The Imperial Library

Thank you for making this thread. I crave to talk about world-building and ideas with other people. haha

I'm going to read your 'realism creative non-fiction' piece, but I wanted to post something to get your opinions. A very good eFriend of mine have been asking each other questions about our respective worlds based on information/tidbits we post. Here are some questions he asked me, followed by the answers. I'd like to know what you think of my ideas. Cool, stupid, etc...?

I. What causes the beast races to be resistant to magic? Why can't they do magic in the first place?

The Beast Folk were born from the sacrifice of Salazmír, a famous winged lioness who was denied entry into Baar’s Abode after death because she was not a human. This was an incredibly long time ago, probably just a few hundred years after the birth of Teír itself, and at that time all the beast races were very weak and were all slaves to the other races (Tijion weren’t ferocious beasts, Kerroh weren’t super intelligent, Igra weren’t extremely strong and excellent craftsmen, etc…). Salazmír was infuriated by her denial and sacrificed her own life and breathed a magical and physical power into certain beast folk that she thought were the more deserving, to better the lives of the Beast Folk in future years. By doing this, she damned herself to an eternal life in The Void, which is a space of infinite nothingness where one’s spirit floats about if not granted entry into Baar’s Abode (Baar is the All-God, worshipped by a majority of the races, though depicted different with each race).

Salazmír was of the Arethian race, and they all had a high resistance to magic being born from the Animal God Tós (a combination of bear, tiger and eagle). The Arethians were magical creatures, said to have been born from the Animal God himself though given a “lesser” form than Tós, and although technically they were of the Beast Blood, they were on a different level than the others. They were a very powerful race. Salazmír gave the most power in this order:

·         Tijion (larger size and height, high ferocity in battle, high resistance to magic)

·         Kerroh (super intelligent, moderate resistance to magic aided by their ability to [i]think/create[/i] of ways to becoming more resistant, also have magical abilities themselves)

·         Igra (highly skilled craftsmen, great physical strength as well)

·         Mogtra (The strongest of any race in Teír, though relatively dumb and therefore incapable of doing much of anything organized)

The Krél were not given magical power because they did something very bad. The Arethians, also, are now extinct, and have been so since Salazmír’s self-sacrifice.

As a result to the above, the Tijion and Kerroh are both resistant to magic and have magical ability respectively, but this is especially so for the Tijion. The Igra and Mogtra were given the blessings I’ve already mentioned. The Krél have no magical abilities and are no more resistant to magic than any other being, nor do they have any special blessings. The Krél are said to be cursed, and I will explain why below.

II. Why are the Krél considered "low quality"?

The Krél are cursed because they tried to wipe out the Arethian race altogether. The Krél are one of the oldest races of Teír (which is interesting in that they’ve been “cursed” yet their kind has survived so many years). They were once cat-men, with colors of dark orange and a dark violet color for females. They were actually very pretty. But they were jealous of the Arethians for their “upper echelon” of power amongst the Beast Folk. So they began a war with the Arethians, which proved foolish for the Krél have never been magnificent warriors and have no magical abilities whatsoever. The war ended swiftly. A few Krél decided to be friendly with the Arethians, but the vast majority of them Krél openly disrespected the Arethians, cursing them and the Animal God and destroying statues and temples and other things devoted to them. Because all the other Beast Folk worship Tós, they shunned the Krél because of their disrespect toward the Animal God’s Arethian children, essentially “disowning” them from their Beast Blood brotherhood.

But the Krél weren’t actually cursed until Salazmír’s death. She was the last remaining Arethian and had lived longer than any other Arethian. Many thought her to be a goddess herself (what’s the term for a mortal who isn’t a god but is basically depicted as one? A saint? I don’t know… but whatever it is, that’s the word I’m looking for). When she sacrificed herself, she made sure the Krél were punished. The Krél even had made many attempts on her life prior to her sacrifice, all of them failing miserably of course. So she cursed them by turning them into brown and gray rat-men, very unattractive creatures. She also made them even more unintelligent than they already were.

The Krél were disliked before the curse, but the curse only made things worse. Most of the other non-beast races were indifferent to them anyway and used them as slaves just as they did with the other beast races, but after the curse the Krél were chosen as slaves far more than any other beast race. This was mainly due to the fact that the Tijion and the Kerroh had become powerful from Salazmír’s blessing, not to mention that the Igra live underground and the Mogtra keep to themselves in the highest of mountains. The Krél were simply far easier to catch as slaves than any other beast race.

That is why they’re considered “low quality.” The Krél attempted to exterminate the Arethian and have always rejected the Animal God Tós, and because of that they were cursed while the other beast races were blessed.

III. What differentiates the "human" races from the "humanoid" ones?

The humans are humans and need no explanation.

The Nesai are magical by birth. Their blood is a royal blue, yet their veins are neon blue and can be slightly seen on the outside of their arms and legs and some across their chests and neck. It is said that the more of the veins you can see, the more powerful the Nesai is. The most powerful of the Nesai have neon blue veins popping from their forehead, even. They have black hair that is always long, and the only time it is short is when they are punished for a crime (getting one’s hair cut is comparable to being sentenced to jail… if the crime is too bad they are simply either executed (sacrificed to Du’kan as an apology for letting the soul become corrupted) or banished (disowned from the tribe entirely). The eyes of a Nesai also change in color depending on their power. I haven’t thought a lot about this yet, but the more powerful color symbols are a dark yellow and a dark orange, yet the most Nesai have white eyes.

(Do you remember that one short story I once wrote about the dude who tried to escape the prison fortress but was eventually used in an experiment involving a red jewel planted in the middle of the forehead? I want the Nesai to have some sort of technology involving that magical red jewel… but I don’t know what yet. I think it would be cool, a vital reason for their magical abilities somehow, the jewel being something they cherish more than anything else.)

The Zervegei… I don’t know yet. I haven’t thought much about their culture. I only know what they look like. They are relatively tall (average height for a male would be 6’) and have black hair that is often curly or fastened into a ponytail. Their skin is an ashy color of dark gray or charcoal, and their skin is very rough. They have yellow eyes. They are said to have once been elves, but had a falling out with the Elven Princes (similar to the Daedric Princes of the Elder Scrolls, but I haven’t thought about them much as of yet) and were banished from elfhood (I think I just made that word up?) by the High Prince Kronnós.

That’s all I have at the moment. The Zervegei are one of the oldest races in Teír and have had a history of constant war, as was mentioned in their mini profile way above. They’ve tried to take over the world more than once, but ultimately have always failed. Like I said earlier, I would love to write a “Fantasy World War” novel, which would be a series instead of a standalone. 

IV. How does Baar "transcend reality"?

I just picture the Nesai are these Native American-like people who cherish worldly knowledge. As I said earlier, they are “One with the Wind,” but I mean that in general. They worship the Wind God but they also worship the other Weather Gods as well. They cherish nature as a whole, not just the wind. But the wind plays a factor in their power, as I’ve already mentioned that the most powerful Nesai can bend the wind to their own power, yet they use this power as a means of seeking knowledge. Nesai philosophy dictates that not only is a mortal’s life incredibly insignificant, but that Gods of Weather (God of Wind – Du’kan, Goddess of Lightening – Du’lan, God of Thunder – Du’ran) are insignificant as well. Basically… the Weather Gods/Goddess are pawns of Baar, and the mortals are the pawns of the Weather Gods and Baar.

(…as with most races, the Nesai have their own depiction of Baar…)

And the whole transcending thing… There is only one mortal who has ever “became” a God, and that is Baar. The Nesai believe that mortal Baar was a mix of Nesai, Zervegei, Aélkyn (the oldest elven race) and Nothran. He transcended knowledge by taking on an understanding that even the Nesai don’t quite comprehend. It’s quite interesting, really, because while the Nesai seek ultimate knowledge, they don’t necessarily understand what that knowledge is because Baar is the only one to have transcended knowledge itself, and he never recorded what he found. They simply won’t know until someone finds it. Some believe that one who transcends knowledge immediately becomes a God or Goddess and is forbidden and/or unable to divulge such information as to how they obtained such knowledge in the first place. That is what makes it so interesting (to me, at least, for you probably think it’s stupid)… they are so keen on finding this knowledge but in reality they don’t even know what they’ll ultimately find, if and when they find it to begin with. They simply want to become as intelligent with the world and nature as they possibly can. Many Nesai believe that once an individual exhaust every last knowledge/mystery of the world, then they “transcend knowledge.”

The Nesai are also a very reclusive bunch, living in tribes in the Deadlands (I’ll get to this at a later time). They are rarely seen outside the Deadlands, and most people keep away from the Deadlands because of its many dangers. It is said that the Gods themselves walk the Deadlands, and this is true. Again, I’ll get to the Deadlands later.

I might have linked this somewhere else, but this is a good resource. 

Responding to your text: 

Why is human the criteria? Does Baar judge on intellect, and, if so, what does this say about the society (as a start, there would be a 'scientifically' definable scale of 'humanity,' and, presumably, morality). What made those "certain beast folk" more deserving than others?

Demigod? 

Oh, but they do ;) They might be physically identical, but everything about them will have been impacted by the presence of new elements in your universe. They might even be physically distinct, either because of a differing diet or climate, or because of cultural norms (modes of dress/decoration/behavior to differentiate themselves from the beast races, for instance). 

I like world building. But I tend to focus on anthropology or art history type stuff rather than mythology or proper history. Although I may be sidetracking this thread to work on my thesis, eventually. 

 I think that it's pretty cool. What I'd like to see is how the different cultures act about all this, for example, do some have fasting days on what they figure is probably when in the year Salazmir's sacrifice happened, and is there a feast day for when Baar ascended?

And balls, we have the same name for different things. I'm going to have to change that back, since at least mine had another name. My "Deadlands" are strange streaks of desolation that are laid across the world in a pattern sort of like irregular streaks. It's where the trolls can live even in the daylight and other such things and where undead can still walk around, but because of their pattern it is pretty well impossible not to have to cross one in a long-distance trip, like say merchants or pilgrims might have to regularly take. Therefore I have a sort of (at the start) Templar-ish organization that guards certain paths through them for a fee. 

Speaking of that, if you have any samples or snippets you want to share, early drafts and whatnot, anyone can feel free to do so. When I finish the draft prologue for this thing then I plan to do so.

It really just depends on what race's perspective you're looking at.

It really just depends on what race’s perspective you’re looking at. When Baar went from mortal to All-God (and I realize I need to understand why he went from mortal to All-God) there were a lot of deities, but it was very chaotic with no figurehead. Ultimately, Baar brought order to the Gods and Goddesses, renaming the “heaven” to Baar’s Abode. I don’t yet know what it was called before Baar’s Abode. Baar himself was said to be a mixture of Nothran (human), Aélkyn (elf), Zervegei and Nesai. In reality, though, he was purely a Nothran, though most races don’t want to recognize this (which is interesting because the Nesai are these knowledge-seeking folk, yet they believe he was that hybrid mixture as well. In fact… I guess within the world, nobody really knows Baar was only human before godhood. It’s a fact that not actually realized in the world itself.

 The races that worship Baar are the humans (Nothran, Caravi, Doman, other-races-that-I-haven’t-progressed-yet), the Nesai (who are very humanlike, and may as well be human instead of humanoid like I said, now that I think about it…) and I believe that is it. So I guess that would answer your question as to why humans get it and no one else.

 I do have a problem now, though. I said Salazmír had been trying to get into Baar’s Abode, yet she and the Arethian worshipped the Animal God Tós. So why would she have been trying to get into the Abode when that has nothing to do with Tós and his afterworld? Hmm… I think maybe I could spin it to where Salazmír was simply curious? I don’t know, though. That would seem very disrespectful toward Tós. I’ll have to think about that.

 Thanks for asking the question, though. It made me rethink some things (such as the Nesai being human and not non-human)

Thanks

Oh, yeah, I know. I just meant what I said as in I was trying to explain why the Zervegei and Nesai aren't considered humans.

Oh, and the reason the other Beast Folk aside from the Krél were considered more deserving was because they actually worshiped and respected the Animal God Tós, whereas the Krél openly despised their maker.

Read your story, Jeroic. And not to derail the thread or anything, but what how exactly does Libboo work and what is its intent? 

 That's actually kind of relevant, so it's not derailing at all.

Libboo works by you writing your story, picking a cover they have a few very simple presets) or uploading one, clicking publish. Among that, you can pick having it read-online there or now you can self-publish on Amazon via Libboo, with or without a larger team. 

Their intent is pretty much in a video that they have floating around on the site somewhere, that it kinda sucks when you spend a lot of time writing something and then nobody cares, so it's easier to find like-minded people and promote it to them there. Also, it records your copyright for you if you want to just use it as a temporary home for your story, but the details of that aren't the sort of thing I feel I can accurately explain.

And I am having trouble writing today. I did some reviews like every Thursday, but my brain feels a bit sluggish.

Very cool. I highly doubt that the novel I am currently working on will be solid enough to be published traditionally, so just getting it out there for people to read would be a good thing. You don't pay anything and you don't get any royalties or anything, right? You just upload the thing and people read it? That's the part I'm a little confused about.

 You can do it that way, but it's always free at the moment whichever way you pick. They do, now, have a way to assist you self-publishing on Amazon, but for that I'd recommend at least try sending it off to traditional publishers first. No harm in the attempt, after all, aside from the price of postage. If that doesn't work out, you can do it with their "team publishing" where it becomes available as an e-book over amazon, but that system is also new and they're working through all their kinks.

Going to dump this here. Would love to hear people's first impressions, initial thoughts, etc. Still rough stuff. Need to water down the obvious inspirations.

“Ascendant” is the name commonly used to refer to the saint-ships who maintain the form and structure of the world. While Ascendants are viewed as vessels to reconcile them with the preconceptions of primitive minds, they are better described as a collection of egos, or souls, held together in substrate by sheer force of belief. Three classes (or, more accurately, stages) are recognized:

V-Class Ascendant - The beginning stage of each Ascendant is the cooperation, partial merger, and independent existence of two or more souls. Theologians postulate that the maintenance of a V-Class is impossible due to its nature as an ideal.

A-Class Ascendant - The most common result of a V-Class, the A-Class creates itself when one pilot ego overtakes the others through the refutation of their individual existences and the absorption of the remaining metamaterial. Although structurally stable, the A-Class is unpredictable and prone to both violent and messianic tendencies.

S-Class Ascendant - The Selfless Sacrifice. A rare result of both the V- and A-Classes, the S-Class is an Ascendant that can no longer distinguish itself from its surrounding chaos. Its pilot egos refute themselves, and the Ascendant, into inexistence. The S-Class is highly unstable, and has been shown to cause all capable sentients within a considerable radius to uncreate themselves.

Though Ascendants, lacking in substance, have no defined shape, they almost always manifest as an enormous, formless, matte shape reminiscent of ink dripped in water. Because Ascendants are their own bubble universes within our own, physical contact is not possible for the majority of the population - should they step into the ship, they simply finish their stride on the other side, without the influence of space or time. Those with more stable egos or more complete understandings of the theology behind Ascendants are able to touch them, but cease to exist upon doing so. Only the select few, those with both an inborn ability to maintain their soul at levels near the stable 1-gradient and years of training in doing so, are able to come in contact with an Ascendant and argue successfully against its nulling effects. Their physical body is unmade by virtue of having come in contact with a different level of existence, but their soul remains as part of the pilot egos of the Ascendant.

Should one so desire, an Ascendant is capable of metamorphosing their substrate into a humanoid form to venture into the Real. These humaforms are really the same ‘substance’ as the saint-ship, a pocket of an infinite, voided universe enveloped in our own. While it is possible to interact with a humaform Ascendant without serious repercussions, the pilot (or pilots, as multiple egos can inhabit the same body) itself does not experience the world with the senses of a human being. Increasing preference for humaforms is considered to be a warning sign of going A-class.

The apocalypse that created the need for Ascendants arose out of a crisis of faith, or, more accurately, the complete loss of it. The higher man rose to the Gods the more he realized that the Gods are the degenerate construct of the egos of Man. Yet the construct formed the very basis of the universe, and the fleshy angels that gave it birth could not sustain themselves without. Creation ruptured. Demagogues [were able to stabilize it through... after...], but not before [the world was rendered unto ash].

Nu-Ur is a city-isle built from, on, and by the remnant-ruins of the A-Class Ascendant Aleia. Nu-Ur maintains a habitable zone with a radius of 13.14 kilometers from its widest point and 7.7 kilometers tall above its highest point. Despite being the product of nutheogesics, it is considered the last remnant of [pre-apocalyptic] civilization.

Here is something I wrote years back and have been steadily revising since. Please read and write a review, as I've spent more time working on this than pretty much anything else.

Stairwells and Whirlwinds

The following is something I hocked up a few days ago and is mostly the result of stream of consciousness thinking, in that I typed up a variety of thoughts with my mind set for mystery and imagery evoking a sense of alienness, fear, and foreboding. It exists as a fragmentary text with the world of Goss, the planet in which my fantasy world exists. My only fear is that it feels too much like MK's A Type of Zero Still to be Discovered, and in a sense it's very similar in that this piece exists in my world as a cryptic relic of a bygone civilization, much having been lost through mediocre translation and a general lack of cultural knowledge in the first place. This is not to be taken so seriously as to try and infer concrete meaning. As fiction, it is poetry. In my world it is a vagary, an example of a lost culture that as a people were so diametrically opposed in thought, logic, and language that a basic piece of writing such as this is wholly confusing and even taken as something ominous and full ill omens.

Editor's Note:

This translation of the tablets known as the "Akorros Brothers" excavated from Akorros South dig in 1252 is the result nearly a century of scholarly study and revised translations. Unfortunately a full, undamaged version of the text has yet to be found and may not exist at all, for no duplicates of any tablets have been produced by any digs in the 96 years since the originals were first found. Furthermore the specific texts upon these tablets are seemingly unique, in that no identical phrases have been found on different tablets or parchments. Along with this the translatable text is only a small portion of what was once originally carved into the tablets. The unknown sections were made unreadable by both time or strangely enough purposeful destruction which as many scholars would agree, was done before the collapse of the Myrosean Empire. The reason behind why lines of the text were scored from the tablets has been the subject of much debate, and those conjectures could easily fill several volumes, so I will not go deeper into that subject. Even the translation has been hotly argued among scholarly circles since the first translations had been completed. As it stands, most scholars who independently translate the tablets all come away with a different translation. It was my colleagues and my mission to collect the most sensible and seemingly accurate translations done throughout the years and combine the best parts from each to form the best and most accurate translation to date. This of course stands to further aid and propel future scholarly understanding of ancient Myrosea. In the tradition of past efforts, we have titled the combined fragments by the first line of the first fragment.

How is the Glass?

Fragment 1:

            How is the glass? Is it warm, or should I wait to come in?

            What number is the sky today? 4 or perhaps 119? The children would surely enjoy 89 again. Anything but 17.

            Fetch your hat, dear. We’re going to the tower[?]. A perfect day to fly.

[Tablet cuts off with the word “Parasol”]

Fragment 2:

            A fine day to contemplate one’s existence, North. Care for some palm wine?

            Hello, East. Have you heard from your brother this eon? Tell him not to forget his pinwheel.

            West has shifted 5 degrees. Troubling.

            Fancy another heart, South? Your old one is singing disturbing music.

[At this point the text changes to triangles, becoming completely untranslatable.]

Fragment 3:

            …and travel to an island, for islands have bad memories.

[The second line of this tablet has been purposefully scratched away.]

            [Untranslatable]…and allow us to look back from the center.

            So go, sweet children and prepare a celebration, for today my fear tastes like lemons.

[Text has again been purposefully scratched away. Finger marks are evident upon the tablet.]

Fragment 4:

            One more face has appeared on the rock. Have you children been wishing again?

            Two more stars have disappeared from the sky. Someone must have told a very good joke.

            Three more thoughts in my head that aren’t mine. Let us go sailing while the river is still here.

            Four less kings in the West, dear children. Now we can speak [Untranslatable] again.

            Five more meals to waste on 2^nd Day. We’ll sleep under our beds tonight!

            Six less ways to walk in the rain. Pray for a smarter god tomorrow.

            Seven more pockets stitched into your coat. The third one goes on forever.

            Eight Eight Eight Eight Eight Eight Eight Eight.

            Nine more ships forgot how to swim. Shall I tell them they’re too high above the sea?

            Ten more words to describe the color fog. Sorry sir, no magnets for sale today. Only memories.

            [Text ends and is followed by an engraved image of two skeletons shaking hands over a half-eaten orange.]

Darya, I really like that. What inspired those ideas? Anything in particular? I become so intimidated when I read your ideas and other people's ideas. haha They always seem more... meaningful. I guess that's the word I'm looking for.

Loveletter and the Vehkship fragmnet. It started out as my theories on it all with the relevant words edited out. I'll take the fact that it's subtle enough to not register as a blatant ripoff as a good thing :P It's going to move away from that, hopefully, but I want to preserve the general fantasy-theology-sci-fi-post-apocalypse feeling. 

As for meaningful... I don't really know. They may sound fancier, but in the end it's still world building, just with more esoteric concepts and a couple made-up words. 

 Meaning is like character relationships. You don't need to put more than a word here or there for the internet to explode with "no they are TOTALLY fucking, plain as the nose on your face!" only spelled worse.

Helps me, because I'm not good at writing romance. Well, that's not entirely true. I don't like writing romance because anything I say always sounds so... cheesy, at least to my ears. 

But my novel-length project is going well. I love outlines. I am chewing through it viciously because I have a map of the story and where the characters are going. 

Here's a question: when writing characters, do you imagine actors/voice actors for them? Apparently in film writing this is encouraged, but I do it when I write novels and when I read as well. For example, Sam Vimes is played by Clint Eastwood in my brain. 

Now, drafts until it is time to cook. 

In my opinion it's more interesting to have a man and woman in a story together and not hook up. It's unexpected, and I think it takes more skill to have two people who could easily be in a relationship and have them act as if sex just isn't important. I'm trying to do that with two characters in my current project.

Basically one character is a merc who's told to kill a crime boss in a tavern. That day the merc is wrestling with a head cold and is in a foul mood, so instead of calmly assessing the situation and being sneaky he busts in with a runny nose and a headache, shooting the place up. This act screws over a female character who was doing business with the crime boss, and the two fight each other, wearing themselves out eventually collapsing close to each other on the ground, and when they both calm down, the merc decides to let her tag along because he feels sorry about making her lose business, and they just become adventure buddies, both sorta looking out for each other but still harboring resentment for a number of unheroic reasons i.e. politics, money, racism, nationalism, politics, etc. But at no point do they just break into making out or screwing or anything.

And as for imagining actors in roles, that's the only way I'm able to visualize characters sometimes. God knows I can't draw worth a damn, and I can't imagine faces from scratch in my head either, so I usually imagine actors, but voices seem more helpful. This voice is one of my morally ambiguous, let's call him lawful evil, characters. Just imagine it sounding more airy. And Jeff Bridges in True Grit is the voice of my ex-spec-ops-turned-gunslinger. Just imagine Rooster Cogburn but under a gas mask and speaking in a hybrid cowboy/middle English dialect, and you've got Tully Ranes.

For me I can't help imagining everything animated sometimes. My mind is like incapable of forming realistic faces from nothing.

 So I am winning that contest tomorrow. That's the good news.

The bad news is I seem to have a gap of at least seven days in my outline. One event happens definitively seven days or more after the previous. I need to make a command decision of whether to timeskip or have something small, yet extremely relevant, happen in the intervening days.

EDIT: When in doubt, have the characters put a sock on the door.

Does anyone in real life actually put socks on doors?  

I wouldn't force in a connecting event; especially not for the sake of killing time. I'd only do that if I thought up a really good idea. Otherwise it's the literary equivalent of filming a guy brushing his teeth and walking down the street in real time.

No, but it's a running gag after a sarcastic comment the character made.

So I did a bit of establishing the location and then timeskip.

Sounds cool. Creating a good in-story running joke is very rewarding if pulled off correctly.

Did you win that contest, Jer-Bear? And yes, I just called you Jer-Bear...

Um. That just sounds odd. Yes, I did win, but apparently they have something they want to do before everyone goes all whoohoo on them.

 Okay, I just finished my first draft of my novel. So here's what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna put it down, and spend a whole week doing other things. Short stories, outlining other books, whatever. Then after a week I'm gonna read it and follow me on this one not. Touch. Anything. Then after I've read through it cover to metaphorical cover and have left colored marks on things I feel don't work or are inconsistent then, and only then, will I start on draft 2. 

Then it'll be time for test readers. Woot.

 So today I am mostly brainstorming as far as writing goes. Preparing, you could say. I figure if I can outline and note up a second novel in this intervening week then when the revision process starts I can stagger it with the new book. 

I'll be beginning the outline/planning stages of a novel soon (I think). I've quit at least 30-something novels, usually getting to chapter 3 or 4 before scrapping it. What's your suggestion in making it last?

 Outline in excruciating detail! At least that's how I did mine, both times I've finished a first draft. Had to scrap that one bookthough, but I got a good feeling about the draft I just finished.

Looks like I'm doing mostly TES-related stuff this week. As in, my sample in the novels thread.

Just set yourself a certain amount to write every day. Five pages, ten pages, two pages, whatever - just something, and stick to it. Making it a ritual and a duty does the trick... at least for me. 'Course, you've got to have the general plot and themes worked out ahead of time.

Jeroic, are you looking for feedback on that sample?

Jeroic, Dinmenel gives GREAT critique. I would definitely take him up on the offer.