Wow. My friends list and all the forums I visit are completely dead. Even dwicons is slow. Labor day weekend, I guess? It's so hard to keep up with all these holidays when you don't celebrate them...though it is nice mom gets tomorrow off. It'll be good to have her home.

Work on the character profiles is going well. I'm a little more then halfway through Tavin's question section, and I'll be moving on to the other characters very soon. I don't think I'll bother with all the exercises this time. They take a long time and I've got quite a lot of characters to revamp! It's amazing just how many I've come up with. Not really sure how they'll all fit in with one another now that things have changed, but I'll let them figure that out. I have a feeling once I'm done with all of my profiles, I'll have quite the story to tell...I'm still amazed at how much even a cosmetic amount of questions has changed my characters, even the ones I thought I already knew really well. I'm particularly looking forward to Anise, as she's my favorite and I feel I can relate with her situation a lot more. I'll be able to answer questions about her cultural background and moral beliefs much more easily then I can with the others because she's from my world/time, so I'll actually have something real to reference for once.

Following that thought, going through this process of character creation has shown me a rather large flaw in most fantasy fiction: It's not deep enough. I first discovered this when I tried to give my characters hobbies. Fantasy characters don't have hobbies. They're either fighters, or rogues, or wizards, right? They'll be too busy saving the world, snorting pixie dust and riding dragons to care about things like gardening or stamp collecting. Now, if I were doing a satirical sort of fantasy novel, like what Patricia C. Wrede or Diana Wynne Jones have written, it would be different because then I could give them all wild and zany hobbies that contrasted with the fantasy stereotype they were representing. But, believe it or not, I am actually trying to be serious with this book. Doesn't mean I won't be zany, but it does require me to make them seem...I dunno. More normal? Not like jokes or contradictions? Maybe I'm living in Amanda's Crazy Rule Land again. Hm.

It's even more difficult to come up with answers in the Culture, Religion, and Education section of Holly Lisle's Create a Character Clinic. It never ocurred to me in the midst of all my plotting and twisting and prophesying to, y'know, actually build a world. With like, cultures and sub-cultures and things, ohmygawd!!1 Becuase, like, elvez h8 humanz and that's enuff, right???????? -.-#@!*....

*hits self about the head and shoulders with a rolled up towel*

Anyway, I think my observation is an interesting one. I keep thinking about Spellfire (one of my least favorite books) and other works of Realmsian fiction. I love the Forgotten Realms, Baldur's Gate, Nevewinter Nights, etc., but I'm beginning to wonder if that shallow view of the fantasy world hasn't done more harm then good. Another observation I made today while watching Midsomer Murders was that the bedrock of fantasy fiction -- the shadowy pub/tavern/inn with a funny name -- is mostly an English thing. I suddenly realized that Tolkien, who most people credit with kicking off the whole fantasy thing, lived in England. DUH. *head smack* Stupid Amanda. =P Better late then never, I suppose...

I suppose that my observations are neither here nor there in regards to my own work, just little points of interest I picked up along the way. Another reminder that you should never just automatically assume something is perfect because you like it, or because it has a tendency to attract intelligent people. Everything has flaws. Except the Doctor, of course. (HA! YOU THOUGHT YOU'D GET AWAY WITHOUT A DOCTOR WHO REFERENCE! MWAHAHAHA! You were wrong. Oh so very wrong. Hahahaha!)