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[sodafoutain]

I'd consider myself an amateur, as I have no published works and am not actively attempting to. Sitting down and actually forcing myself to finish something sounds exhausting, so I mostly make errant notes about worldbuilding. I do dream of creating a great book focused on my world, though, but ask me how much I've done to make that a reality. A short description of something, then, and a W.I.P., as well as a story written a few years ago.

Spoiler: Goblin Cars and Engines (click to show/hide)

Goblins are incredibly alchemically minded. They developed the first internal combustion engines 20 years of recorded history ago, placing it in a chassis to transfer the power of explosions to lateral motion. These reactions were first observed when they created bombs. They have a culture that revolves around these cars, seeing the DIY nature of them as a reflection of the creator's mind. Many of them are of squat construction, small mail-slot windshields and open engines.

Spoiler: The Creation Myths of Mornstar (click to show/hide)

Detailed within this codex are the central myths of the ancients, recorded for posterity in a language lost to time. In the interest of brevity, we have omitted many of the tales of minor deities that were previously recorded in uncentralized documents. The intent of this practicality is such that when the volume is finally found, we may count on it being translated and incorporated into the modern canon of the tales. Doubtless they will have continued to change and evolve not just in the absence of the gods, but in the absence of the ancient forms of life as well. So may this codex, the Book of the Age of Ancients, be regarded as true and factual, and may what remains of the divine curse those who break oaths sworn upon it.

Firstly, this council of holymen consider it prudent to begin as all things began, and so start with the sudden existence of Folodar.

Before Folodar, there was a great void, flanked on both sides by ice and fire. The fire would melt the ice and eventually boil it into a green steam, rife with Mana. The ice, after all, was crystalline Mana, what we consider 'Lhucite'. This lhucite mist infused the void around the two bodies, and created the first winds as it shifted and shook. There we had the first elements of fire, wind, and water. These elements thrummed with energy, and as the fire melted the ice it took the shape of a man. Eventually this man felt his body form, and he opened his eyes. Facing toward the fire, he could see nothing but flame. He flexed his muscles, pulling away from the grip of the ice. This man stretched and shook, and he felt the ice. Breathing in the magickal mist, he could feel it suffuse his body and being, and he decided to exert his newfound power to grasp the ice, forcing it high above him, suspended above the fire. There were three of the classical, essential elements then, and Folodar used the power of the Mana around him to create the forth, earth. He transmuted the icy lhucite into stone and where there was ice became water with the heat caused by the magic. Thus he considered himself the god of stone, among other things mortals would come to know him for, and he sat atop the world he created for a time. It was the first rest he would have, and he slept for a time. When he awoke, he was pleased that nothing had changed. The world was still his and his alone, but he found it dark and unwelcoming.

And then, the only piece I've actually put on my website (best viewed on Firefox): https://thesodafoutain.neocities.org/htmls/book/jo-ur

[Magmacube_tr]

Spoiler: Part 10 (click to show/hide)

Two years. It had been two entire years since Magma was given this artificial child, who was now developmentally 8 years old, or such. He guessed. The childs aging was slowing down, slowly.

And he still didn't had a name. So, the forumite came up with a nickname; Red. Yes, Magma knew it was a fucking awful nickname. No, he didn't needed to be reminded of that. Yes, he was aware labelling a person based their physical appearance was shitty, but it not like Red had any clue about the moral and ethical implications of that and just how rude it was. In fact, Red had no clue on anything at all.

It was a very strange development. Because it both solved a problem, and answered a question. The question as to what took Magma so long to name him.

Red was an extremely advanced, self-autonomous noo-construct. A dream of a god. That meant he wasn't real in the same sense as the things around him. He was defined by himself. As time passed, Red's mind developed and expanded, and he could define more of himself, until he could actually have discernable physical characteristics. The realisation had caught Magma off guard at first, but then he remembered that he didn't had any idea how Red actually looked like before this.

It made perfect sense. Or Magma was insane. It was both.

"Red, I am home!" He entered the house with bags in hand. The child came rushing into the room to greet the highlight of the day. A small human boy ornately clothed in soft, dark red and green fabrics. It suited his hair and complexion. He was also wearing his glasses, suggesting that he was reading before Magma came home.

Red looked up with two large blue eyes behind lenses and a large mop of curly red hair, his namesake. "Hello dad! What did you bring?" He asked, fearless of the creature that stood infront of him.

Magma indulged the kids question. "Brought some foodstuffs. We will eat jabberer meat roast for dinner today."

"Yes! What else?" Red asked, expectantly.

"I brought some sweets too!"

"Yesssssss!"

"Also got some stuff that you aren't allowed to touch. Or smell. Or observe in any way."

"But whyyyyy???" Red pouted.

"You will die if you do."

"I woooooooooon't!"

"You wiiiiiiilllllll!"

"How do you know?"

"I just do. Now tell me if you finished your maths?"

"I did."

"...Did you?"

"YES YES I DID"

"Alright, alright, I believe you. We will check them after dinner together."

Then there was silent pause as Magma went to the kitchen cook their dinner, while Red returned to his reading, which was about cave birds.

"Dad? What is a jabberer?"

"Don't you already know, Red?"

"I wanna see one! Can you bring one here? Like the ones on the book?"

Magma knew the answer was no. But nothing prevented him from bringing in a featherless turkey as a stand-in, so he simply answered with "When I catch one alive, maybe."

"Really?"

Magma found himself saying yes.

[EuchreJack]

So, I am using my recent bout of COVID to write up a short guide of general advice.
I'm calling it "How the Ant defeats the Elephant" or perhaps "How the Ant becomes the Elephant".

It's supposed to be generally good info for how to approach the task of confronting a seemingly more powerful person, place, or thing as a normal weak relatively powerless individual.

I'm embarrassed at how short it is, honestly.

Any ideas of what might help it be more useful? Anecdotes? Stories? Parables? Raw facts?

[TD1]

Depends entirely on what impact you're going for.

Think of your audience. What do you reckon they'd want to see more of? Facts? Cute stories?

[EuchreJack]

Now that I'm up to 7 pages, it's probably more important what will keep them reading. I would like them to finish it, and ideally learn from it.

There is also the issue that in order to maintain autonomy, I'm an unreliable narrator. Ergo, I will have to spend some time proving that the advice is Skookum and not Hokum. _{I only just realized in these terms are basically opposites. Skookum}

[TD1]

Yea, then show don't tell. A few wee stories to round it out and keep folks hooked.

I would say that as an unreliable narrator, folks will distrust overt messages or facts. So yea, lie all you like, it won't matter too much. But keep the theme truthful.

Zum Beispiel - If the theme is 'love unites us' then the narrator could say '10,000 couples kill each other every year.' All good, and instantly distrusted.

But in the context of the theme, he'd be speaking to, for instance, a family of woodland critters. These, though from different species and levels of the food chain, united to preserve the life of a lost puppy - who had touched all their hearts.

So yea, overt versus implied. Mine that implied meaning, friend, and draw forth gold.