So who are my fantasy writers?

[StillStunned]

I know nothing about Skyrim, but has anyone ever written a story called "Skyrimming"?

 

[Rob_Royale]

Just read your Skyrim story.
Left a comment.

Thanks, I didn't expect everyone to like what I did. Appreciate your honesty though.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I know nothing about Skyrim, but has anyone ever written a story called "Skyrimming"?

You'd have to check. Skyrim is a fantasy gaming world. If you enjoy fantasy stories, you'd have no problem with this. You wouldn't need to know anything specific to enjoy it. I offer a brief intro in my opening author's note.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

At a certain point I gave up on modern fantasy written by women. I noticed a trend in the early-2000s for the books to go on and on about feelings, and lots of worrying about feelings, and perfect men being noble and hiding their feelings so that the women had to feel their feelings for them.

That's not what I want from fantasy. I want story, and adventure. I don't want the characters to be flat, but I don't want them to be whiny.

The problem wasn't limited to female authors of course (Rand and Perrin from the Wheel of Time were awful drips by the time I gave up on the series), but it seemed as if a whole new market had been created: women authors writing soap operas for (presumably) women readers. It took me a while to figure that out.

Nowadays I've just given up on pretty much all fantasy, if not all fiction. I'd rather write than read.

You are voicing my own opinion as well when it comes to female fantasy authors. In general, they focus on emotions, drama, and characters, rather than the plot and especially world-building. Many such books have only a sprinkle of fantasy, just enough to set up some drama and/or conflict. I have dropped more than one of female-written series because of that That wouldn't be such a big deal if women didn't make up 70-80% of fantasy authors these days, by my own estimate. Oh well.

Now, Wheel of Time is one peculiar book series. It's not easy to read it, and not because it consists of 14 books, but because some of them are badly written. There is so much "slog" and so much unnecessary content in the middle of the series. The pacing in some of them is terrible. On the other hand, there are some truly well-made characters and the plot and the world-building are absolutely mindblowing, rivaled only by Tolkien's work and Sanderson's Stormlight Archive. Malazan book series by Erikson also comes to mind in this regard but it's a very different kind of book. In this particular sense, nothing else in fantasy compares, in my opinion.

In my own writing, I usually try to balance all of these components, although I do put some more emphasis on plot and world-building, while I am lazier with characterization, except for the few main characters.

 

[tenyari]

Thanks very much. I'll contact Laurel, about how much un-Skyrim she requires.

Set it in Miryks, desert land of the Dron, who are engaged in a civil war between the Sun Scarves and the Republic.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Set it in Miryks, desert land of the Dron, who are engaged in a civil war between the Sun Scarves and the Republic.

I may just have to do that. But I will be disappointed. The upside to writing in Skyrim is that most fantasy fans are at least familiar with the land and people, to make more than the most cursory descriptions unnecessary.

Waiting to hear back from Laurel. In the meantime, I will prepare for the worst.

 

[Seadog777]

Thanks, I didn't expect everyone to like what I did. Appreciate your honesty though.

Come on bro.
After all our previous conversations, you ougtha know that I do nothing but honesty.
I'm just trying to do it with less cuss words and yelling.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Finally some good news.
Laurel accepted my Skyrim delete edit and the category has been changed to sci-fi/ fantasy. Some valuable lessons learned.