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  1.  

    I didn’t think I’d put this in the Writing category, since it’s more about us than about writing itself. However, the mods may feel free to disagree with me…

    Anyway. My reason for doing this is because I can’t figure out who else does straight realism. And I thought, well, why not expand it?

    I write quite a lot of realism, some pre-teens, and something that looks like it’s shaping up to be YA. I want and am likely to write steampunk, paranormal, fantasy, and urban fantasy.

    How about you guys? (try not to go too off-topic)

    •  
      CommentAuthorTakuGifian
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2009
     

    Eh… I write what I write. A lot of my work is non-fiction (especiaslly because of university). My fiction tends to be either slice-of-life or fantasy (but realism fantasy; I don’t work with overt, physically manifest magic, dragons or elves.) My poetry is nearly all reflective navel-gazing.

    •  
      CommentAuthorDem
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2009
     
    Realism with some fantastical elements thrown in. I used to think I was the medieval fantasy type, but now its painfully clear that it's not the case with me.
  2.  

    Non-fiction, fantasy, and sci-fi is about it. But honestly, I don’t really pay much attention to the genre.

    •  
      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2009
     

    I think I might try Urban Fantasy, instead of just Fantasy. But sometimes I just do random genres… as with RVL, I don’t really pay attention to genre all that much, I just write. :P

    •  
      CommentAuthorMoldorm
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2009
     

    Fantasy.
    I want to write steampunk, but I don’t know enough about steam.

  3.  

    Recently, I’ve really wanted to write steampunk and urban fantasy. However, I know very little about the genres.

    • CommentAuthorUn-Dante'd
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2009
     

    Fantasy/Sci Fi. :B

    •  
      CommentAuthorApep
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2009
     

    I’m aiming for sci-fi & fantasy, and mabe mixing those with other geners. I’ve got an idea for a fantasy/comedy series (a la Discworld or Robert Asprin’s Myth series), as well one for a sci-fi/horror story (think the movie Alien, or the parts of 2001: a Space Odyssey on the ship headed for Jupiter).

  4.  

    Fantasy? Not high fantasy like LotR, though. (Low fantasy? I don’t really know)

  5.  

    Late antiquity fantasy.

    •  
      CommentAuthorAdamPottle
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2009
     
    satire of the modern media.
    • CommentAuthorUn-Dante'd
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2009
     

    I think I’d get bored with LotR fantasy, writing it would be hellish. I have a very short attention span. Example: in physics today, I was somehow thinking of how awesome it would be to be a math genius, and then I somehow got carried away to telekinesis and saving humanity from a zombie apocalypse. In the span of three seconds.

  6.  

    Hahaha. I can imagine a crawesome novel like that…

    I formerly loved the fantasy genre. For a long while, I wrote bits and pieces of a more Asian-style fantasy…

    • CommentAuthorUn-Dante'd
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2009
     

    I wouldn’t get bored if there were mini-climaxes every now and then.

    •  
      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeSep 28th 2009
     

    I write mostly fantasy, especially modern fantasy (I never can get quite used to the term “urban” fantasy). I’ve always sort of had an idea for a non-European-based fantasy, because those are a dime for a dozen. Something more like what Lloyd Alexander has written (like The Iron Ring… which I really need to reread) or the Arabian Nights, perhaps. Asian, Indian, or Middle-Eastern. Or maybe even something Native American, there’s some interesting stories to base a fantasy world off of.

  7.  

  8.  

  9.  

    FANTASY! FANTASYFANTASYFANTASY!

    I do mostly TP-style fantasy, with a bit of my own stuff thrown in and all magical creatures systematically removed. I have cut out all guns, cannons, and basically anything involving gunpowder, and replaced it with magic. I really dislike magic/technology crossbreed fantasy worlds (while certain books can pull it off, it’s kind of annoying), and modern fantasy… ugh. I can do straight-up realism (though I dislike it because mine usually involves a female heroine who looks strangely like me, and has all my problems, etc.), and I’m trying, trying to write sci-fi.

    If I ever get published, I want my first to be fantasy.

  10.  

    I write mostly SciFi and Fantasy. I try to keep the characters realistic and believable though. It’s not just fairies and dragons and wolves. Oh my!

    I’m going to write a realistic fiction-type thing also.

    magic/technology crossbreed fantasy worlds

    Examples, please? And for modern fantasy too, please?

  11.  

    Mine is fantasy, but it’s placed perhaps in the 18th-19th century in comparison to our world. Therefore there are guns, but there is also magic, but there are definite limitations to both.

  12.  

    I just like to write urban fantasy.

  13.  

    Mine is fantasy, but it’s placed perhaps in the 18th-19th century in comparison to our world. Therefore there are guns, but there is also magic, but there are definite limitations to both.

    So it’s sorta like Tanith Lee’s Piratica but with magic?

  14.  

    I didn’t mention this before, but I would love to be able to pull off a good, scary horror/thriller. :D

    • CommentAuthorsimian
    • CommentTimeSep 29th 2009
     
    Heh. Once I was on a plane out to L.A. and overheard (well, eavesdropped) two writers who were sitting next to each other in the row in front of me. Once they established they were both writers the next question was "what is your genre?"

    I really wanted to interject "I write prepubescent erotica," just to mess with them, but decided against it.
    •  
      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeSep 29th 2009 edited
     

    What genres were they? :)

    • CommentAuthorlawzard
    • CommentTimeSep 29th 2009
     

    I write fantasy, although it’s somewhat atypical. One of my worlds is sort of Bronze Age-ish and has no humans to speak of. The other is set in a time period roughly equivalent to the early 1800s and makes wide use of magitek, although to what extent depends on which nation you’re talking about.

    I’ve always wanted to write scifi and humor.

  15.  

    Sociological fantasy. lol. I like to write about epic changes in societies, but not war.

    A change in language, how a plague affected a nation, when monarchies fall OR how they can adapt to democracy, how to make communism work, discovering a new land, building up a rusted city…. Yep, don’t care much for Dark Lords and their Always Chaotic Evil hordes.

  16.  

    I’m always at a loss as to how to classify my current project, so I usually just tell people “adventure.” I mean, it’s essentially fantasy, but when you tell people that they always think of magic and knights in fictional proto-Europe instead of spiritual powers and samurai in fictional proto-Japan.

  17.  

    You tell them to read more.

  18.  

    A change in language, how a plague affected a nation, when monarchies fall OR how they can adapt to democracy, how to make communism work, discovering a new land, building up a rusted city…. Yep, don’t care much for Dark Lords and their Always Chaotic Evil hordes.

    Hm, yeah, I’m (attempting) to deal with political revolution and an invasion. So I guess my current project falls into this category. It’s so interesting, isn’t it? I’m almost regretting not taking AP World History, because I love world history and I find it so fascinating and inspiring for stories. (I’m taking normal, and in terms of modelling a political revolution, it has helped enormously, but more detail is always nice!)

    @ Steph: I’ve heard of Tanith Lee (awesomest name ever!) but never read any of her books. Is she any good?

  19.  

    Yeah, I love taking bits of what happened in our world and retrofitting them. lol… It can be a game within itself. “Can you spot the rebellion this is based off?”

    I take a bunch of government and economy names, throw them in a bag, then write out how the society would work.

    So far I have an empire made up of pastoral communes of self-sustaining dragons, which have been grazing lazily across the plains for centuries. They are an “empire” because when a giant, turtle-dragon walks onto your farm and begins to psychically meld with the landscape, you are now just a tenant on his land. The small, central government of this empire exists only as a communication relay between the communes. (To anyone whose read my Thesis post, this is the Central Kingdom.)

  20.  

    Steampunk and otherworldly fantasy (think The Edge Chronicles meets Shadow of the Beast). Also hard sci-fi, though not as much.

  21.  

    Hard sci-fi? Any topics in particular you like to see explored?

  22.  

    If I wrote, I think it would be either high fantasy or sci-fi. My ideas are mostly about epic, good vs. evil wars. But reading some recent sci-fi, I might make use of genetic engineering as a plot device. E.x. Dragons on earth.

    But I’m to lazy.

  23.  

    @ProserpinaFC

    >Hard sci-fi? Any topics in particular you like to see explored?

    Colonizing outer space, warfare in space, cultural drift in space, terraforming (although that’s really unworkable on a large scale without gravity generators), artificial human augmentation, and so on, and so forth, etc.

    • CommentAuthorlawzard
    • CommentTimeSep 29th 2009
     

    Sociological fantasy. lol. I like to write about epic changes in societies, but not war.

    A change in language, how a plague affected a nation, when monarchies fall OR how they can adapt to democracy, how to make communism work, discovering a new land, building up a rusted city…. Yep, don’t care much for Dark Lords and their Always Chaotic Evil hordes.

    This. This is the kind of stuff I’d love to read. Is there even a market for it?

    • CommentAuthorsimian
    • CommentTimeSep 29th 2009
     
    Is there a handy-dandy guide anywhere that defines the varying subgenres of sci-fi and fantasy?
  24.  

    Is there a handy-dandy guide anywhere that defines the varying subgenres of sci-fi and fantasy?

    If there isn’t, there should be.

    •  
      CommentAuthorSpanman
    • CommentTimeSep 29th 2009
     

    I write about “real” people in the real world. In case you didn’t know already, I can be pretty boring sometimes. Sadly I gave up on the fantasy genre quite a while ago.

  25.  

    @simian

    >Is there a handy-dandy guide anywhere that defines the varying subgenres of sci-fi and fantasy?

    TV Tropes, anyone?

  26.  

    @ Spanman: Every plot I come up with that takes place in the real world is so boring. So I’m sticking with the fantastical, as long as it gives me ideas.

    •  
      CommentAuthorSpanman
    • CommentTimeSep 30th 2009
     

    Every plot I come up with that’s set in a fantastical world is so cliche. D:

  27.  

    Well, I don’t know if the idea I’m running with now is cliche. I mean, no farmboys or evil dark lords or anything. But there are plenty of other ways to be cliche…

  28.  

    @I think it was SWQ:

    Yes, Piratica was good. She’s done high fantasy, but I haven’t read that.

  29.  

    Her high fantasy wasn’t nearly so good. I couldn’t understand most of it, and I think she either had a lame attempt at retcon or a lame attempt at an Easter egg. Piratica, on the other hand, was freaking awesome. Felix Phoenix…

    magic/technology crossbreed fantasy worlds

    Examples, please? And for modern fantasy too, please?

    Things where someone is an absolutely normal modern day teenager, except that one day they discover they have magic. I don’t mind it when they have to go into another world to use their magic (like the Gemma Doyle trilogy or something) but when they can use magic in the real world, it gets on my nerves. I’m sort of a fantasy purist – if it’s not entirely fantasy, I don’t like it as much. It just… does not compute.

  30.  

    Then I’ll have to find Piratica somewhere. Cool title. Does it have anything to do with pirates?

  31.  

    @Alien
    Aww… I see. I don’t really like that either. It works sometimes, but not just, “Oh, I am so normal,” says the normal girl. “No, no! You are supercool with awesome powers,” says the wizard. “Awesome!” says the normal girl. Uses awesome special powers

    I would love to be able to pull off a good, scary horror/thriller

    Me too.

  32.  

    Then I’ll have to find Piratica somewhere. Cool title. Does it have anything to do with pirates?

    Yes, two awesome sexy female pirates carrying on their parent’s traditions. Piratica is the main character’s mother’s stage name, which she takes in order to go pirating. Meanwhile, a group of evil pirates is being run by the daughter of one of the most evil pirates to sail the seven seas. And it’s so. much. fun.

  33.  

    Go pirating.

    Haha, this reminds me so much of ‘going Bunburying’. XD

  34.  

    I love Algy.

  35.  

    Me too!

    •  
      CommentAuthorJabrosky
    • CommentTimeOct 4th 2009
     

    I currently feel like writing what I call “historical fantasy”—-that is, use historical settings and cultures, but take some creative liberties with them. A story about ancient Nubians fighting the Mongols would be an example of what I’m talking about.

    •  
      CommentAuthorKyllorac
    • CommentTimeOct 4th 2009
     

    A story about ancient Nubians fighting the Mongols would be an example of what I’m talking about.

    DO IT!

  36.  

    And then add VAMPIRES!

    Wait, taken…

    WEREWOLVES!

    No…

    ZOMBIES!

    Crap… wait…

    GHOSTS!

    •  
      CommentAuthorJeni
    • CommentTimeOct 4th 2009
     

    A story about ancient Nubians fighting the Mongols would be an example of what I’m talking about.

    Heheh, I think that’s a bit more than creative liberties! XD :D

  37.  

    Aztecs fighting Vikings would be even better.

    •  
      CommentAuthorApep
    • CommentTimeOct 4th 2009
     

    Yeah, but that’s been done too…

  38.  

    Really? Link plox.

    •  
      CommentAuthorApep
    • CommentTimeOct 4th 2009
     

    Here

    The first two sentences of the book:

    “In the real world, the Vikings never fought the Aztecs.
    This was not the real world.”

    •  
      CommentAuthorJeni
    • CommentTimeOct 4th 2009
     

    8D Apep, you are all kinds of winsome.

    Fellow Anifan? or just somehow got into Everworld? :3

    • CommentAuthorAri
    • CommentTimeOct 5th 2009
     

    Fantasy, sometimes with a touch of sci-fi. The fantasy story I’ve been working on for the last two years (I’m completely in love with it) focuses on storytelling and such, so I kinda-sorta lampshade some fantasy tropes, but not so much that it’s a parody. No elves/dragons here, but I do have a sphinx and a selkie. :)

    Oh, and I love writing steampunk. It’s the best. Plus open poetry.

  39.  

    Oh, I love selkies.

  40.  

    Open poetry is cool. I write some, but even though I love writing novels more, I can get the poem done, so I have more of them.

    • CommentAuthorliadan14
    • CommentTimeOct 5th 2009
     

    Fairy tale retelling, for a while. Right now I’m stuck on something more or less realistic.

  41.  

    > Here

    Must…read…

    •  
      CommentAuthorJeni
    • CommentTimeOct 5th 2009
     

    > Here

  42.  

    Thanks. I would never have thought to put a space in there.

    • CommentAuthorDeborah
    • CommentTimeOct 27th 2010
     
    Fantasy. I'm not sure what kind you'd call it, probably the 'traditional high fantasy' type, which is what I like to read.
  43.  

    Sci-fi and fantasy. Usually urban fantasy, with a lot of sci-fi elements inbetween. Which I suppose is weird.

    •  
      CommentAuthorBrink
    • CommentTimeOct 27th 2010 edited
     

    I don’t really know.

    I’ve tried my hand at most things, and while subtle steampunk/historical/modern fantasy appeals to me the most, I have a soft spot for sci-fi. I haven’t read that much speculative fiction, though. My WIP is a (deconstructive) parody of the paranormal romance genre, in that the female MC goes around killing the abusive supernatural twat because hey, she’s got a brain and she’s creeped out. It’s probably never going to get published, but I’ve got time.

    •  
      CommentAuthorMiel
    • CommentTimeOct 28th 2010
     

    I write a lot of surreal fantasy (à la Dunsany), and sometimes Kafkaesque surrealism. I think this year’s NaNo is my first time every writing high fantasy. I read a lot of it, but I’ve never felt like writing it. I really want to write horror, but I’m not very good at it because my idea of what’s scary is so different from most people. I’d also like to try steampunk, but the attention to detail needed is too much for me.

  44.  

    I really want to write horror

    Me too. I just think I’d end up trying too hard, and it would end up being really stupid and clinched. I might try someday. At least one horror novel would be cool.

    •  
      CommentAuthorBeldam
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2011
     

    Fantasssyyy. I love the freedom of fantasy—when you world-build in sci-fi, even when you’re making nonsense up it’s still science which can seem daunting to someone like me who just cannot fake technobabble. With fantasy, you can just do whatever and call it whatever and you can make the internal consistency as outlandish as possible if it pleases you. My first story was a sort of urban fantasy with medieval type stuff chucked here and there, and the one I’m working on now is a steampunk (sort of) meets fantasy type thing.

    •  
      CommentAuthorInkblot
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2011
     

    I actually like reading space opera, but I’m not sure I’d be able to (or interested in) writing one. My taste in writing SF runs more toward the New Wave psych/sociological exploration. A project that I’m really excited about someday writing is a huge, full-blown steampunk/magic epic which will contain enormous overdoses of action, adventure, and really wild things. Swashes will be buckled.

    Other than that, I do a lot of urban fantasy/five minutes from now sci-fi. My current project. Someday I may try my hand at setting down a really dark take on genre fantasy.

    •  
      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2011
     

    I’m trying to write space opera (ish) for my NaNo novel, but… it is pretty difficult, because I’ve got to make all these huge things up out of whole cloth. If this was ordinary life, not NaNo, I’d have more time to plan, but with November right around the corner, I’ve gotta hurry!

    • CommentAuthorWiseWillow
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2011
     

    I’m currently working on non-fiction/chick lit. God help me. What do you call those books, anyway? The ones that are about people and relationships and so on? You wouldn’t call Pride & Prejudice a romance novel, so what is it? I have some fantasy ideas kicking around (a magic system based on music), but haven’t written much for it.

    •  
      CommentAuthorInkblot
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2011
     

    magic based on music

    I would be very surprised if this hadn’t been done before, but it’s an awesome idea. I think I’ve only seen it in a fanfiction actually. Go for it.

    ...There’s a name for it, but I can’t remember what it is. Modern literature, maybe?

  45.  

    I write mainly book/stories set in the past, so I guess that makes it historical fiction.

    Right now, I’m writing a story about Broadway history (specifically, the actor’s strike of 1919). The plot…..is like Billy Elliot meets Phantom of the Opera. Kind of.

    Also working on another Broadway history story (though I haven’t started, I’m just planning), that will be a lot more thorough, covering from the very beginning to modern times (it’s about a time traveller. Who is a Broadway nerd.)

    But I’ve also got one in the works about the Vietnam War, another about WW1, and one about the Great Depression. My longest work takes place in 19th century Russia, though it’s more of a Dostoyevskian tale of Woe than anything actually of historical relevance.

  46.  

    @Willow: if it’s

    non-fiction

    and also

    about people and relationships and so on

    it’s a self-help book. Like She’s Just Not That Into You.
    ....bad example, I guess.

    Swashes will be buckled

    But will skies be walked? Will Edwards be Teached? Will nerfs be herded? Will blades be run?
    XD

    I do a lot of urban fantasy/five minutes from now sci-fi

    I usually combine those two, like a boss person who is unafraid of things going boom in his face.

    it’s about a time traveller. Who is a Broadway nerd

    Then I suggest you read Robert Rankin’s Sex, Drugs and Sausage Rolls. It’s about a bunch of time-travelling rock ‘n roll nerds.
    It’s crazy awesome.

    • CommentAuthorWiseWillow
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2011
     

    @ Klutor

    No, no it isn’t. No one would call Love Actually a self-help movie, would they? Gahhhhh. Genre confusion!

    •  
      CommentAuthorInkblot
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2011
     

    Klutor: Yes. Yes they will.

    person unafraid of things going boom in his face

    Are you speaking from personal experience? I have found plot-crafting a difficult art, and the finished products are quite prone to sudden and unpredictable implosion.

    WiseWillow: I’m pretty sure he’s being his usual cynical smart-assed self. At least, if I were in his place I would be.

  47.  

    Love Actually

    One the half-of-a-handful chick flicks that I actually liked.

    Gahhhhh. Genre confusion!

    Indeed.
    But you said non-fiction…

    Are you speaking from personal experience?

    Of course.
    While it remains true that awesomeness is volatile, suckiness can also be volatile.

    I’m pretty sure he’s being his usual cynical smart-assed self. At least, if I were in his place I would be.

    I’ll take that as a compliment.
    Thank you, Inkblot.
    :-D

    • CommentAuthorWiseWillow
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2011
     

    No, it’s fiction based on real life. Ish. Kinda.

  48.  

    Autobiography/Biography/historical fiction, then?

  49.  

    Realistic fiction? Actually, I notice people calling all non-“genre” fiction literary fiction a lot nowadays. So maybe you’re writing puts on sophisticated monocle literary fiction

    •  
      CommentAuthorApep
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2011
     

    literary fiction

    Is it wrong that term kinda bugs me?

  50.  

    No, it bugs me too.

    •  
      CommentAuthorInkblot
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2011
     

    Literary Fiction! The latest innovation in writing, brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department!

    Klutor:

    I meant more like suddenly tripping over a truly staggering plot-hole, which behaves like a black hole (or a suitably gigantic explosion) in quickly eating all the other threads of your plot if you don’t find a good way to resolve it. The “Aw SHI-TAKE, that won’t work” moment.

    To be perfectly honest… It was a compliment. :D I fancy myself a cleverly snarky badass in my daily periods of grandiose self-delusion.

  51.  

    Yeah – plotholes are nasty, definitely.

    The “Aw SHI-TAKE, that won’t work” moment

    Good name.
    AKA Fridge Logic.
    Or “Just Eat Gilligan”.

    my daily periods of grandiose self-delusion

    As long as you don’t have a “daily revolution”. ;-)
    And don’t worry – you’re snarky enough. :-D

    Literary Fiction! The latest innovation in writing, brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department!

    Ahahahaha… that made me lol and laugh at a rapid rate of speed.

    •  
      CommentAuthorInkblot
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2011
     

    As a name, it excelled superbly, and our testing scientists unanimously declared it their uncontested favorite.

  52.  

    For Science!!!!11111!!!!111

    •  
      CommentAuthorInkblot
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2011 edited
     

    We do what we must because we can.

  53.  

    Viva la evolution!
    Utopia justifies the means!

    •  
      CommentAuthorInkblot
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2011
     

    Sign me up.

  54.  

    scribbles on piece of paper
    Done.

    So, slightly more on-topic: how do you handle your plotholes? Do you write in something small to fix them or do you start from the beginning and change as much as you can to prevent them?

    •  
      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2011
     

    I try to think ahead to avoid them in the first place, but if I run across one in the writing of a story… well, NaNo’s coming up, and I can tell you that my way of dealing with them during NaNo will be to go “Plothole? What plothole?” and just keep writing, maybe patching it up with a Band-aid at most. But otherwise, it would depend on the hole. If it completely destroys the whole basis of my story, I’m going to have to go back and fix it completely, even if that means reconstructing the entire plot. If it can be glossed over, I’d do that instead.

  55.  

    So basically it depends on the size of the hole, then?

    Band-aid

    Lol.

  56.  

    Usually, restructuring the story to fix a plot-hole opens up more interesting questions and forces me to think about things that I had previously neglected, so I view catching one as an ultimately good (though sometimes annoying) occurrence.

    What I actually do depends on what the problem is- usually, I just do what I can if I’m in the middle, and then I have to really look at it before I jump into draft 2.

  57.  

    an ultimately good (though sometimes annoying) occurrence

    Yeah, so do I.
    Problem is, however, that sometimes one hole tunnels its way through the story and creates more holes.

    But basically what you said here:

    opens up more interesting questions and forces me to think about things that I had previously neglected

    Meaning that we have to think about what we’re writing, in order to prevent fridge logic, wallbangers and the like.
    Your positive attitude towards the whole thing is admirable, though. :-D