I stumbled across this and thought it was quite funny. As the website says: http://rinkworks.com/fnovel/ If anyone needs it pointed out: this is lighthearted. Tropes are not the devil.
Hmmm. None of these for my story. I was expecting at least a few. Seems like they apply if you're writing straight Tolkien, or Narnia, or Xanth, or if your name is Robert Jordan
All righty then, here's my shameful answers. I challenge you to do better 25 Yes! I don't know when the hay baler was invented. Fortunately there's no hay in my story. I think. 32 Just background stories situated in the past. But technically that's a prequel too. 36 Yes... But but it's a regional thing! Only two characters have apostrophes and they're distant relatives. 47 I'll read up on it I swear! I've given my feudal lords a fair bit of independence, and nobody gets to approach the King. 67 Yes, fite me irl. (I only use "ale" or "beer", the difference between which I also do not know) EDIT What if I wrote a novel with ALL OF THIS? That's bound to be original no?
Here my list 24. Do you think that the only two uses for ships are fishing and piracy? There's a ship, and it's a fishing trawler, and my MC Tevin works on board, but I know full well that maritime vessels are as varied as land-bound vehicles 26. Did you draw a map for your novel which includes places named things like "The Blasted Lands" or "The Forest of Fear" or "The Desert of Desolation" or absolutely anything "of Doom"? Yes, I drew a map. No silly, belabored names like the ones suggested. I just wanted the map to help keep the journey consistent. I didn't want to interject contradictory directions or sudden travels across continent sized spaces in a matter of just a few days. Things like that. 46. Do inns in your book exist solely so your main characters can have brawls? There's an inn at the beginning, but it's not for brawls. It's where my two MC meet for some bow-chica-wow-wow. My two MC's are guys, so whatever one is going to say about women and inns and sex doesn't apply.
Do you not know when the hay baler was invented? Is this one because people hide and sleep in loose hay? I couldn't make the connection to a fantasy novel trope. Are you writing prequels to your as-yet-unfinished series of books? Yes I did, but only as a short story exercise. Do you think that "mead" is just a fancy name for "beer"? I did but this made me look it up: "An alcoholic beverage made from fermented honey and water." Elsewhere on the site: this dialect generator was interesting: http://www.rinkworks.com/dialect/
In the interests of fairness, I fail the exam in my non-fantasy novel with number 61: Does your hero fall in love with an unattainable woman, whom he later attains? But, you know, a romance with a man and woman who are both available and happy to enter a relationship with each other would be a pretty dull novel. I should know: I beta read one.
2. Is your main character a young farmhand with mysterious parentage? While her parentage isn't a mystery, she is a farmhand... 3. Is your main character the heir to the throne but doesn't know it? She isn't technically the "heir," but she does become Queen. 4. Is your story about a young character who comes of age, gains great power, and defeats the supreme badguy? She's already an adult and already has great power, but yes, she defeats the supreme badguy. 8. Does your novel contain a character whose sole purpose is to show up at random plot points and dispense information? Um... Kind of, I guess. She's the Priestess and my characters seek her out for her knowledge, but yeah, that's pretty much all she's there for. 26. Did you draw a map for your novel which includes places named things like "The Blasted Lands" or "The Forest of Fear" or "The Desert of Desolation" or absolutely anything "of Doom"? Like Wrey, I drew up a map without the silly names. I needed a reference guide for direction and distance. 28. Is this the first book in a planned trilogy? Yes.... 32. Are you writing prequels to your as-yet-unfinished series of books? Not writing, but planning, yes... 49. Could one of your main characters tell the other characters something that would really help them in their quest but refuses to do so just so it won't break the plot? Yes.... 50. Do any of the magic users in your novel cast spells easily identifiable as "fireball" or "lightning bolt"? I'm beginning to doubt the strength of my novel....
I have a couple of fails. 50. Do any of the magic users in your novel cast spells easily identifiable as "fireball" or "lightning bolt"? I use the term fireball twice during my novel, so I can't wiggle out of that one. 35. Does your novel contain characters transported from the real world to a fantasy realm? Yes though only one. He's not the protagonist, nor a POV character, but I can't think of a way to wiggle out of this one either. I love playing with this trope, and am doomed to repeatedly fail here. There's a few other points I could fail on if I'm being harsh on myself, but I think I just about get away with them. 16. Do any of your female characters exist solely to be captured and rescued? I have a female character that gets captured and rescued, but I like to think she's not quite that one dimensional. 48. Do your characters spend an inordinate amount of time journeying from place to place? Quite a lot of journeying. I don't think it's inordinate or it wouldn't be included. Hopefully I'm not deluded. 32. Are you writing prequels to your as-yet-unfinished series of books? One of my secondary characters is from another story I was writing even before I started on this novel. If I ever finished that book, it would form a prequel to my current WIP. (which has clear potential for sequels if it becomes successful, but isn't a planned series as of yet.) No I will not abandon my novel.
I'm working on a Space Opera but I image there'll be a bit of crossover for the questions. Let's see... 16. Do any of your female characters exist solely to be captured and rescued? No, so far I'm quite proud of how my female characters have turned out. There is some capture and rescue but it's one of the male leads who'll be needing the rescue. 17. Do any of your female characters exist solely to embody feminist ideals? It's something I'm striving very hard to avoid. 24. Do you think that the only two uses for ships are fishing and piracy? Well most of my action takes place on a ship but thankfully it is not inhabited by pirates or fishermen. 46. Do inns in your book exist solely so your main characters can have brawls? A tavern brawl is guaranteed.
17) The "feminist ideal" is that there are 7.4 billion people in the world instead of just 3.7 billion. Every character in my UrFan reflects this in some way or another (even the one who disagrees with the concept ) 19) Two of my female characters are professionally trained law enforcement officers, I presently have not decided if either one enjoys cooking or not 28-29) I am planning an entire series, but I haven't decided how many books I will end up writing before I decide I'm finished 35) my protagonists discover the existence of the supernatural, does that count? 39, 41) One of my lead heroes is a half-orc (other half human), the other can go back and forth between 100% human and 100% psoglav (Slavic species of wolfman) whenever she wants 43) Noooo... 50) Yes. Magic in my story is as much an art as a science, so spells that the mage would easily recognize the results of are easier to learn a process for than the more unique spells would be 62) Do mixed metaphors count as puns? 70) Does personally belittling the scariness of a self-proclaimed megalomaniac - whose driving motivation is to go down in history as a terrifying supervillain - count as an insignificant mistake?
It may be the other way around - I remember reading in, I'm pretty sure, the first Outlander book, a mention of hay bales in a time well before hay baling was invented.
Maybe authors are confusing haystacks and hay bales. Hay was gathered and stacked longer before the baler came around.
I'd have to re-read to be sure (and I don't wanna re-read that book!) but I recall it being something about the hero shifting hay bales, or lifting the heroine up to sit on top of some hay bales, or something else that really made it seem as if the author was thinking of the semi-modern square-bale format, not a hay stack. But I couldn't swear to it. Still, it's part of the "you don't know what you don't know" problem for writers - if you just step into a setting without totally immersing yourself in it, you may end up taking things for granted that you shouldn't...
I got curious, so I googled. And then turned up what seems to be an online (and therefore probably illegal) version of the book. I'm torn... I will quote only the relevant passages... it's apparently from Outlander, p 93. Seeing that this conversation might take a while, Jamie sat down on a bale of hay. Hamish’s feet did not quite reach the floor, or he might have shuffled them. Instead, he drummed his heels lightly against the firm-packed hay. ... Hamish sat back, consciously aping Jamie’s posture. His stockinged feet stuck out over the edge of the hay bale. ... They looked like two tomatoes, set side by side on a hay bale for judging at a county vegetable show. Sounds like modern hay bales, to me. Not sure if this is a widespread issue or if the list writer was just getting in a dig at Gabaldon.
Yes, that sounds like modern bales rather than Gabaldon just not knowing that the word "bale" doesn't apply to traditional haystacks (which were dense, but not shaped like modern hay bales).
I laughed my ass off when it mentioned Robert Jordan. That's exactly who I was thinking of as I was reading the list. I'm a little guilty about using a female to embody "softer" ideals but it's not a fantasy so...
I would have added to that exam: Is your fantasy story really just a thin excuse for us to explore your extensively researched fantasy map?
I'd also add Are you planning to release a separate book that acts as an encyclopedia for your world and magic system?
Guilty of 30. Yes it's thicker than a phone book 49. Yes one of the characters could tell the mc something and it would resolve everything - but the person who knows this information is the bad guy so I suppose I'm okay 61. Sort of - she's underage. 70. Yes - he's a drug dealer and a loon. Not bad. My fantasy's though are more - I guess you would call them - urban fantasy's? I don't think middle earth/middle ages when I write fantasy probably cause I've never read any books like that. Mostly my fantasy springs more from fairy tales, George MacDonald, Harlan Ellison, David Lynch and Angela Carter. A clash of the world, the spirit realm and surrealism - the dream world.
"Do any of your main characters have names longer than three syllables?" Yes, but Sophobina is a real name. Otherwise, I get to skip away scot free.
Yay! I'm not a cliche! 26: I did that back in high school, the last time I created a world. This time, it's completely normal - no goofy names. 28: First book, yes. Planned, no. I didn't *want* to do a trilogy, but that's how things are looking. 36: Technically, yes, but the names his race uses are based on Arabic naming conventions, so I don't think it counts. 48: Umm... kind of? They pretty well skewered every popular fantasy author: Robert Jordan, Martin, Piers Anthony, Tolkien, Salvatore, Erikson.... I was thinking of doing a blog.
