idea like 3 or 4 years ago and really butchered it in my attempt to write it.

A finger story? It's hard keeping it small when you have worldbuilding to do without the characters being dumb about something they should.

My first real short story I managed to keep short was about a biomechanical robot. I had submitted it to Writers of the Future and coincidentally that year Brandon was one of the judges. I didn't qualify sadly. But I still struggled to keep that one short so I had to cheat (had the robot suffer a blackout moment) a little to do so. If I ever publish that one I'll most likely rewrite it without the cheating ending.

You should give that another attempt to see if you do a better job unless you think it's lame. The merchant story I'm doing the magic there was partially inspired by ASMR, since that's where I first got the idea for it, and that means the magic users have to find their specific triggers to activate it.

[CarolaDavar]

35 minutes ago, Draginon said:

A finger story? It's hard keeping it small when you have worldbuilding to do without the characters being dumb about something they should.

My first real short story I managed to keep short was about a biomechanical robot. I had submitted it to Writers of the Future and coincidentally that year Brandon was one of the judges. I didn't qualify sadly. But I still struggled to keep that one short so I had to cheat (had the robot suffer a blackout moment) a little to do so. If I ever publish that one I'll most likely rewrite it without the cheating ending.

You should give that another attempt to see if you do a better job unless you think it's lame. The merchant story I'm doing the magic there was partially inspired by ASMR, since that's where I first got the idea for it, and that means the magic users have to find their specific triggers to activate it.

Oh my, it was supposed to be sci-fi 

I definitely will give it try. Actually to be honest the one reason I butchered it is because I was home schooled my entire life, and me as a home schooled child was trying to write what school was like, and it is completely off. Now that I have been to school, perhaps I can write that better.

Nice cheat, having your robot black out. I probably wouldn't have thought of that

[Draginon]

1 hour ago, CarolaDavar said:

Oh my, it was supposed to be sci-fi 

I definitely will give it try. Actually to be honest the one reason I butchered it is because I was home schooled my entire life, and me as a home schooled child was trying to write what school was like, and it is completely off. Now that I have been to school, perhaps I can write that better.

Nice cheat, having your robot black out. I probably wouldn't have thought of that

I actually read that as sci-fi finger story and kept wondering what a finger story was. Funnily I like sci-fi but I don't get that many story ideas for them.

Well it was done because I didn't want to try squishing in a big old 'escape the prison' into the word count I had to work with and the story was already pretty streamlined to begin with up to that point. Word count restrictions are the worst!

[CarolaDavar]

3 hours ago, Draginon said:

I actually read that as sci-fi finger story and kept wondering what a finger story was. Funnily I like sci-fi but I don't get that many story ideas for them.

Well it was done because I didn't want to try squishing in a big old 'escape the prison' into the word count I had to work with and the story was already pretty streamlined to begin with up to that point. Word count restrictions are the worst!

Same here. It is surprisingly difficult to get new or original sci-fi stories.

And yes. I can almost never work under a word count

[Draginon]

19 minutes ago, CarolaDavar said:

Same here. It is surprisingly difficult to get new or original sci-fi stories.

And yes. I can almost never work under a word count

Especially with how loose the genre is nowadays with everyone combining it with fantasy. To me it has to involve spaceships, aliens, advanced technology, robots, cyborgs and augmentations, anything else makes it less sci-fi for me.

They are the worst! How can anyone expect someone to come up with a good story under 8,000 words or whatever!?

You know I can never figure out what age groups I want my stories to be made for, besides that pirate story, because I don't settle for any age and just do what works for the story I'm telling. Like I'm not afraid of having LGBT characters (I just treat it like I do in real life which is "they're LGBT, so what? That's not all they are" since it doesn't matter to me what someone's preference is since it's just as major a characteristic as being straight is), killing characters off or raise issues that most would deem inappropriate for a younger audience. I even have appropriate cussing because I don't want characters who would make sailors blush, but if they're a nasty piece of work there shouldn't be any reason for them not to cuss up a storm, because of how most writers do it to the point of "I get it, this book's for grown ups, can you just lay off the language for a page or two?"

[CarolaDavar]

20 hours ago, Draginon said:

Especially with how loose the genre is nowadays with everyone combining it with fantasy. To me it has to involve spaceships, aliens, advanced technology, robots, cyborgs and augmentations, anything else makes it less sci-fi for me.

They are the worst! How can anyone expect someone to come up with a good story under 8,000 words or whatever!?

You know I can never figure out what age groups I want my stories to be made for, besides that pirate story, because I don't settle for any age and just do what works for the story I'm telling. Like I'm not afraid of having LGBT characters (I just treat it like I do in real life which is "they're LGBT, so what? That's not all they are" since it doesn't matter to me what someone's preference is since it's just as major a characteristic as being straight is), killing characters off or raise issues that most would deem inappropriate for a younger audience. I even have appropriate cussing because I don't want characters who would make sailors blush, but if they're a nasty piece of work there shouldn't be any reason for them not to cuss up a storm, because of how most writers do it to the point of "I get it, this book's for grown ups, can you just lay off the language for a page or two?"

And yet some people write entire books that are just a ton of short stories together.

I totally get that. One story I am writing was originally going to be for like 10-14 ish, but then certain things happen to my characters and they grow up, etc. And for a while I was trying to keep track of what age group it might be, but by now I am just like, "if it gets published, then we can decide then".

Also, all the cussing I have in my books is mainly fun thing kind of how Sanderson does it. (Things like Storms, Rust and Ruin, etc.(except I make up my own that suit the world))

Oh I had this one really cool magic system that I wrote a mini story for(the first and only short story I could ever write), but I want to re-write it and change it to a bigger book with a better plotline.  For a while I was in love with Steampunk(it brings along a lot of interesting ideas to me), so I really wanted to come up with a Steam-based magic system. Basically, all of the technology, etc. revolves around this magic. These magic users, referred to as "Steam-Casters"(wow, my autocorrect knows it by now), can put gears together to create things and then use their abilities to make it come to life. All factories have Steam powered machinery, and there are a few pets made out of gears. Any "living" gear constructed thing(in my story I have a Gear-Constructed cat), has to be made out of multiple different metals. I can't remember off the top of my head all of them, but it is like silver gears give it cognitive thought, gold can make it see and hear, etc. It is a very fun concept to me, plus I loved writing my side character "Gears the cat", so I hope to rewrite it, but better.

[Draginon]

47 minutes ago, CarolaDavar said:

And yet some people write entire books that are just a ton of short stories together.

I totally get that. One story I am writing was originally going to be for like 10-14 ish, but then certain things happen to my characters and they grow up, etc. And for a while I was trying to keep track of what age group it might be, but by now I am just like, "if it gets published, then we can decide then".

Also, all the cussing I have in my books is mainly fun thing kind of how Sanderson does it. (Things like Storms, Rust and Ruin, etc.(except I make up my own that suit the world))

Oh I had this one really cool magic system that I wrote a mini story for(the first and only short story I could ever write), but I want to re-write it and change it to a bigger book with a better plotline.  For a while I was in love with Steampunk(it brings along a lot of interesting ideas to me), so I really wanted to come up with a Steam-based magic system. Basically, all of the technology, etc. revolves around this magic. These magic users, referred to as "Steam-Casters"(wow, my autocorrect knows it by now), can put gears together to create things and then use their abilities to make it come to life. All factories have Steam powered machinery, and there are a few pets made out of gears. Any "living" gear constructed thing(in my story I have a Gear-Constructed cat), has to be made out of multiple different metals. I can't remember off the top of my head all of them, but it is like silver gears give it cognitive thought, gold can make it see and hear, etc. It is a very fun concept to me, plus I loved writing my side character "Gears the cat", so I hope to rewrite it, but better.

Like Arcanum Unbounded?

Yeah, it's like I go back and forth whether my ideas are more for the teen end or adult end of the spectrum.

Well I have stories that are alternate Earths so it's finding that right balance between potty mouth and saint. My epic fantasy trilogy has a very interesting and risqué sounding cussing system. It all depends on the Goddess' womb and how pure it is, like 'by the Goddess' immaculate womb!' and 'by the Goddess' defiled womb!' so the dirtier it gets the worse it is. It's not meant to be a sexual thing but more on respect for Her since She is the mother of all races.

That sounds interesting. I've wanted to write a Steampunk story and Cyberpunk story, I want to call it my Punk Duo, but I don't know what type of story. I've contemplated doing a murder mystery for the Steampunk one and a who am I story for the Cyberpunk since the player would wake up in the game with no memory of who they are, not even knowing their real gender.

[CarolaDavar]

1 hour ago, Draginon said:

Like Arcanum Unbounded?

Yeah, it's like I go back and forth whether my ideas are more for the teen end or adult end of the spectrum.

Well I have stories that are alternate Earths so it's finding that right balance between potty mouth and saint. My epic fantasy trilogy has a very interesting and risqué sounding cussing system. It all depends on the Goddess' womb and how pure it is, like 'by the Goddess' immaculate womb!' and 'by the Goddess' defiled womb!' so the dirtier it gets the worse it is. It's not meant to be a sexual thing but more on respect for Her since She is the mother of all races.

That sounds interesting. I've wanted to write a Steampunk story and Cyberpunk story, I want to call it my Punk Duo, but I don't know what type of story. I've contemplated doing a murder mystery for the Steampunk one and a who am I story for the Cyberpunk since the player would wake up in the game with no memory of who they are, not even knowing their real gender.

 I guess you could say it's like Arcanum Unbounded

I imagine that alternate earths are a bit harder to do that for(all of my stories are placed in brand-new worlds).

That is definitely an interesting one though

Ooooh, the Punk Duo. That sounds amazing. Both of those ideas would probably work grandly for you

[Draginon]

1 hour ago, CarolaDavar said:

 I guess you could say it's like Arcanum Unbounded

I imagine that alternate earths are a bit harder to do that for(all of my stories are placed in brand-new worlds).

That is definitely an interesting one though

Ooooh, the Punk Duo. That sounds amazing. Both of those ideas would probably work grandly for you

It would be so weird to have a short story collection but the first time they're printed is in the collection book and not an anthology or a magazine.

There are some stories that work better using Earth rather than a new world but can still be hard when you need to research stuff, like all the cultures for my Warriors story since there's a dozen main characters there. Even on that one I need to make stuff up since the threats tend to be interdimensional. Heck one of the past enemies becomes an ally for the new group after being accidentally released from his prison and in his dimension people have no physical shape so when he came to earth he took the form of the nearest thing he find just to survive. That form was a hoodie. When people wear him he more or less possesses them and can alter their body if he wishes.

It might be a while before I even get to the Punk Duo since I don't even have a concept for the Steampunk one. The Cyberpunk one was inspired by some anime/manga I love named .Hack//Sign, Sword Art Online and 1/2 Prince.

[CarolaDavar]

20 hours ago, Draginon said:

It would be so weird to have a short story collection but the first time they're printed is in the collection book and not an anthology or a magazine.

There are some stories that work better using Earth rather than a new world but can still be hard when you need to research stuff, like all the cultures for my Warriors story since there's a dozen main characters there. Even on that one I need to make stuff up since the threats tend to be interdimensional. Heck one of the past enemies becomes an ally for the new group after being accidentally released from his prison and in his dimension people have no physical shape so when he came to earth he took the form of the nearest thing he find just to survive. That form was a hoodie. When people wear him he more or less possesses them and can alter their body if he wishes.

It might be a while before I even get to the Punk Duo since I don't even have a concept for the Steampunk one. The Cyberpunk one was inspired by some anime/manga I love named .Hack//Sign, Sword Art Online and 1/2 Prince.

Yeah, I get how useful it is to use earth. Now that I think about it, my magical gloves story was in an alternate earth. Hmmm.. . ..

An evil hoodie?? That is just pure amazing. Hec, even if I knew it was evil I would probably wear it anyways just because of how cool that is.

Ah yes, the Anime. Sword art online is amazing, I have to admit. I rewatched it recently. Watching anime does spawn a lot of new creative eideas