Odyseus
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Registered: 11-2005
Posts: 7
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City and battle
I always liked describing medeival style cities, but what is hard is writing the defence of the cities when enemies are attacking it, as well as describing the city streets in peace time.
Does anyone else have this problem or can anybody help me.
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11/29/2005, 10:09 pm
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Michael Wulf
Apprentice
Registered: 10-2005
Posts: 41
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Re: City and battle
Stephen King suggests that less is better.
He suggests that you cut out everything which is not essential to the plot and let the reader fill it in.
For instance, when I write about the great dwarven keep of Krauulen Kandamoor, I might describe it as follows:
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Lithen looked up to the towering walls, jammed between the mountain cliffs in wonder. The gates hung open, perhaps twenty feet thick and made of solid steeyle, a metal of the ancient world.
The walls themselves looked to be hewn by giants, and the tops were jammed within the misty clouds that tufted the peaks.
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That's it... later in the story I describe some key elements of the defense, during a meeting of the dwarves.
The gap, a narrow gap in the southern cliff face that allows only a few enemies to enter at a time, but is much lower and easier to access than the main wall.
The table, a flat surface at the top of the rocky hillside upon which the walls are built , which also has a lower outer wall.
The mountain pass behind the keep
And now you have it. That's all I provide to the reader (with some various fleshing out here and there in the story).
You can get a picture already, no? Why should I ruin it with more detail.
--- Writing: HavenShade (NaNoWriMo)
Reading: The Tower at Stoney Wood (McKillip)
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12/14/2005, 2:06 pm
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