The Dastardly Dungeon of Deliciously Devious Drinks

Mary Love said:

I'm so happy to hear about all these projects getting finished. That's my goal for this year: finish stuff!

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Me too! I'm really starting to contemplate writing backwards, starting from the finish line and reverse-engineering the story. I got bits of it, stuff that happens here and there, but not an orderly time-line. It's a bit difficult to go forward if I can't decide on which comes first and what follows But, generally, finishing is the overall goal for this year (same as last year ). Today my computer mouse gave up the ghost and had to run to the shop. The new one claims that it's batteries can last for one year. So, I thought, great, that could be a nice motivation - finish the WIP before the mouse batteries expire. Good as any.

I spent a good chunk of yesterday theorizing the most narratively satisfying deaths/exits for Batman and Superman with a friend. I feel like a supervillain

Shadowflame said:

My R&R is now officially shortlisted.

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Yay!

Mary Love said:

I'm so happy to hear about all these projects getting finished. That's my goal for this year: finish stuff! As in, rewrites and spit polish, applying feedback and finished, finished, finished!!

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That's a good goal Mine's to finish the first draft of a novel (preferably my WIP but sometimes life happens and projects change)

Scripty said:

I spent a good chunk of yesterday theorizing the most narratively satisfying deaths/exits for Batman and Superman with a friend. I feel like a supervillain

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Aren't there a few villains who are absolutely obsessed with telling a good story? Who throw absolute fits when they don't get the proper response or the right amount of theatrics? I'm pretty sure I've seen those around.

Hi, everyone. I have a question and I do not know where on AW to ask it. I'm stopping in here because it is a social thread and I figured it wouldn't be wrong to approach you all with the question. Also, the genre I'm writing in is fantasy. I thought peeps here would have a stronger understanding of my current needs.

I am currently working on an upcoming battle scene between two mages who are with their respective armies. I need the one army to approach the other and the mages leading them to be able to talk to each other. Frankly, I'm rather distance challenged and the logistics of the scene is beginning to melt my brain. I need to figure out how close they should be to each other to be able to hear and see each other clearly, without being too close. I don't want to waste a reader's suspension of disbelief over stupid stuff. It's important to me that the logistics ring true. Where would be a good place to ask this question?

Thanks. I'll be over here sitting in the dimly lit corner, sipping my drink.

Ambrosia: If it were me, I would probably figure a way for the mages to go forward under a temporary truce to discuss something. (Depending on what it is they need to talk about the something they are ostensibly negotiating could be fictitious.) Or, find a way for the two of them to slip away during the confusion of the two armies maneuvering into position to meet and talk. Or, if they are meant to be yelling threats at each other, create some sort of magic-enhancement that they can speak with each other or address the opposing army without having to be very close. (I.e. Some sort of amplification spell.)

Thanks, Aggie. I appreciate your reply. It doesn't fit with what I'm doing at the moment. The invading mage is throwing a magical fit because his magical backup was killed in the middle of the night and everything and everyone, including his army (who hadn't broken camp yet), is suffering the effects of his tantrum. Meanwhile, the MC's approaching with her army (which is an illusion) and is planning on goading him into a mage battle to decide who "wins". They have to be close enough to at least shout at each other, and so he can see what she is doing as she stands there.

Ambrosia said:

Thanks, Aggie. I appreciate your reply. It doesn't fit with what I'm doing at the moment. The invading mage is throwing a magical fit because his magical backup was killed in the middle of the night and everything and everyone, including his army (who hadn't broken camp yet), is suffering the effects of his tantrum. Meanwhile, the MC's approaching with her army (which is an illusion) and is planning on goading him into a mage battle to decide who "wins". They have to be close enough to at least shout at each other, and so he can see what she is doing as she stands there.

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Hmm, I'm not sure how realistic it is for two armies to get within shouting distance of each other without incident, especially if one side is suffering ill effects of some kind. IMO, having the two leaders meet still seems a better solution.

JJ Litke said:

Hmm, I'm not sure how realistic it is for two armies to get within shouting distance of each other without incident, especially if one side is suffering ill effects of some kind. IMO, having the two leaders meet still seems a better solution.

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You may be right. Thank you for your comment.

My house smells like Guinness stew!!!!!!

Oh, wow. Got some unexpected good news today. I will share more details once I can.

In the meantime, best get some more words in on the SSSFFSS. And some other business stuff done.

Just as soon as this fresh pot of tea finishes steeping.

Aggy, ahhhh, tea

jallenecs said:

My house smells like Guinness stew!!!!!!

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My house smells like wort (beer brewing). So your house is much more pleasant right now. But eventually this will be an Irish red and a pecan porter, which'll be nice.

Ambrosia said:

Hi, everyone. I have a question and I do not know where on AW to ask it. I'm stopping in here because it is a social thread and I figured it wouldn't be wrong to approach you all with the question. Also, the genre I'm writing in is fantasy. I thought peeps here would have a stronger understanding of my current needs.

I am currently working on an upcoming battle scene between two mages who are with their respective armies. I need the one army to approach the other and the mages leading them to be able to talk to each other. Frankly, I'm rather distance challenged and the logistics of the scene is beginning to melt my brain. I need to figure out how close they should be to each other to be able to hear and see each other clearly, without being too close. I don't want to waste a reader's suspension of disbelief over stupid stuff. It's important to me that the logistics ring true. Where would be a good place to ask this question?

Thanks. I'll be over here sitting in the dimly lit corner, sipping my drink.

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AMBY! *tacklehug* Good to see you in the Cantina which is totally NOT going to steal your soul so you can't leave and NOT going to try to absorb the castle into itself ton begin its take-over of all of AW. *ahem*

I'm afraid I'm not good with distances either, but I hope what the others say will be helpful. It sounds like a great story.

My house smells like a peanut butter and banana sandwich.

My house smells like NyQuil. We're both still plague-ridden. It's been three weeks. Enough already!

JJ Litke said:

Hmm, I'm not sure how realistic it is for two armies to get within shouting distance of each other without incident, especially if one side is suffering ill effects of some kind. IMO, having the two leaders meet still seems a better solution.

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Ditto to JJ here. Hope things are going well, Ambrosia.

Hey, E.F.B., Tiddlywinks! Now I know where you all are hanging out.

This is the last battle in the book. I'm almost finished. But distances, arrrggghhh! I am so horrible with knowing how far things are from each other. I'm not sure how other writers figure out the small bits like distance. I drew a map that helped me work in a realistic way with the larger distances, but that doesn't help with talking/shouting/sight distances. At this point I am considering making my brother go out in the field with me, a ball of twine, and a tape measure and measure it while we shout at each other. Except it has been raining, so I figure I already know what he would tell me.

I hate getting bogged down in what may appear to be minutiae, but this is important to me. The world I've created follows a lot of the same laws as Earth. It's not something I want to botch and have people say, "idiot. That can't possibly be true. Doesn't she know anything?" I thought there might be somewhere on AW where I could ask about distances for legible vocal communication and seeing a person's actions. I could fudge it with magic, but I've already used magic for communication between them earlier, there is already a tremendous amount of magic in play, and magic in this world has certain laws. I risk breaking those laws, or being forced to rework the laws, which at this point in the book I really don't want to do.

Duchess Ambrosia. Fancy meeting you here.
I left a perfectly good castle, just to try and be helpful. Don't tell anyone.

Ambrosia said:

I drew a map that helped me work in a realistic way with the larger distances, but that doesn't help with talking/shouting/sight distances.

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It's about four hundred feet from our house to the barn. If the wind isn't blowing, I can have a fairly coherent shouting match with my husband at that distance. Between four and six hundred feet is doable.
BUT, that is without two whole armies standing next to us. That kind of crowd makes a lot of noise, even if they aren't talking. Stamping feet, snorting horses, rattling armor.

Are your mages out ahead of their respective armies by a few hundred feet? That way they wouldn't be drowned out by the din of impatient soldiers and war horses.

Wicked said:

Are your mages out ahead of their respective armies by a few hundred feet? That way they wouldn't be drowned out by the din of impatient soldiers and war horses.

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They are in front of their armies. I already have that part written. I can add the distance into the description to clarify it very easily. Thank you for the suggestion, Wicked. Glad you finally got out of your iron maiden.

Ambrosia said:

Hey, E.F.B., Tiddlywinks! Now I know where you all are hanging out. .

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Heh. Well. You could also try the Story Research threads if you are looking for a non-magical answer. I'd still cheat and do Aggy's magical amplification, or do a good ole meeting of the leaders before they slaughter each other.

Ambrosia said:

Thank you for the suggestion, Wicked. Glad you finally got out of your iron maiden.

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Eh, I needed to oil the hinges and polish the spikes anyway. You're welcome.

In other random news, I was just attacked by a squirrel.


MY COOKIES!

JJ Litke said:

My house smells like wort (beer brewing). So your house is much more pleasant right now. But eventually this will be an Irish red and a pecan porter, which'll be nice.

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Brewing beer isn't necessarily a bad smell; just takes a little getting used to. Once I can get past that weird taste the scent leaves in the back of my mouth, I'm good. Then again, my husband says I have a dead nose; practically nothing smells unbearable to me.

Aw, unfortunately something went wrong (a series of small things really) and MrJJ threw out those batches. Now he's off at the store buying replacement ingredients. The Stinkening Part II will begin soon.

jallenecs said:

My house smells like Guinness stew!!!!!!

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Whenever I try that, the Guinness disappears before it reaches the stew

Ambrosia said:

At this point I am considering making my brother go out in the field with me, a ball of twine, and a tape measure and measure it while we shout at each other.

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That's a good idea, actually. Although you could just make the armies approach each other (in a field I suppose) and mention that one army stopped, but also mention how noises were heard (clatter, clanging, stomping, voices, etc). Then it will be obvious they are within hearing distance but you don't have to mention the actual measurement. As for the talking, do they really need to talk (or, they could be just exchanging some information) ? It would be much easier to communicate with signs, flags, light signals as long as they only need to communicate general ideas and not small talk Or, the talking people could just have a secret meeting face to face. Or, send each other messenger pigeons.

Curlz said:

Then it will be obvious they are within hearing distance but you don't have to mention the actual measurement.

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Anything that removes the need to have an actual measurement has promise.

Curlz said:

As for the talking, do they really need to talk (or, they could be just exchanging some information) ? It would be much easier to communicate with signs, flags, light signals as long as they only need to communicate general ideas and not small talk Or, the talking people could just have a secret meeting face to face.

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The one army is on the ground due to the magic their mage has been tossing around, leveling an orchard and such (flying debris, etc). The army was still in camp just beginning their day when it happened. The other army is an illusion and not actually making much noise. Not really concerned about the armies as much as having the two mages close enough to hear and see each other. It is important the mage king can hear and see the MC, for the storyline.

Curlz said:

Or, send each other messenger pigeons.

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Perhaps messenger dragons. Messenger pigeons don't exist.