On Nov 22, 2011, at 6:50 AM, jshkay wrote: > Getting into writing, I've started noticing a trend with how I write. I just > started doing some character outlines, and one was a priestess. I was then > like, she is a priestess of <blank>. From there, I realized I didn't have a > fully implemented god system. I then went ahead and wrote up my whole system > of gods for this world, which took me most of the day and into the next. > Another instance was when I wrote about the main character's father being a > blacksmith. I then realized I didn't know enough about blacksmithing. After > that I spent the rest of the day reading about and watching videos on how to > blacksmith, how to make damascan steel and different types of swords. > > I'm wondering, do you run into this a lot when you write? You want to say or > write about something, but you don't know enough about the subject and then > you spend the next couple days just looking into that subject, or writing > another aspect of your world. I saw you mention before that the way to be a > writer is to study things like history and anthropology, and not literature. > I think I'm really starting to see why that is the case.
I don't run into it at all, but then I've been doing this for 30 years. When I did Magician I took an afternoon off to hit the UCSD main library when I realized I knew nothing about sieging a castle. Best, R.E.F. ---- www.crydee.com Never attribute to malice what can satisfactorily be explained away by stupidity.
