Comments on: trudge trudge (logistics and fantasy)

By: Isolde

Isolde — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:27:44 +0000

You know, it is amazing, but just the name Murkwood has such a powerful image in my mind, it really stands as a testament to the amazing world-building work that Tolkien was capable of.

In terms of traveling, scenary, and description, the awesome author AC Gaughen (if you haven’t checked out her site: http://blog.finalword.org/ you def should) taught me to use a combination of colors and sensory images – I know it sounds strange, but it has served me well to create interesting description. For example: “the company moved silently through the low passages with nothing but the dark blue sound of water dripping from unseen nooks and crannies.”

it might work, it might not, but i think it adds an interesting and unexpected dimension when thrown in occasionally with description.

Hope this might help! Good luck!

And thanks for your kind comment on http://www.thelifeuncommon.net…you are always an honored guest there!

By: Writing Fiction, Not a Travelogue « A Bloggering Hole

Writing Fiction, Not a Travelogue « A Bloggering Hole — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:21:27 +0000

[...] Travelogue, Writing } Eliza Wyatt, in her blog Tales of a Fantasy Scribbler, brought-up an incredibly worthwhile concern to science-fiction or fantasy writers – or, well, of any sort honestly – inherent to the nature of [...]

By: Saint Know-All

Saint Know-All — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:04:54 +0000

I admit that travel scenes usually bore me to tears because so many of them are of a National Geographic, documentary-style nature. They went here and did this there and stopped to eat at this point, etc. If the prose is very, very good, this works well and keeps the reader interested.

But being someone who loves character-driven stories, I usually try to keep every part of the story character-centric, using, as you mentioned, their thoughts, emotions, and fatigue to create a sense of their travel. It’s one thing to describe some majestic mountains in your character’s path; it’s another to have him panting and struggling to climb said mountains.

I also like to cheat a little by slipping in conversations between characters or stories they tell each other about the lands they travel through. You noted that your character is disinclined to talk; what about using others in the company for conversation? Or perhaps weaving in a history of the tunnels into the scene?

Hmm. Yeah, next to sex scenes (which I maintain are the hardest scenes to write without losing your reader to fits of giggling or nausea), I find traveling scenes to be the hardest. Good luck!

By: daybookery

daybookery — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:52:08 +0000

In my fantasy novella-in-the-works called Doranchorn, -much- travelling is to be had to shitloads of chagrin. The crick-in-the-neck of Tolkien’s Hobbit/LotR series is that it could well be squeezed onto the bookrack under Travelogue. I forgive and chalk it up to his being an Old English Lit. enthusiast, wherein travelling served the purpose of remembering landmarks important to a people’s history. I’m not convinced this is necessary in the world of the Written and incredibly accurate maps.

I think there is a lesson to be learned in Stephen King’s /The Gunslinger/, which is all travel and predominately all desert, but doesn’t get old. But since I’m not quite finished with it, I’m not sure I know what that lesson is just yet.

Anyway, what an interesting topic! I may spoil at something similar over at Daybookery.

By: aldersgatecycle

aldersgatecycle — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:35:52 +0000

I wonder about this a great deal. But the funny thing is that, although to me it feels more like trudging than anything, many readers love the details of travel. They want to know what the company is carrying, what they’re eating, what the tunnel feels like. You don’t need to go on as much length as Tolkien tended to do which, occasionally, went on a bit long even for my tastes; but take the moment to stop, pause, and look around.

People read books because they want to feel a part of it. Show the reader what you see, and what your character sees. If you describe it with wonder, it’ll be wond’rous.