McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Common knowledge in fantasy
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: hamiltond on April 08, 2008, 07:51:41 PM ---Just put a glossary in the back of the book. It worked for Jordan and Herbert.
--- End quote ---
Well, that is guaranteed to make me not buy your book, because it says you can't be bothered to make the text work well enough on its own ground and you need to prop it up. I hate that almost as much as I do maps.
comprex:
--- Quote from: neurovore on April 08, 2008, 07:57:10 PM ---Well, that is guaranteed to make me not buy your book, because it says you can't be bothered to make the text work well enough on its own ground and you need to prop it up.
--- End quote ---
even if (hypothetical author) uses it for backstory venue, and a complete cross-volume index?
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: comprex on April 08, 2008, 08:21:22 PM ---even if (hypothetical author) uses it for backstory venue, and a complete cross-volume index?
--- End quote ---
Backstory that matters should be in the text. Indexing... I have mixed feelings on.
kilks401:
I generally read novels too fast to pick up on all the little world building things such as measurements of length. I really enjoy when a fantasy book has a comprehensive glossary, since then I can simply look something up rather than having to flip through hundreds of pages to look for a reference, such as happens in the Wheel of Time.
If important information came up in the story randomly and was only included in the glossary, thats not good. But has a tool, it helps me out.
*edited because I had multiple redundant examples of redundancy.*
hamiltond:
--- Quote from: neurovore on April 08, 2008, 07:57:10 PM ---Well, that is guaranteed to make me not buy your book, because it says you can't be bothered to make the text work well enough on its own ground and you need to prop it up. I hate that almost as much as I do maps.
--- End quote ---
See I rather like them, especially when the have little tidbits of information in the that the author just couldn't reasonable fit in. But then again I also buy DVDs because I like the special features so....
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