m. c. de marco

Via a mailing list: Rinkwork’s Fantasy Novelist’s Exam

Ever since J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis created the worlds of Middle Earth and Narnia, it seems like every windbag off the street thinks he can write great, original fantasy, too. The problem is that most of this “great, original fantasy” is actually poor, derivative fantasy. Frankly, we’re sick of it, so we’ve compiled a list of rip-off tip-offs in the form of an exam.

Some fun from the news aggregator:

Folksongs Are Your Friends: Things Jim Macdonald has learned from British folk ballads [Making Light]

Poorly-chosen Scifi and Fantasy names: SFX magazine column by David Langford: issue #38, May 1998 [via del.icio.us scifi]

NameVoyager is a Java applet that shows the popularity of English baby names over the decades since 1900. In the past I’ve used census name statistics to guess at near-future names, but this link is quicker and more fun. [Via GeekPress]