Felicity

Snurched from vilakins:
If there is someone on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist and whom you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this sentence in your journal.

Oh my goodness yes!
I'm a bit reluctant to name names for this, because folks might feel hurt if they were left out, but, hey, if you're on my flist, you gotta be making my world a better place because otherwise I wouldn't have put you there, would I? And I don't think there's anybody on my flist whom I would have met without the internet.
But I also have to say that mistraltoes, aizain and watervole are at the very top of that list. You folk have been life-savers to me. You make me smile just by thinking about you. {hugs}

Lost in a fantasy world

Dear Generic Fantasy Author,

Please do not move your characters around like chess pieces, and call it Destiny. It isn't Destiny, it's bad characterisation and/or plotting. If your characters won't naturally do what you need in order for your longed-for plot to work, then there's something wrong with your plot.

That applies to villains too; if your answer to "why did he do it?" is "because he is Teh Eval" then that is not an answer at all. And even a slightly less bad answer like "because he is greedy and avaricious" bears more examination; a villain generally doesn't think of himself as evil, so he's got to have some rationalization for what he's doing. Ponder that a while.

If you mention ballads and bards, then give us some actual ballads and bards, huh? Please? If Anne McCaffrey could do it, so can you. And, like, if you have some ballads, that might save you having to give us info-dumps about the history of the world...

If you must write multiple first-person sections, then try to give your characters distinctive voices, hmmm? If I have to go back to the start of the section to figure out who is speaking, then you've certainly lost me.

Do some research. Me, I can't say I know much about sailing ships, but I'm fairly certain that there's more to it than just sleeping in hammocks, swabbing decks and eating bad rations. Not that I'm saying you have to go and sail on a Tall Ship yourself, but... don't assume that your readers won't notice when you don't know what you're talking about. They are at least as intelligent as you are.

Thank you.

Johari Window

Imitated from altariel1 and synaesthete7:

My Johari Window, which theoretically allows you to see the difference between how others perceive you and how you perceive/present yourself.