Fun Alterra Fact! In My Book, A Persons Age Is Determined By The Amount Of Seasons Theyve Lived Through

Fun Alterra Fact! In my book, a person’s age is determined by the amount of seasons they’ve lived through instead of the amount of years. This is due to the fact that 1 year on alterra is 2,4 times longer than a year on Earth, yet the life expectancy is roughly the same +/- 20 years depending on time period.

Because of this, people celebrate twice as many birthdays as humans do, and since it’s a fantasy world where you have a higher chance of surviving if you stay in shape, people can afford to eat twice the amount of birthday cakes!

ATTENTION WRITERS OF TUMBLR

It is not wrong to love your own characters, or to have your favorite fictional character to be one of your own. They are your creations, and are influenced by traits you life the most. You are always writing a character that is written by you, so you are the person who is going to relate to them the most. It is ok to make characters based on aspects of yourself, because you yourself are a unique person. It is always better to love your own characters than it is to see them as nothing but a bunch of words.

If you don’t care about your characters, how can you ever expect your readers to care about them. When people say “Write what you know.” Don’t take that literally. The best way to think is what about what you enjoy, that joy will always be clearly visible to anyone reading it. Passion is what makes a good book, and there will always be a group of people that will like what you are passionate about. Even if you only write as a hobby, hobbies are meant to be fun! Of course it’s good to listen to feedback, but remember that it’s your story, not theirs.

(Spoilers for my book, skip to last paragraph if you plan on reading it when it’s finished)

Even my favorite fictional character is one of my own. In the Fantasy novel I am currently writing, there is a character named James W. H. Honorborn. He is a ‘Hee-Hoo’ kind of wizard with a long white head of hair and beard, wears black robes with gold detailing, and has a voice similar to J.K. Simmons. On the surface he seems mostly harmless, barely casting any magic and loving to just exposit random information with his many stories, but in reality he is of a race created by gods. (In my world each galaxy has it’s own set of gods, most life is from evolution, but sometimes the gods create their own species to protect their favorite lifeforms) James looks mostly human, but is actually an Eldritch mage, immortal people who are highly proficient is magic and memorizing stuff. Their purpose is to involve themselves in cultures and learn everything about them. For most of the book, James is practically harmless, being a pacifist and very caring friend, but in the final battle, when the antagonists barely noticed his existence, but then he proceeds to cast a spell so badass, it can be seen from anywhere on the planet.This is not even the main character of my book, even though he’s my favorite. He is a perfect foil to my protagonist and his goofy nature and humor makes him one of the most human characters I’ve seen in a book.

Remember that every character you write, every passerby and every big bad is one of your OC’s, so treat them like one. Try to make every single person in your story enjoyable to write! I’ve met many people who tried to get into writing, but are stuck on a bunch of unfinished wip’s. When I read them, 6 times out of 10, it stops at a scene where there is at least 1 characters your not ever supposed to care about. Care about your characters, and people will care about them. To the average person, reading is not a job, a good book should be fun, and a great place to start is to have fun writing it.

To the 3 people following me, guess what. I’m writing my first book, here’s draft 1 of the prologue

Alterra: The Fall of Lord Valthoraxe

Prologue

The following scripture has been translated from High-Norcurn, several species and creatures have been renamed to a version of that creature better understood by your population. To aid in understanding, any replaced word will be slanted. If a creature has a name you do not recognize, there is likely no suitable alternative in your culture, fictional or otherwise.

The planet of Alterra lies in the Black Eye Galaxy, in a solar system called Galfrei X. The system has only 4 planets and 1 G-type White-Yellow Giant star. Alterra is an Earth-like planet with 48 hour days and an average gravitational pull of 1,65g’s on the surface. However, under the surface and underground is a place very much like hell. Beneath that, a black hole that is only held back by a layer of extremely dense enchanted rock. The inhabitants of Alterra are at a point in technological advancement slightly beyond Earth’s medieval period. The dominant intelligent species are humans, dwarves, Elves, along with a few half-orks, and half-golems. The humans are a power-seeking race that adapt using their intellect to overcome challenges. The dwarves are incredibly strong for their small size, being very talented at extreme physically demanding tasks such as blacksmithing and mining. The Elves are extremely proud and think themselves above all else, however their stubbornness makes them unwilling to progress with new advancements. The half-orks are great warriors and are the only thing between a full-scale war with the orks. The half-golems have strong, stone-like hide that can stop a steel blade. They do not tire, nor do they need nutrition, and they are by far the most racially disliked species, being hated by all but the dwarves. Each race has a different form of power, the humans and elves with their ancient magiks, the dwarves with their devastating weaponry and ever advancing firearms, the orks and half-orks with their brutality and numbers, and the golems with durability and sheer brute force.

All these races serve purposes beyond their own self-interests in one way or another. The human warlocks stop the spread of the Droughted by draining all life in the land around it, creating the dried mesa they reside in. The high-elves protect the forests from evils who seek the destroy it. The dwarves provide resources to the lands below their mountains, and fight the monsters that rise from the depths. The half-orks are in a constant political struggle to prevent war. The half-golems built the 5 great kingdoms of unity, places where all races can live together without prejudice.

And then there’s Lord Valthoraxe, an evil tyrant who betrayed the races, kills for sport and claimed ownership over the entire planet. It resides in a hell of its own design referred to as The Lord’s Wastelands. It is not of any race seen prior nor since, and has the ability to control fire in its entirety. Its name brings fear to all, few even dare mention it, and fewer still attempt to stop it.

This joke is a bit outdated, might fly over some people’s head.

What is the difference between science and religion?...

Science builds planes and skyscrapers, religion brings them together.

Progress update; I’m a lazy fuck with adhd, I’ll keep you posted.

This is true to an extent, this will not work for every writer. Depending on the complexity or length of the first draft, it might be easier or faster to rewrite only certain parts. When you make it to the end of that draft with changes, wait a few days and read through it again. Each time you revise your story, it will get closer and closer to a finished story and greatly decreases the chances of inconsistencies. The more time you spend revising the same draft, the more you will understand the characters you created. Note that this is in no way the best to write, everyone has their own methods, I’m just saying that there are other options out there, and you should spend the time finding out which one works with you the best. :)

The Truth About First Drafts

First drafts are not great quality. Some lines might be fantastic, but overall, it probably won’t be amazing. And that’s totally fine, it’s normal, it’s exactly what you want.

Our silly writer brains expect perfection on the first go for some reason?? Which makes no sense. 

They’re meant to be terrible, just thoughts spewing onto paper, really. Just get the dialogue out, get the story into a tangible, clear sequence of events that’s actually a readable story, not just an outline. You can fix it later <3

Think of it as the “zero draft” instead of the first draft. “Garbage draft” works too.

Write it out on paper with pen, or add messy notes to your documents everywhere to really reinforce the idea that there’s no pressure or expectation for perfection.

Don’t look at any of the draft as you write it until you’re done the draft. Looking back at bad writing while working on the same project can be really discouraging, so just don’t look. 

Once you finish the draft, wait a couple weeks. Long enough to distance yourself from it, so you can come back to fix it with a clear head. 

Don’t compare your first draft to published books. Ever. Those books might be on their tenth, twentieth, thirtieth draft. It’s unfair. Don’t bully yourself or your project.

Set yourself a goal, x words per day, x minutes spent writing, whatever you want. Just make sure it’s achievable. Don’t set yourself up for failure unless you’re asking for discouragement.

You got this <33 Just get that draft down. 

When you finish the draft, rewrite the whole thing, using the original draft as a reference if you like. There will almost certainly be countless details you want to change, so rewriting the story will be easier than fixing the original.