aww... *hugs Maha*
Well, I can't be in your head to see exactly what happen. DX

What is your starting point of the Forbidden Fires? Or inspiration?

Xuv: I don't think I've ever heard you talk about your comic. I tried to make a four page comic for a class as well. I never even finished the last page for that let alone any of my longer ideas.
I used to not be able to fit any idea in a short story, but writing classes taught me how to right short stories since that's mostly what teacher's expect you to turn in (for time restraints). I started thinking of them like prologues in a way, and that helped. Plus, I've now just read a LOT of short stories.

Maha: I think it was your thread about location that inspired me to make this thread actually. I think learning setting just takes a lot of reading and practice.

You didn't? Good~
Then I can brag about it with no guilty of being loooooong winded.
http://www.menewsha.com/forum/art/ar...634-comic.html I posted it in Art Post forum looooong time ago~

The only short stories I had read are... on newspaper, one shot story. and after reading, I felt... blank. DX Doesn't create such deep impression. x.x

aww your comic is so cute and very well drawn. i'm so impressed by you rette!

aww~ thankies. You think he is cute too? <33 Mouse seemed to be always cute, like Disney.

I hope you know how to read it. XD Especially on the last page, there is this particular 4 x 4 boxes of each action illustrating Snappy's struggle. Notice the shape of the box is indicating direction.

Oh, and to the topic. That particular comic, the setting is VERY REAL. It is in a site that my main course chose to do a project with. So I have taken photographs, AND the building is designed by me, the main project~ <33 Setting wise, only the building is fake, but the environment is real.
(now you know why 2nd page is dominated by architecture plan and sections, lol.)

aw, cute. I like the use of animal characters.

that's cool that you used photo graphs and such to plan the setting. very professional. I've somewhat done that with my new novel. I found images on my computer and made a folder of all the architecture and such that I thought would fit the world.

and yeah, you'll never be able to write a short story if you don't read any. don't base the whole genre on just a few you've read. I've read some really amazing stuff.

I don't think short story is a genre... it seems to be more like a length issue to me.
Genre to me is more like comedy, romance, mystery... plot type.

well, that would be the usual use of the word genre, but it some what fits novel/short story/flash/etc. I guess normally people would use 'forms', but genre was all I could think of.

I see.
Sounds like you indeed finish a LOT of short stories for school?

Originally Posted by xuvrette

aww... *hugs Maha*
Well, I can't be in your head to see exactly what happen. DX

What is your starting point of the Forbidden Fires? Or inspiration?

You definitely need to be there to understand my predicament dear... It was the most exquisite and amazing dream that was like a HD Dvd print movie through which i got trapped into Forbidden fires... Its supposed to be about a mayan girl who is very brave and protective of her tribe, and a pirate/slave trader docks on her land, putting her people in danger so she decides to fight him bla bla bla... but it was so hard to place my story on a location that fit all the things together. I was surprised to know though, that there was in real, a person by the name Fermin Antonio Mundaca who was famous for being a pirate even when in reality he was a slave trader. That was what made me want to write my dream out on paper.

Create that location a new. XD
Or if you like it being about old Maya, then where the Maya was?

List out the things your character/story needs to make it happen. Then try to mix the element together and see what kinda setting appear. 8D
1. Maya sounds like forest background.
2. Slave trader/pirate, preferably near a beach/cliff/coastline.
There, a forest nearby a cliff.
XD

Xuv: yes and no. We don't write that much fiction in class and I wouldn't say everything is finished. we did three stories in advanced fiction, one in intermediate, one in beginning, and one in techniques. um, might have been another techniques class. But that's all the writing classes that exist in the fiction tract, so that's as many stories as you should write in your time in college.

Maha: you could look into the real story about that pirate slave trader and try to figure out the landscape of the time, but otherwise, Xuv has good suggestions. It can even help to make a map. Once, in a class, we had an assignment that involved adding lines and dots and things until it looked like a map. but we weren't told we were making a map, so we put in mountains and cities and rivers in a very natural way. you could use something like that.

I see... which mean, your creative writing also includes NON fiction? I am under impression that creative writing is more on fiction... O__O I always thought if it is about real things, it is under Journalism. DX

Mahaha shall first decide whether you want to actually be historical/geographical accurate or fantasied the world~
I have a link on Cartographer~ Cartographer are people that make maps! Real and fiction, Awesome maps too~ It is like an art.

The other thing about world building is also because I love to draw maps~ <33

um, there are three different tracts you can take: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. I think screenwriting is somewhere in there, but it's more connected to the theater department? Not sure. A writing major needs to take the classes for two different tracts, but I'm only a writing minor, so I only needed to take fiction, though I took a couple poetry classes as well.
and creative nonfiction is totally a thing. there are journalism classes here, but nonfiction is also lyrical essays, memoirs, some poetry, etc.

I should take a picture of my map when I'm home next week. I don't have it with me, but it's awesome! I haven't ever used it though. I kinda have a story that it goes to, but I never wrote it.

Dakukuu draw maps too~ yay~
it is so HARD to find people that share the same interest... x.x

Poetry... how about lyrics? song lyrics. Belong to Music?
Wow now that I see it, there are REALLY a lot more of writing formats than I am aware. Although I know what they are... O__O

well, its my only map. I want to draw more, but I never get around to it. But actually, I just think my maps look good. I don't really do them as much for help writing, but it's probably really useful for helping with setting. Get the know the distances involved in your world and all.

song lyrics are poetry. if you want to write them. but there's a music program yes, so that would be a musician thing.
there are probably 100s of different formats and styles and genres.

I think Map is helpful for world building. Or else you might mention 10 days of riding on going, and 2 days of riding coming back... x.x and help to see your direction surrounding better~ <33 it give the sense of scale.

The sad thing is... I lost a few of my maps. DX

I am so into planning setting that even in modern urban setting, if I can't build the world, I am building the city, or the company building or the school or the residential... x.x

I really need to make maps for the parallel novels I wrote for nanowrimo last year. x.x I normally don't have enormous amounts of travel time in my stories and lots of cities, but I have two worlds there and cities in both and yeah. At one point I was reading back and forth between two different chapters where travel time was mentioned and they didn't match up. nor was one easily changed because of the plot.

lost?! I hope you took pictures!!

I don't build on smaller scale because I can keep it straight in my head. Sometimes I kinda want drawings of the inside of a house though, just because I want it.

I have discrepancies because I forget about it too... the pause was just too long in between... x.x

and unfortunately, no. No scan or photo of the map. *sighs* It was map done before I have all this access to camera or computer. What I felt lost is the NAMES! I always have trouble with names, I won't mind reusing them if the names are good.

I just love designing. Sounds like I said it a lot of time already, so loooong winded. DX
I designed things extensively IF they play important role in the story, for example logo.

Hmm... yes i did all that a few months back and did penned it down but its hard work. i dont want it historically accurate because it didnt really happen, for me its more like a forgotten tale of a forgotten time but filled with love and spirituality... Have you guys read it in the forum? I have re written some of it again with more description and detail but i still need to type it on my puter..
I would like a little bit help with my 2nd story though, I craft figures and buildings with cold porcelain dough and paper clay alot and last year i made this house thats half haunted and half normal... it has inspired me to write a story and i have written 10 chapters already that are ready to be posted... but i want to post pictures of my crafted mini house along with it too, with the figures of the characters. Do you think its a good idea?

aw, that's too bad you lost the map, Xuv. I'm pretty good at remembering names, but of course, I've made too many place and character names (and there are names of my partners rp chars too) to remember everything. I really hate forgetting them.

hm...I have once tried to design a logo for my rock band. I never got around to drawing that. It's probably not a bad thing to have those references. I like to design tattoos for my characters.

Maha: I don't read much in the forums...actually I don't read any outside of school, during the school year. Sorry.
and of course if the art was the inspiration, you should post that haunted house thing! sounds really cool. It's a bit like a 3-d illustration. Art and writing always deserve to be together.

More than 10 years ago... and not like I typed/write a lot into it. I did that map after reading certain Fantasy series, David Edding to be precise. His book has maps in front, so I feel jealous and gone off to make my own. His famous series of Belgariad and Mallorean exposed different portion of maps in different books according to the journey of the characters. There is also a book he written call Rivan Codex, it is just book compiled of all the world/country settings + short prequel. The thing that amazed me is that the world/country settings can also be sell as a separate book as thick as his story books. O__O

It is not the matter of remember the names... the even worst thing is, I take a loooooong time to come out with names. I am picky over names. x.x Especially fantasy, I don't want to use names like Mary, Jane... place name have to be different too... x.x

If my story have the setting of secret society or... ideal school, I prefer to design a logo that can illustrate their objectives.

Mahaha~ Currently, I don't read ANYTHING unless I am sure it is finish and the story IS to my liking. I am very nitpicky on story.

WOW! clay? Mini HOUSE?! I WANT TO SEE! It must be interesting!

That's smart showing only the part of the world that's in the story with each book. If I ever do a series, I might consider that. But selling the maps separately? That guy must be pretty famous to be able to do that. I'm sure no beginning writer could. There's something like that with the Dragon Lance world too. I know at least there's a book that illustrates and explains all the different kinds of dragons.

Sometimes I spend a lot of time on names, others not so much. But the ones I spend more time on and are unique, I'm bound to remember for years and years especially if I wrote it, even if just once.

Do those places normally have logos though?

I am not sure about his popularity. XD and no, not just maps. Most of it are words, about some history of the countries, their social class, money, history, trades, geography, politic, climate, terrain... remember the link build a world in 30 days link? Most of the aspects were in the book. He even make up proverbs, religion holy books for different gods, hymns...

Lol, glad to hear people DO spend time to create unique names. I thought I am the only odd one... x.x Yes I do remember my favourite ones, but not all name are to my liking. Just so happen that I need to have that name for my other supporting characters. XD

School... yes, all schools here have logo/emblem, as for society, not required but most I see have.

But he would have to be popular enough to have a series that these world facts are related to. No publisher would publish a book like that if the series it's related to wasn't selling well.

I really hate some people's overly unique names though. People don't spend time to think what kind of world they're created and the names don't fit at all. Really unique names have very little place in real world stories, but I see that all the time. I most write real world these days, so I haven't made up names in a while.

School's have logos, but 90% of the time it's just a visual of their name. Has very little to do with anything.