Skeleton Architecture

I love high fantasy books.  I've written a post about my love of fantasy fiction before, so I shan't go over that again here. Today we'll stick with high fantasy. What's high fantasy? You can check out the Wikipedia entry on the topic, but I'd describe it as big stories, set in slightly magical alternative worlds, often peopled with things like elves. The societies are well worked out, with power structures, religion, and rules for any magic. The most famous books in this genre are probable Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series, although George RR Martin is currently vying for that position with his Song of Ice and Fire series and other stories set in the same world. High fantasy is often set in a medieval-esque world, although it doesn't have to be . Similarly, the books often use medieval-esque societal rules, although they don't have to. These rules often result in women, and races other than white human, getting the short end of a rather shitt...

This is my first link up with The Prompt (click on the link pic below to find out more - or have a look here ). I'm finding it hard to work out what to do, so I thought I'd just do it. Eek. Inked Colours written on the body; stories told inside the skin. The ink-ed creature recreates herself. Inchoate markings clothe in colour: carnation blooms within the skin. A crimson kiss comes carmine, but is kept. ©   Cara L McKee, 25th October 2015

Today's exercise is similar to previous exercises I've set out, in that you take six starting points, and use a dice to decide which one to run with. Today though, they are literally (and literary) staring points. The first lines of books you have to hand.  The first line of a story is very important. You need to grab your reader, and make them want to keep going. So using something from a book you've already deemed worth reading has to be handy, right? Here are the six I had to hand (references at the bottom of the post if you're interested, although it might be best if you ignore them just now): 1. They found blood on the trail on the seventh day, five spots, red against the grey of old snow. 2. Even though the temperature had not risen above freezing in nine months, the bear carcass was not frozen. 3. The lady of the castle huddled with her children in the shattered tower. 4. The prophet was drowning men on Great Wyk when they came to tell him that the ki...

Today's writing exercise is all about building up your arsenal of stuff to be used in stories. You'll need to be in a cafe, or other public space (preferably one where people stay for a while). You're going to need a notebook. You can write stuff on your 'phone or some other gadget if you prefer, but personally, for quick jotting, I'm a big fan of a notebook. Choose a person. You're going to write about this person. What they look like, how they move, the cut of their jib. Unusual people may be more interesting, but anyone becomes unusual if you look long enough (try not to get done for stalking). Describe, describe, describe. Get a really good idea of the person as a character. You might want to move on from doing this to making stuff up about them - a name, the roles they play in their life. Their opinions on various topics. It's all good. If you're like me, you'll make that stuff up as you go along. Now you've got an idea about your char...