Animation Source Forums

This topic was on another site that my friend, Zivia Creed, showed me, so I thought I would post a version here. I'll give a basic idea of how it works. Basically, you discuss the wierd things that happen when writing fantasy stories.

You know you're writing fantasy when...
- You develop your own language, complete with its own syntax and sentence structure. (guilty)
- You conduct "research" by sticking wings on different animals and seeing which ones look the most plausible.
- You know more about your characters' family histories than your own.
- You can recite all 4,200 kings of your fictional country, name every major sword used in a defining battle, draw a perfect map of it freehand every single time, and name the founder of every village... but you can't remember who was president of the south during the Civil War.

EDIT: Just as a precaution, I am aware that the fantasy genre lends itself to certain abuses. So everyone please remember the site rules.

-The only time you talk to a girl is on a forum like this
-Every time you try to write a sci-fi story, it rips off Star Wars
-You can speak Tolkien's Elvish language better than English
-Dungeons and Dragons consumes much of your free time
-You actually believe that the world is flat and carried on the backs of four elephants, which are in turn on the back of a sea turtle

- You spend much of your time talking to yourself in different tones of voice... and nobody's worried. (guilty)
- The number of weapons you look up has the FBI monitoring your computer activity... and all the weapons you're interested in are before the 20th century. Bonus points if you frequently raise the subject of lethal wounds at the dinner table, and it doesn't bother your parents.
- You have a phobia of apples because one ordinary apple can make a fully-grown dragon sick for a month.
- You frequently imagine using your best friend as an indestructible weapon.
- You have a character who can lift multiple tons, breathe fire, and is impervious to conventional weaponry... and he's considered a wimp.

EDIT:
- When constructing a list like the one above, it does not occur to you to mention that he can fly.

-You spend more time thinking about the next chapter on one of your characters lives then your own P:
-You stare at the sky sometimes and wonder if there are worlds like the ones you write about out there.
-There are some people you look at and the first thing you think is "OH! That is so -insert name of character-!"
-You've made your own version of how different creatures evolved.
-You think it would be so awesome to know one of your fantasy characters in real life.
-You get upset whenever you see creatures that totally contridect your own view of things.
-You spend your free time wondering what you can do to kick up your fantasy world(s) a notch.
-You've made several different planets inhabited by any and all of your favorite creatures.

ADDED:
-You've made your own race(or several) of freakish fantasy creatures.(I've made dremgons, Frayns, and several others who's names escape me at the moment P: )

I'm guilty of all of these and more P:

I'm guilty of the first one, the third one (sometimes), and the fifth.

- You frequently complain about how much a certain character annoys you.
- You get frustrated because a character won't do what you want them to (very guilty). Bonus points if you have threatened to write them out of the story, and they stick their tongue out at you.

-You get all excited about writing out this sticky situation your character is in, then start crying halfway through because of the abuse they're going through P:
-You frequently argue with your characters, and many of the times they end up telling you that you made them the way they are and you retort with 'Well you still don't need to be like that!'
-Your characters win some of those arguements.
-You can name each of your characters' names by heart(all 479 of them), but mix up the names of your friends and family.
-One of the first things you think of when you see or read something you really like is "OHHH! I have to put that in a story some where!"
-You have a character that is 10,264 years old, and he's considered young.
-Your personal favorite character from your own collection is the one everyone else hates and or fears.
-You have at least one character older then Earth.
-You watch and or record shows that might help you develop your worlds and or characters better(Ancient Discoveries ftwww, man!)
-As soon as you make up a new character the first thing you have to do is tell EVERYONE about him... THEN make up a history and personality.
-You're constantly adding to or making up freaky names(Yavurzesla, Nephestius, Nyel, Valdemyz, Areziar, Beziar...)
-You've had a character with a freaky name so long, that you think it's a normal everyday name.
-You wonder what it would be like to live with one of your characters.
-You think it's perfectly normal to want fangs/claws/wings.
-Your favorite book is the one that least fits with Earth.
-You know what dhampir means.
-Your favorite scene in one of your stories is something that had you wiggling in your seat and yelling at whatever you were reading/writing on.
-You can recite a speech that one of your random kings made three years ago... but can't remember half of the national anthem.

- You want to sue the makers of LOTR for discriminating against elves by using human actors wearing pointy ears in place of real elves.
- Halfway through Eragon, you are beating your head against the wall shouting "So! Cliche! So! Cliche!"... and this doesn't worry your parents.
- You often feel an itch on a part of your body which, you then realize, you do not actually have (not counting an amputated limb like an arm or a leg), such as wings or a tail. Bonus points if you reach to scrath that part before realizing it doesn't exist.
- You are firmly convinced in the existence of unicorns, and have spent hours at a time pondering the exact workings of their horns. (guilty of repeat offenses)
- You have wondered if unicorns and winged horses are different species, or just different breeds of a single species. Bonus points if you have asked yourself, "If they were sentient, would the right term be 'breed' or '(ethnic) race?'" (guilty)
- You have hung a toy dragon by your window, seriously hoping it might attract some real ones. (guilty)

going to reply to this!!

-You spend your time looking up Celtic/Nordic sounding names for your characters.
-Your schoolteacher asks you a question, and halfway through answering you suddenly start day-dreaming about your characters.
-You're posting in this topic.
-You know FOR SURE that magpies are spirits from another world.
-You imagine a water-nixie lives under the bridge in the river in your garden.
-My characters are REAL!!! I know they are!!!!!
-You look at some writing scrawled on a wall 400 years ago, and you make up a far-fetched romantic story about the person who may have written it.
-You're walking through a forest or some wild place, and pretend you're on an adventure (much to the extreme annoyance of travelling companions).

You know you're writing fantisy when....
* you laugh at inside jokes between your chars, but never get your real life ones.
* When you feel bad, you talk to the mighty gods of the latest story.
* You make up chars from real life friends and crushes, but don't think it's anyway stalkerish.
* you beg your parents for the latest toy, because it looks slightly remotly like the char. you just killed off.
* you reply to a forum called "You Know You're Writing Fantasy When..."
* you can list more than two on that reply.
* You laugh at the other's and say repetively "i do that!!"
* you probably serch for this didn't you.....?
* lol, that's all i got..^^

Guilty of the last one, obviously the third one, and sort of the second.


5, 6, and 7.

* You are in the middle of a story and wondering what else you can do to your hero (who already has an inferiority complex, a brother who wants to kill him, and has pretty much been knighted and charge with protecting the kingdom), Someone suggests giving him a girlfriend, and you say, "Nah, that's a little too sadistic."
*You are writing a story and find yourself asking, "OK, what didn't C.S. Lewis do?
* You have caught yourself incorporating elements inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia, Spiderman, and Bambi... all in the same chapter.
* You have seen a friend having a problem, and recommended a solution which you justify because "it worked on the dragon of Lambton Hall."

...usually when you haven't tried writing in any other genre.

* You comb topics like this looking for ideas.
* You come from watching 24 and find yourself yelling at a dragon, "No, no, NO! Stop talking like Jack Baur!"

-One of your hobbies is reading all of the books in your room for ideas for your stories. Bonus points if the book has some ancient temple in it and you instantly say "Oh! Ohohoh! This is so going in one of my stories!"
-Most of the books on your bookcase are fantasy.
-You have at least one fantasy book that's over 700 pages.
-You can understand a made up language well enough that when you're reading a book with said language you don't have to wonder for a second what 'hadrrilkar' or 'Sa'an'ishar' means.
-You wonder what a werewolf's laugh sounds like when it's transformed.

* When writing out a language, you have a hard time trying to come up with enough sounds that one would expect said species to use.
* You finally decide to incorporate three or more different kinds of hiss because a hiss can mean so many things.
* You hear a horse neigh and actually think you hear one or two words in there.
* You find yourself discussing the differences between vampire and dragon languages, and it seems perfectly normal.
* You look through phrasebooks from other languages, and think it's strange that they don't have anything for "Please, would you be so kind as to spit out my friend."
* You're telling someone about your story and they interrupt with something l;ike "Wait a minute, there are female dragons?"