"Limyaael's Rants" - articles on writing fantasy and SF

[Toby Frost]

We used to have a thread for these articles, but the link has broken.

Below is an alternative link to a large number of shortarticles about writing: mainly about fantasy, but largely applicable to anything else. The author seems to have been a schoolteacher and writer of fan fiction, but the articles are generally recommended to anyone trying to write fantasy that makes sense and goes beyond the usual stereotypes.

Some of the articles may seem a bit basic, and a few are a bit internet-focused and sweary, but many are well worth a look.

Limyaael Rants Archive - Curiosity Quills Press

 

[tinkerdan]

This is an excellent resource and is applicable to all of SFF.

 

[night_wrtr]

I remember reading a lot of these a while back. Looks like there are tons more now. Guess I'll be looking through these again.

 

[Toby Frost]

It seems that something has gone wrong with CuriosityQuills and their website is permanently down. I found the articles at another address. It's harder to search them, but they're still worth a look. It seems a shame that such a lot of good advice should disappear because the hosting site has folded.

Memorable fantasy rants Posts

 

[alexvss]

I like the titles of those articles. I sifted through the list and chose some to read later.

The rant is the best kind of criticism IMO. It's by knowing what went wrong in another story that I learn to write my own, and rants are fun btw.

 

[Toby Frost]

To be honest, I find a lot of "angry" criticism is just performance rather than anything valid. But I think her comments are genuinely good, and she's not just looking for attention. Anyhow, they're all worth a look, and I found them pretty useful.

 

[Toby Frost]

There are loads of good articles there, but I thought this was very strong: Arin i Asolde - Writing ordinary, limited heroes

 

[alexvss]

I'm enjoying the articles a lot. The language reminds me of Chuck Wending's books on craft.

I read the one about half-breed heroes, and I'm happy to say that I "followed" all of her tips with a story that I wrote.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Archive.org has a copy:

» Limyaael Rants

web.archive.org

 

[Toby Frost]

Thanks Brian!

 

[Toby Frost]

A helpful citizen has compiled all of these articles into one downloadable file for ebook reader. That's a lot of useful stuff for free (I should add that the original articles were put up free, and there isn't a copyright issue).

Limyaael’s Compendium

If and when the original blog post advert gets buried into the abyss of Ell’s Dimension, here is the epub file I’ve compiled of the greatly haled rantings of Limyaael on fantasy and wri…

elldimensional.wordpress.com