*wanders in and waves*

Hey, followed your link from Becca's page. *grins* Although I know Shanra too. ^_^

Started reading some of your stuff -- although I only had time for the pre-prologue bit at the moment.

Anyhow. Welcome to the woods! Since no one seems to have come and officially welcomed you yet. ^_^ I might as well.

*leaves a basket of cookies*

Toodles!

~Panth

Cheng Chaoxiong Lionel replies: "Yes, yes, thank you very much for your welcome. I'm not really partial to cookies, but it's the thought that counts, innit?*scoops up cookies*"

You are not from Singapore, by any chance? Would fit somehow, but I can't see that on the map, since it's too small. I know some guys over there, but however. Your rules rule btw, as your stories do.
Greetings

Cheng Chaoxiong Lionel replies: "-Yes, I am a Singaporean."

Good rules. There's nothing more annoying in any story than a villain who wants to destroy the world just because, you know, he wants to destroy the world. Reminds me of America and Iran right now...

Anyway, welcome to Elfwood.

Strange, I googled Nefarian. And, it seems that he wants to destroy the dwarves of iron mountain, and then turn his attention to world domination, with no idea what he wants to do with it. I believe that violates one of those sacred rules you posted. Number two, in fact.

You have an arrogance about you that many would find offensive, by the way. A word of advice: If you are going to claim to know cliches, and shoot daggers at authors who use them, learn to avoid them yourself. Or, better still, realize that cliches are a vital part of the fantasy genre, provided the author knows what they are doing.

Cheng Chaoxiong Lionel replies: "The point about Nefarian is that he's not STUPID, like number one hundred billion villains out there. He doesn't employ stupid, bumbling minions, gets right down to the point, turns allies against each other (Vael, anyone?) and actually has some degree of real power, instead of brooding around in random dark tower #8959 while waiting for random hero 9250834507 to kill him.

Sure, he's not perfect, but he's dang good, and actually tries to learn from past mistakes, something which is sorely lacking in many fantasy villains. I didn't say he was the best, you'd have to go to George R.R. Martin for that.

Actually, being on the offensive side is a good way of drawing people out to defend their works. I don't know about you, but in 4 years of reviewing other people's online stories, this seems to be the most effective. People get angry, they step forward, and we discuss the points in further detail.

And yes, I do know the cliches of fantasy. If you claim that I use them, yes, I do, but by the time I'm done with them, they're not cliches. Cliches are not *vital*. I'd rather read a story that didn't have the Wise old Mentor(TM), (Dark Lord(TM), Destined/Chosen/Whatever speshfulness one(TM), and that's just counting character archetypes.

But hey, each to their own."

Hmm...interesting rules. You just pointed out three problems in my current novel *grins* Thanks!

I too must disagree with rule number 10, however, assuming you're talking about the WoW Nefarian. He's just a blatant copy of old Dragonlance characters, all mushed together. He's hard to defeat, but that's all I'll give him. A cool villain, now, would be Lady De Winter in "The Three Musketeers" (not the Disney movie crud...blechh!...but the actual novel by Alexandre Dumas).

Oh, and rainbows are pretty on rainy days, but very hard to read on Elfwood pages ;-)

I like rainbows on elfwood pages. It's better than the boring white stuff that no one really looks at because it's so darn ordinary. And...*cough* who is Nefarian? Yes, i must confess my ignorance. Though i must say i think it's harsh that other writers and anonymous's are critisizing your villain when all of our own are basically parts of other evil villains we've heard about thrown together as well. No one is original. Not anymore.

And i can't believe you have a mods choice already! Congrats hehe. so jealous...but then again my stuff is badly cliched...and i can already see where i'm going wrong just by reading the first rule...damnit.

Thanks for the comments by the way! they really helped me and as soon as i have time i'm going to do the same for you. But mine aren't the same kind as yours. Mine tend to focus more on questions, descriptions and grammar...sorry hehe be back later ^_^ ..i love that smiley face too much.

Cheng Chaoxiong Lionel replies: "Harr.-It is *entirely* possible to write a fantasy without villains.This translates into, “a conflict in which we are not being forced to cheer for one side, because of what will happen if they lose.” Even if the reader doesn’t particularly like one set of characters, he or she has to be able to grasp their motives and understand that, in this particular set of circumstances, it makes sense for these people to act this way.This means that “Crazy guy who wants to take over the world vs. a whole bunch of people who don’t want him to” or “Overlord bent on genocide vs. the race he’s trying to slaughter” are automatically villain-laden. They’re going too strongly against the moral barometer of the vast majority of your audience. Even if the crazy guy or the overlord is a well-drawn, complex character, there’s the problem of that goal. He has to fit in the villain role, because there’s no other reasonable slot to put him in without a great deal of pushing and prodding and twisting the narrative. Variations on the second one—an overlord bent on oppressing all women, or a non-magic-user bent on slaughtering mages—are also right out. Beyond the steep slope of morality they’ll require your reader to climb, villains like this tend to slide into clichéd dialogue and reasoning that the most innocent readers know the counterarguments for quite easily.Some conflicts that have worked without producing villains:-Sorcerer who destroyed a country’s art and culture and obliterated its name by magic because they killed his beloved younger son, vs. the rebels who are quite content to enslave mages in the name of freeing their country--Tigana.-A woman who wants to protect her children and does it by murdering other children, vs. the man who blindly follows his honor to the detriment of all else--A Song of Ice and Fire (well, okay, that was one of about a hundred different conflicts in that series).-A mage who summons up a fairy creature he can’t control out of fear and hurt pride, vs. a mage who grows too involved in his studies to notice what’s happening to his wife because of said fairy creature--Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.-A mob boss/assassin/brothel-owner who has no problem casually killing people, vs. a large group of revolutionaries who have no problem with bringing down a system of Empire that magically guarantees civilization--Teckla.The reasons behind the conflicts can themselves be tangled and ethical and muddy and hard to sort out. But, if that’s the case, it needs to be so for both sides. A conflict where one side is immediately identifiable as “good” and one as “bad” will not help the author to avoid producing a villain and a hero.Or you can do what I'm doing right now, and write opposing sets of protagonists.-Is a mod's choice something really that great?-Well, thanks."

I read your review on Eragon (and I agree on most points though not with so many effs, and I'm not quite so nitpicky). In any case, I wondered whether you'd read Dragons: Lexicon Triumvirate, by Kenneth Eng. I have not read the book yet, but the author was a classmate of mine back in junior high, so I might read it at some point, though I'm not so inclined to give him any sales, given his overgrown ego at this point.

You've got some really good stuff here. I especially like your tarnished gold series. You mention that we can read all of it on your fictionpress pad under your private gallery but you don't say where that is or how to get there. I would really like to know what happens, could you give us a link to your private gallery? Pleesse?? I also really really like your parodies, especially Elven envasions. You do a very good job of being sarcastic and funny. You have got some good writing tallent and I hope you take it somwhere. Good luck. I'll be waiting to hear where I can read the rest of your excellent story.

Cheng Chaoxiong Lionel replies: "...Meh. By now, I pretty much believe Tarnished Gold stinks- I've moved on and tried to improve from there. You can get to my Fictionpress profile through my profile here on Elfwood; look under "profile" and from there click "personal art/writing"."

I have just skipped through your - Gallery? Library? - briefly, finding your story at a random Mod's Choice. S'arlka's Garden. I really enjoyed it, and read Elven Evasions as well. You're a good writer, and your latter mentioned text has made me able to avoid the common cliches.

You know, after I read your 10-tips on writing Fantasy, I discovered most of my novel was full of cliches. If I hadn't read them, I would just be strolling happily away like a dolt who doesn't know better and filled in more cliches.

I also read your Eragon review in LJ, and it was quite inspiring. I mean, I was a fan of the Inheritance trilogy, you've got me to view it from an entirely different angle and see it as the crap it is.

Well, you're doing a great job - keep it up!

*Wanders in randomly and clumsily drops large bag of fan letters*

I really liked "Elven Evasions" (see my comment), so I came to see if you had any other parodies. Here, this is for you *plucks fan letter from bag and leaves on doorstep* Enjoy!