Recent content by Banespawn

It might help to break down the worldbuilding into smaller bits. Politics, religion, social structures, cultural traditions, Geography, weather, etc. Create a document and brainstorm ideas on each of these topics, and any others you can think of.

I don't read a lot of stories that combine science fiction and fantasy. Usually, it's one or the other, and much more fantasy than sci-fi. The Skyward series by Brandon Sanderson combines both, though I'd say it's more sci-fi. There's magic, I guess, but nothing like what he typically writes...

Have you read books similar to what you want to write? Read them and deconstruct them. Identify what the authors did and how the stories are structured, and then write your own.

I'm not that familiar with those books/movies. I never watched IT, and I think I saw Christine, but it was probably 40 years ago. Given that, I may be wrong, but I suspect that what they can do is implicitly defined. If the character is shown to do A, B, and C early in the story, and never...

I should note that the existence of these fallen gods is based on rules I have established for gods in my universe. I have three other story ideas that play off of those rules as well. This is what I meant by the setting not feeling believable. In our world, yes, political factors, along...

As you say below, it depends on the story. The decision to use a hard or soft magic system generally goes hand in hand with the development of the plot. If writers are creating them independent of each other, they are likely to run into problems. Call it a guideline then, rather than a law. I...

The characters are always of paramount importance. That doesn't make anything else unimportant by comparison. As @Luxuria noted, with a soft magic system, there is a danger of Deux ex Machina. Yes, it's not too difficult to avoid, as you say. Brandon Sanderson is always brought up in these...

Tone is different than voice. The overall tone might be somber, while one character is jaded and the other is hopeful. Or maybe the tone is lighthearted, but one character is a grouch and the other is inquisitive. What tone are you going for, and how do the voices of these characters differ?

Up to you, but I think skin to skin contact would be necessary. That's how Rogue from the X-men works.

Hair cells are dead by the time they leave the follicle, according to some quick research, so just touching someone's hair might not be enough. You could do it however you want, but I'd think you'd want it to still be attached to the person. Don't give yourself an easy way out when you need a...

Maybe it only works when there is physical contact. Maybe other people's thoughts are just background noise until they come in physical contact, then they can hear that person's thoughts clearly.

So, it's more like mind reading? There must be some kind of control over it, on one side or the other if not both. If someone else is constantly hearing John's thoughts in their head, that would be pretty maddening. If it's like mind reading, you don't need to express the thought at all. Once...

Orson Scott Card's Characters and Viewpoint is an excellent reference for understanding 3rd person POV depth. Here are some examples from the book: Limited 3rd person, light penetration: Limited 3rd person, deep penetration: See the difference? The deep version gives us much more of Pete's...

All legitimate writing advice (not rules) is rooted in psychology. How will the reader react to the words on the page? That is what matters. If we look at the advice from that perspective, we understand that we can do whatever we want as long as we get the right reaction from the reader. We...

Robin Hobb's Fitz and the Fool series had two 1st person narrators, but not right away. It started with just Fitz, like all of the books that came before it. It wasn't until after his daughter was born and she turned 10, I think, that we started to get chapters from her perspective. They were...