Writing prompts, tips, and advice.

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[fantasy-writing]

Hi, sorry about this, but do you know where to find resources for battle strategies? Like, what tactics would army generals discuss, what things they would look out for during a battle, etc etc?

I’m unable to present any resources beyond your favorite search engine and internet browser, but I can give you tips on what to look for. Before we get into that, though, it’s important to note that we should be looking at the context in which you wish to apply military strategy.

If your general is generally (heh) competent, or even a veteran with quite some experience under his belt, it’s important to look into applied military strategy, where the tactics deployed in a battle actually were successful, you can read any number of different tactical patterns theorized by strategists, but if they are not used and proved on the field of battle, their effectiveness is questionable and up to speculation.

And before I list off specific things to interest yourself with when it comes to researching historical warfare, let’s get into strategic resources and considerations.

In a siege, we’ll be wanting to assess the following.

1. Accessibility of food and water -

This is by far the biggest part of any siege, for either side. Sieges on well-made castles can be quite long, and by quite long, I mean years long, where the attackers simply wait for the defenders to starve. This is the most anticlimactic, yet brutally effective method. There’s no good way of making food in a castle, there’s only limited garden space inside, and so many mouths to feed. The stores may be large, but they are finite. The well may be inside, but the aquifer, depending on the wit of the attacker, can be poisoned from the outside. On the other end, a significant supply baggage train must be set up for the attackers if they are to lay siege for months, or even years on end. This leaves them also vulnerable to guerilla tactics that target their supply.

As Napoleon Bonaparte said, an army marches on its stomach.

2. Strength of the fortifications -

The next obvious one is how well built the castle may be. If it is well made, with little weaknesses, able to be covered from all sides by archers and the like, then it’s likely that the attackers will find themselves pondering the first consideration even more. If not, and there are significant weaknesses to be found in the defenses, it’s viable to destroy bits of the wall, or consider a direct assault on a wall by ladders.

3. Number of men inside -

The last obvious consideration is the strength of the forces inside. If the castle is undermanned, it is easy to launch a brute-force assault, but a castle need not many men to be well-armed. Being the defender of a fortified position is an extremely sacred position to be in, you are favored in many ways. One of the most famous examples is the Siege of Szigetvár, in which three thousand Croatians and Hungarians defended the Szigetvárfortress against anywhere between one hundred thousand to three hundred thousand Ottomans. They held out for a month, yet took twenty to thirty thousand Ottoman lives before they capitulated, and the Suleiman himself died during the siege as well. Of all the places you must make a last stand, do it in a fortified position. It will win you glory.

Next, for open battles or attacks against unfortified positions, you’ll want to assess these things.

1. Terrain of the assumed battle location and surrounding area.

The terrain of the battlefield is extremely important, my favorite way to emphasize this is the Battle of Agincourt, where the vastly outnumbered English defeated the French by astoundingly simple yet effective tactics. The fact is, the fields were practically liquid, they were muddy and recently ploughed, making it utterly miserable to walk through. The only other terrain to go through was forest, which was also a poor idea, since cavalry operates inefficiently at best in forested areas. Archers picked off the footmen who trudged through the mud, arrows hailing down upon them as they marched to the front line. If they were lucky enough to get through it all, they were fatigued beyond belief, no doubt their morale was absurdly low, and they were promptly cut down by the vanguard of the English troops.

2. Relative military composition

Are their men more numerous? Do they ride on horses? Are they armed with bows? It’s very important to take equipment, numbers, and style of units into account when planning a battle.

In the most simple mode of explaination, infantry don’t like being charged by horses, they don’t like getting shot at, and they don’t like being surrounded. But, on the other end of things, archers really don’t like being charged by horses, and being attacked in melee combat is quite bad for them. However, they don’t mind being shot at as much due to them not needing to keep tight formation. Archers can be much more spread out in their formation when on the field because they do not fight in close range. Cavalry do not like being shot at, and they excel in close combat (especially when they are charging.)

3. Weather

Nice weather we’ve been having! It’s quite useful to keep an eye on the clouds when planning an attack, whether it rains, snows, is absurdly hot or absurdly cold is very important to attack, as the fatigue of men is very, very insidious to any army. As we saw in Agincourt, the rain caused the terrain to worsen for the French, and though this is an extreme case, caused great fatigue in the infantry that had to trudge though knee-deep or worse mud. The cold, the heat, the dampness of the air, all can be morale detriments to troops on both sides, but mostly the one who is doing all the moving around, which is often the attacker.

As for research on military strategy, I always suggest flipping through articles considering any military battle, big or small, and considering the compositions, positions, terrains, and statuses of each army, the outcome, and then drawing your own lessons from each reading. Applied military strategy is the best way to learn the intricacies of military strategy for writing purposes, and since you don’t need to write long exposition on what is going on or what is a good decision, you are able to apply simple strategies and tactics in your characters’ warfare to drive a strong point of competence or incompetence of any commander or army.

I hope you enjoyed this, it’s bit of a wordy response, I know, but it hopefully helped you quite a bit. If you’re looking for more blurbs on writing and fantasy in general, you can find us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/_fantasywriting

- The Artificer

[fantasy-writing]

Hullo! I'm currently world-building for a fantasy novel of mine, and I was wondering if you had any tips on creating new fantasy races/creatures and even their culture? I'm currently trying to create them based on the environment and ecosystem around them, sort of similar to how the resources and tools a civilization has is able to influence their culture/art (like how ancient peoples who lived in heavily forested areas made lots of things with/related to wood, other plants, etc.)

The tried and true way of making a fantastical race of creatures is to take an animal and uplift it in some regards. Let’s look at some examples.

First, we have rat people. Skaven in Warhammer Fantasy, Ratfolk in Pathfinder, Nezumi in the Legend of the Five Rings, the list goes on. What they all have in common, of couse, is that they’re rats, yet slightly anthropomorphised. Not to the point of extreme human-like qualities, but just enough to make them a little more upright, a little bigger, a little smarter, giving them the ability to start creating a culture and society, so on and so on.

So, now that you chose an animal to uplift, what do we do? Research. Understand your animal and it’s behavior, understand their strengths and weaknesses, you can even inspect their social behaviors as animals and translate this over to their uplifted state.

Rats are cunning, smart, they’re actually freaky smart, they have similar brains to primates and, most notably, humans. Rats are also noted as the harbinger of many diseases, this is because they carry bacterias, plagues, and viruses, that do not effect them but can and will effect humans. Rats are small, weak, but move very quickly, it’s their way of survival.

Intelligence, disease resistance, agility, seem to be our main three traits of the rat uplift we are creating so far.

As shown in the Skaven of Warhammer Fantasy, intelligent rats are extremely cunning, as well as very, very deceptive. They have no room for friends, they only see others as a necessity for survival, in most circumstances. Skaven believe others are inferior to them, which is why they manage to often unite as a somewhat cohesive force despite hating one another. Their intelligence is a double edged sword, here, obviously. But on the flipside, they are very inventive, even capable of making a rudimentary ratling (this is the canonical word, please do not stone me) gun and artillery pieces.

They are harbingers of disease and actually use magic relating to plagues and diseases. They use what is basically biological warfare by spreading disease against their enemies. Since they are resistant to disease themselves, they do not have to live by the same sanitary standards, or any for that matter, that Humans have to live by to survive.

The biggest issue for them is likely their general physical weakness. They must overwhelm in numbers, which is fine, because they breed like-- well, rats. They can’t win one-on-one fights with most other races, so cunning tactics, overwhelming numbers, and sometimes a good bit of surprise-tunnels-filled-with-rats, and they’re good to go.

Beyond uplifting animals, you should look to mythology for the sources of modern fantasy races. Orcs and Goblins weren’t just made up, they’re supposed to be modeled after what people thought were demons. Think hellish, or underworldly features for a moment. Green or dark leathery skin, bat-like ears, dark or even beady eyes, claws, sharp teeth, the list goes on as to why they are as such.

I hope this helped you brainstorm! For more frequent updates and shower thoughts on writing in the Fantasy genre, follow us on Twitter at  https://twitter.com/_fantasywriting

- The Artificer

[fantasy-writing]

I’m editing the first draft of my novel wip. My main character is very dry and the whole writing style sounds super pretentious. I’m just struggling to connect with this character and rewrite him because I’ve treated him like an empty void for so long. Do you have any tips on loosening up my writing style, or connecting with the mc?

I think it’s very important to avoid pretentious style in your writing without restricting yourself to utter simplicity. It can be hard, but the onus is on you to find a happy medium between complexity and flowing readability, too complex and overly wordy and you will sound pretentious, too simple and your prose will be limited in it’s vividity.

If your character is dry, ask yourself if that is a good part of his character or if it was a fault on your own part. One of my favorite works, The Stranger by Albert Camus, has a decidedly dry main character, detached from all those around him. He doesn’t even react much to his own mother’s funeral, which is an opening scene, don’t worry about spoilers here.

If it’s not a fitting character trait for him to be dry, and the entirety of your novel is too pretentious for you, you may want to consider rewriting it entirely– not scrapping it, but rewrite it section by section in a new way. While it can be disheartening, this is what the drafting and editing process is, it’s redoing it to refine your idea into a cohesive and readable and enjoyable piece.

I hope this helps, if you’re interested in more blurbs, writing tips, and prompts, check out https://twitter.com/_fantasywriting for frequent updates!

- The Artificer

[fantasy-writing]

Writing Tip ( Medieval Fighting )

One thing a writer should always research when writing an action novel is how to actually fight with the weapons used in the novel. You see, the best fight scenes are the ones that feel real…

This is mostly about sword fighting, but I’ll add some variety, don’t worry.

I’ll compile a few explanations of fighting techniques here.

(disclaimer: always write what you want to write, even if it’s not ‘realistic’.  fantasy is not realistic in the first place, who cares.)

STANCE

(Picture from Flower of Battle)

    Stance and footwork are key to any sort of martial art.  While it’s not technically a technique, it’s a crucial part of fighting.  Above, you can see that their footwork is somewhat similar to all of the pictures below.  The most common stance is one foot facing straight forward a step or two in front of the other foot, which is facing off at an angle.

(Source: Pretty much every martial arts manual, book, or teacher ever)

HALF SWORDING

(Picture from the Codex Wallerstein)

    One very interesting sword fighting technique where the swordsman would grab his sword’s blade and use the pommel, guard, and handle as a club or mace.  Yes, they grabbed the sword, some times with bare hands, and no, their gauntlets were not the reason they could do this, certain different grips they developed allowed them to grip the blade without it sliding in their hands. (The only way for it to cut their hands is if the blade slid across it.)  Gauntlets are usually made of leather gloves with steel plating on the back of the hand, but not inside, so yes, they used special grips to safely grip the sword blade.

(Picture from the Codex Wallerstein)

    Not only did they grip their blade with both hands to club their enemies to death, they also used it as a way to control and bring more power to their thrusts, and to block blows much easier.

(Picture from the Gladiatoria)

Source: Codex Wallerstein and Gladiatoria

SWORD THROWING

(Picture from Gladiatoria)

    Widely known to be a myth, sword throwing was actually used in some trial by combat situations where you had multiple weapons, and could not effectively use them all.  Here, you see that each fighter has a spear, sword, dagger and shield.  Remember, he is only throwing his sword because he still has two weapons and a shield (which could, itself, be considered another weapon).  In no situation is it a good idea to throw your sword if you don’t have a back up, unless you are not in immediate danger and someone else is.  Note how he actually is throwing it though, it’s much more of a throwing spear technique, rather than the overhead axe-throwing sort of deal most people use. 

Source: Gladiatoria and The Flower of Battle

DAGGER vs SWORD

(Picture from The Flower of Battle )

    Now, let me start this by saying that swords will almost always beat a dagger in a fight.  This is obvious.   Daggers can only be used to parry and block attacks, making them difficult to use against a sword, which has much longer reach than a dagger.  Only the most skilled warriors could hope to effectively use a dagger against a swordsman and win.  Daggers can defend, and then counterattack, but it would be suicidal to attack with a dagger against a sword, only defending and countering would be viable.

Source: The Flower of Battle

WOOD vs SWORD (or other bladed weapon)

    Using a quarterstaff or other long wooden stick, fixed to an axe head or not, would not do very well if hit by a sword.  That is to say, it would damage it, but it would block the strike at least the first or second time.  Cutting the wood in half on the first strike is very difficult to do, you would need a very heavy, sharp axe with a very strong bearer…  Oh, and you would need the handle to stay completely put.  Sound good?  No?  Well, that’s why you do not or should not see any staves or halberds or polearms being cut in half in the first strike.

    On the other hand, do not expect it to just perfectly deflect the attack.  After a few strikes, the handle is weakened greatly, and any part of the handle that was struck could snap if the wood was cut thin.

POINT BLANK ARCHERY

    This one is a bit tricky.  You see, shooting an enemy with your bow at close range is a VERY bad idea for many different reasons…

    Here, let me list a few

Easy to counter.

Can be too close

A sword or other weapon can also hurt/break the bow.

Very slow, unless using a lower poundage bow.

    Lets go over each of these points, eh?

1. Easy to counter.

    You can counter a point blank shot by uhh, well, raising your shield, and bashing?  Maybe simply move to the left a bit, follow up by charging?

2. Can be too close

    Your arrow needs to actually leave the string for it to fly correctly.  This is the archer’s paradox, where the arrow actually curves around the bow’s stave to shoot straight.  If you shoot too close, it will either shoot off in a different direction, snap your bow string (which could damage the stave), or snap the arrow itself, which would result in a pseudo-dryfiring of the bow, which also could damage the stave.

3. A sword or other weapon can also hurt/break the bow.

    Yep.  I mentioned wood not being very good against a blade, and this does apply to bows.  Actually, even more so to bows.  When wood is cut away from the stave it will weaken the bow to the point that if you shoot with it, if there is a significant cut in the wood, it will snap.

4. Very slow, unless using a lower poundage bow.

    Drawing a high poundage warbow (sometimes upwards of 200 pound draw weight) is not something you can do in under a second, or maybe two.  Actually, doing so can, damage your bow.  Also, taking an arrow out and nocking it so fast can cause a fumble.  It requires a lot of training, practice, and confidence.

    We all know it’s cool when Legolas is shooting everything at lightning fast speeds, but it’s not really viable… Unless he’s using some sort of special material for his bow, that allows faster drawing without damage.  Remember, you can use things such as better material, wood, metal, etc to make unrealistic things in your world realistic. 

    And on to the lower poundage bow, no one could ever use a low poundage bow in battle effectively.  The minimum recommended to hunt deer in real life is 75~ pounds.  That target is wearing no armor.

MINOR POINTS ABOUT ARCHERY

    Never use ‘FIRE’ in your book as a signal for your archers to fire their bows.  ‘FIRE’ came from the age of gun powder, to tell people to fire their rifles, because they use gun powder combustion to fire a lead ball out of their gun.  A bow uses a string, pulled back by the user, so they used ‘LOOSE’ to signal bowmen to shoot.

    THE BOW IS NOT A GUN.  Never.  NEVER have any character hold a bow at full draw at someone so they can threaten them.  They will tire out and end up shaking terribly due to the 100-200 pounds they are holding back.  If anything, have them nock an arrow and point it at the person they want to threaten, NOT pulling it back.  This way, if the person moves or tries anything, he can simply pull it back and shoot.

(warning: please dont try and use these tactics in real life unless you are a trained professional)

(also if anyone has anything to add / change to this post i’ll happily do so)

[fantasy-writing]

An old classic of the blog, shamelessly revived to say, hey! We’re putting content up over at https://twitter.com/_fantasywriting if you’re interested!

[fantasy-writing]

I’m editing the first draft of my novel wip. My main character is very dry and the whole writing style sounds super pretentious. I’m just struggling to connect with this character and rewrite him because I’ve treated him like an empty void for so long. Do you have any tips on loosening up my writing style, or connecting with the mc?

I think it’s very important to avoid pretentious style in your writing without restricting yourself to utter simplicity. It can be hard, but the onus is on you to find a happy medium between complexity and flowing readability, too complex and overly wordy and you will sound pretentious, too simple and your prose will be limited in it’s vividity.

If your character is dry, ask yourself if that is a good part of his character or if it was a fault on your own part. One of my favorite works, The Stranger by Albert Camus, has a decidedly dry main character, detached from all those around him. He doesn’t even react much to his own mother’s funeral, which is an opening scene, don’t worry about spoilers here.

If it’s not a fitting character trait for him to be dry, and the entirety of your novel is too pretentious for you, you may want to consider rewriting it entirely– not scrapping it, but rewrite it section by section in a new way. While it can be disheartening, this is what the drafting and editing process is, it’s redoing it to refine your idea into a cohesive and readable and enjoyable piece.

I hope this helps, if you’re interested in more blurbs, writing tips, and prompts, check out https://twitter.com/_fantasywriting for frequent updates!

- The Artificer

[fantasy-writing]

Tip for anyone hoping to write a half-way cohesive text post: never, ever post it from your phone. Bad things will happen. Formatting will be a thing of the past. Your crops will wither, your manor will burn, the servants will revolt-- wait, is this a good thing?

Carry on.

[fantasy-writing]

Revival

In the recent year, this blog has been inactive due to business, lack of inspiration, and disinterest in the Tumblr website as a whole. It’s kind of unfortunate– we have a decent thing going here, and I hope to rekindle the abandoned flame of fantasy-writing as a whole.

Currently, the plan is to have more constant updates on Twitter, over at @_fantasywriting

This way we will have a more accessible and easier way to keep things updated and moving smoothly. For those that miss this post, any further posts here will have a link to the account.

Thanks for sticking around!

- The Artificer

[fantasy-writing]

https://twitter.com/_fantasywriting if the @ wasn't clear!

[fantasy-writing]

Hi there - novice fantasy writer here. You really helped with a post about characters needs/wants and my plot is coming on nicely. Problem - as part of my 'character building' exercises I have short scenes (about 500 words) which shows important parts of their history (family, skills, etc). Some of these are, I think, worth keeping but where to put them? Character thinking about themselves, reminded of little thing and daydreaming? Or a sort of preface to a chapter? Any ideas please?

It’s important to include any character’s background and past in a story that includes them as a main or recurring character. It can be difficult to do so without evoking the trope of a wise old man (the character or a close friend of said character, in this case) explaining the intricacies of the past to establish an understanding. We’ve established that the extended exposition and bland explanation of such things can be quite boring, but it’s not without merit.

Before I get into how to insert your scenes into a work, I’ll point out the uses of exposition for backstory establishment.

As a main point, if you are writing from first person, exposition is probably the best or even only way to explain the past to the reader, unless you are writing in first person with multiple characters. Exposition, in this sense, means the explanation and even reflection of the past. When it comes to the explanation of your fantasy setting, or any setting, or the climate of your setting, exposition by a character or faceless narrator is mostly skippable and boring writing, even when excellently written, it’s simply not interesting to be explained to. Show, don’t tell, is a large part of fiction writing.

When a character must give extended details about their past, it’s imperative to make it absolutely necessary, something that is actually required for the story, or rather, their story, to continue. This does not mean that any old story they tell must be important– it means that extended explanation, exposition, of their past, is usually for poignant scenes, not only character building. The story can be melancholy or scary, it can show the good or bad side of a character, the vulnerable or strong side, and it often does not have to be told, except for the character to be understood better. This contrasts, almost seems to contradict what I said earlier in this same paragraph– let me explain.

A character’s own story is oftentimes separate from the overarching plot of a book or work’s story. If you are limited in perspective, as such from a first person, single character point of view, it’s often difficult to find out more of another character, as the reader. This can be remedied from others giving tidbits of their past, the character themself having a heart-to-heart with the point of view character, etcetera.

Beyond this, exposition is not needed. For the original point, inserting scenes into the story, here’s my suggestion.

Flashbacks can be a powerful storytelling tool. Often, you can insert flashbacks into a chapter by having small ‘triggers’ cause a character to relive their past. It’s important to make sure the reader understands what is going on, that there is a change of scene temporarily to another, and that the character has been transported to their past somehow. Not explicit statements of such, but rather cues and context to give them better understanding.

I’ve inserted flashbacks into my stories before in a multitude of ways, one being the mind simply wandering, or small things reminding the characters of things in their past. It’s also a good idea to keep flashbacks somewhat vague, to keep the reader interested in the small hook you’ve placed. For your scenes, maybe split them up into segments that they will be rediscovered in different parts of the story, or insert the whole of it into a chapter for a particularly poignant flashback.

It’ll take some practice. Get a friend to read it over with you to see how to better transition from the present to the past, and the past to the present. Flashbacks can feel cliche if done too often in a story, or simply feel bland and or confusing if improperly executed.

I hope that helped anyone who had similar questions on the subject, as well as you, anonymous poster! We’ll be putting blurbs on similar subjects on the Twitter account we’ve made here below, make sure to check it out for more frequent updates!

https://twitter.com/_fantasywriting

Good luck,

- The Artificer

[fantasy-writing]

Revival

In the recent year, this blog has been inactive due to business, lack of inspiration, and disinterest in the Tumblr website as a whole. It’s kind of unfortunate-- we have a decent thing going here, and I hope to rekindle the abandoned flame of fantasy-writing as a whole.

Currently, the plan is to have more constant updates on Twitter, over at @_fantasywriting

This way we will have a more accessible and easier way to keep things updated and moving smoothly. For those that miss this post, any further posts here will have a link to the account.

Thanks for sticking around!

- The Artificer

[fantasy-writing]

Pandemonium

Pandemonium - Critters, monsters, and demons. A British graphic novel set in Finland with a cast from Hell.

A close personal friend of ours and moderator of this blog, Pilotfish, is working on a graphic novel!

Ten years after a failed demonic invasion, the tunnels below Helsinki are riddled with demons, monsters, and occasionally, tourists.

Pandemonium is the tea-driven fever dream of the Michaels France & Hunter, and it’s a bit of a blender-job. A near-future spooky underworld-beneath-Helsinki, with scruffy mercs and grinning traders. Bits of horror, lots of adventure, tonnes of weird critters. Many bright and vivid and varied characters. A vibrant world with rich detail and observable mechanical function. We have verisimilitude out the wazoo. Also, forgotten magics.

We’ve got bustling human settlements and Demon Markets that look like something out of Hellboy or the conjurations of Eoin Colfer. Further in, there’s land-yachts rattling through wind-cut tunnels hundreds of kilometres long, and vast subterranean lakes lit with glowing algae, all full of strange underground critters.

It’s all brought to life through a story of adventure, intrigue, squabbling, and socks. Wet socks. It does make sense when you put it all together, unless we’re crazier than we think.

[fantasy-writing]

Hello. I have troubles writing. I always want to write but I just can't come up with anything. I'd like to write fantasy but don't know where to start as I've never written fantasy. Any tips?

There's one simple place to start.What if?Ask yourself a question, and give yourself an answer.What if I wrote a fantasy setting?Well, then you'd have to have something special to bring to the table. What if I have an idea? No idea is too preposterous. Write it down. Expand on it. Maybe the earth is inside out or people -are- swords. It doesn't have to make sense at first, you just have to find a starting point. What if you wrote a story about a shield, instead of it's wielder? The foundation of creating any fiction is giving answers to questions that do not currently occur in reality. You have to take time to understand what you want out of writing, and what it is you are going to write.The idea is a box in which holds all of the writing you have in your head. You just need to take time to unpack it in a neat, orderly way. Sometimes you need a few boxes before you have everything in order. For example, sometimes you can write for ages about a world, but it can be hard to write the actual story that's going to take place there. Sometimes you can write a story without dropping more than a few glances to the world it is in. This is because you have an idea, and you are writing that idea down, and sometimes the ideas about worlds and the ideas about stories don't always match up.It takes time to find both of these things and combine them, so be patient, think about it, and move forward with your writing. Fantasy is just a genre of nonsense and dragons, so if your ideas fall under that category, so be it! But don't let it restrict you. You are writing YOUR fantasy novel, not just A fantasy novel.Good luck.- The Artificer

[fantasy-writing]

Hey y'all, thanks for what you do. So my fantasy novel culminates in an epic battle (typical, I know). I don't know a whole lot about military or historical fighting and I could use some help. I know what weapons are being used and also have rough estimates on the size of the armies, and I know who will win and why (it involves a dragon). I need basic military strategy advice better than…two hordes running at each other across a plain. Thank you!

First, consider the battleground. The field in which the battle takes place is extremely important, as the terrain can offer advantages and disadvantages to the conflicting armies, depending on their position.

If they are in an open field, chances are that both armies have very dumb commanders, one army is about to be ambushed, or whoever has more bowmen is about to laugh their way home.

Let’s talk about the last point: bowmen. Ranged combat ability was the absolute must-have for any army to stay in the game. You can’t stick your opponent with a sword if he’s already stuck you with an arrow, and the arrow definitely reaches much further than a sword. As seen in the Battle of Agincourt, the English fended off a much larger force, with an army comprised of 5/6ths longbowmen, 1/6th men at arms, knights, etc. The French, however, had many knights with a very small amount of ranged support, and they were the attackers.

Adding onto this, if we look at the terrain, we can tell from historical record that the field in which the French had to run through was recently ploughed, and therefore the soil was loose. The recent heavy rain did not help this, making the soil muddy, and difficult to traverse, especially in full plate armor. The archers were positioned nearly perpendicular to the smaller melee force, allowing them to fire upon the enemy even after their vanguard had been engaged in combat, something they would not be able to accomplish if they were hiding behind the knights and men at arms.

To add to the very smart placement of the archers, the English fortified their position with sharpened stakes, to prevent the French cavalry from attacking the archer’s position. This, coupled with the difficulty of riding through a forest, made the French cavalry attack an utter failure, and left the English longbowmen safe to defend from the main attack.

That’s only one battle, but it is surely the most famous. There are many different battles you can find and research online. Take some time to learn about the types of medieval battles that took place, and you’ll quickly understand how warfare looked like back then, along with how a seasoned commander thought.

Good luck.

- The Artificer.

[fantasy-writing]

To clarify, the archers were set up in the edges of the forests, on either side of the plain. I forgot to mention this, might cause some confusion since I mentioned a forest. - The Artificer

[fantasy-writing]

Hey y'all, thanks for what you do. So my fantasy novel culminates in an epic battle (typical, I know). I don't know a whole lot about military or historical fighting and I could use some help. I know what weapons are being used and also have rough estimates on the size of the armies, and I know who will win and why (it involves a dragon). I need basic military strategy advice better than…two hordes running at each other across a plain. Thank you!

First, consider the battleground. The field in which the battle takes place is extremely important, as the terrain can offer advantages and disadvantages to the conflicting armies, depending on their position.

If they are in an open field, chances are that both armies have very dumb commanders, one army is about to be ambushed, or whoever has more bowmen is about to laugh their way home.

Let’s talk about the last point: bowmen. Ranged combat ability was the absolute must-have for any army to stay in the game. You can’t stick your opponent with a sword if he’s already stuck you with an arrow, and the arrow definitely reaches much further than a sword. As seen in the Battle of Agincourt, the English fended off a much larger force, with an army comprised of 5/6ths longbowmen, 1/6th men at arms, knights, etc. The French, however, had many knights with a very small amount of ranged support, and they were the attackers.

Adding onto this, if we look at the terrain, we can tell from historical record that the field in which the French had to run through was recently ploughed, and therefore the soil was loose. The recent heavy rain did not help this, making the soil muddy, and difficult to traverse, especially in full plate armor. The archers were positioned nearly perpendicular to the smaller melee force, allowing them to fire upon the enemy even after their vanguard had been engaged in combat, something they would not be able to accomplish if they were hiding behind the knights and men at arms.

To add to the very smart placement of the archers, the English fortified their position with sharpened stakes, to prevent the French cavalry from attacking the archer’s position. This, coupled with the difficulty of riding through a forest, made the French cavalry attack an utter failure, and left the English longbowmen safe to defend from the main attack.

That’s only one battle, but it is surely the most famous. There are many different battles you can find and research online. Take some time to learn about the types of medieval battles that took place, and you’ll quickly understand how warfare looked like back then, along with how a seasoned commander thought.

Good luck.

- The Artificer.

[fantasy-writing]

Hello! I noticed that the last few posts are about a month apart. Is this blog still active/being looked after? It's a very lovely and helpful blog!

It is, but the mods have been very busy as of late. Looking forward to posting some answers soon, though. - The Artificer

[keith-the-pardoner]

[ tidbits ‘bout bows,war-bows and archery that I threw together:

Archery first showed up in the upper paleolithic (40, 000 YA) the earliest bows were very small and very cute. 

There are a bunch ‘o types of bows. You are probably familiar with some of the different names; composite bow, short bow, long bow, compound bow, re-curve bow etc. 

If you go for a long bow (probably the most traditional) you want the bow to be slightly shorter than the archer.

A war-bow could had draw strengths of 100-150lbs. Y’all had to be a beefy bro to tango with those. (50-60 is the average for hunting as reference)

Due to how heavy a war bow was to string many archers opted to shoot barefoot - this provided much better grip than leather soles (heels took a lot longer to be invented than you might think).

Bowstrings can be made from guts from various animals, sinew, flax (I’m growing more and more convinced everything was made from flax back in the day), strips of bamboo cane, hemp. Anything fibrous with the right flexibility. Mostly depends on personal preference. 

The wood I hear about the most are yew, ash and maple core. Composite bows are usually made of two types of wood. What you want from wood is a natural ‘springiness’. You also really want the outer-part of your bow to be made from sapwood and the inner section to be heartwood. 

Menacing people with a fully drawn bow for an extended amount of time is really really difficult to do because of how much strength it takes to keep a bow drawn (downright inhuman with a war-bow). Mainstream media uses this a lot as an audience short hand but its not necessary for a skilled bowmen. If your target tries to run just string and shoot (this should only take seconds), if they charge you no problem, bows make excellent clubs. 

Most archers carried their arrows at their hip as opposed to on their back. Its a much easier reach which is especially important in combat where speed was arguably more important than accuracy.

Wrist injuries and over use injuries are very common among hunters and other dedicated archers.

The recommended age to start archery was around 7. If you started later the muscle mass just wouldn’t develop the same. That’s not to say you couldn’t have skill but you’d probably never sit among the greats. This is different now that we have bows that are much easier to use but archery is still a very demanding sport psychically, and you are going to want beefy arms.]

[fantasy-writing]

Good stuff to know!

[fantasy-writing]

Do you have any info on sirens? I was going to do some writing involving sirens. Doing research a lot of sites describe them as women who lure by song. Can they be male? do they lure people in other ways like maybe by simply talking?

Noekken, by Theodor S. Kittelsen, 1904

Sirens are a narrow category of a much wider genre of mythical beings, the water spirits.

As depicted by Theodor Kittelsen in the art above, the Neck, Noekken, or Nakki, is a water spirit that also lured unsuspecting humans into a watery grave, mainly through enchanting music. This wasn’t the only way of luring people into the water, though, as there are variants on this myth. The Brook Horse was a spirit that wandered around brooks and convinced people to get onto it’s back, once mounted, the horse plunged itself into the water of the brook, taking whoever was on it’s back with it. This usually targeted children, as these were mostly tales to scare children into behaving.

The German Nixie was an example of the generic mermaid, much like a siren of Greek mythology. The females took the form of a human, with the lower-half of a fish, and lured people into drowning with a haunting song. The males, however, could shapeshift into any form they like. (Shapeshifting was a recurring theme among water spirits, the Neck was capable of changing form as well.)

It is important to use these resources as guidelines. You don’t have to abide by tropes, you can use them in ways no others have. A merman who tricks people into the water with his silver tongue? So be it! There are no rules as to what is allowed to be written. By putting your own twist on otherwise generic fantasy tropes, your writing will be memorable and unique.

I hope that helps.

- The Artificer

[fantasy-writing]

Hi! I'm trying to write a story that involves magic and witchcraft. Each witch, Sorcerer, and wizard (yes there is a difference between each of them) has a unique magic circle that appears in some way shape or form when they perform magic. To what degree should I describe these circles? Should I only describe my main characters'? I understand to only describe it if it's important but if they are all different...

Depending on how spooky or spectacular your magic is, magic circles may hum, glow faintly, cause tremors, cause the room to darken, shine as if the circle is a window to an oddly colored sun, you get the deal.

Maybe I was too blunt with the last answer… The key to describing scenes is not the absence of description; it is subtlety. As I said, people will assume people wear clothes, but saying that their clothes are regal and much higher quality than those around the character is fine, as long as this is the point of the scene. If your scene has magic going on, and it includes magic circles, go ahead and describe it!

Subtlety, moderation, these things are needed in your prose. People assume a tavern has mugs and plates, but there is nothing wrong with using these things as a way to reveal more things about the scene. Is the tavern a rowdy and unclean place? You don’t have to blatantly write that it is rowdy and unclean, you can write that there are broken mugs on the floors and the plates are unwashed and dirty.

The issue starts when you describe things for the sake of description. The man had shoes, that had laces made of nylon, like many other shoes. Under his shoes he wore socks. He wore jeans made of denim, dyed an indigo blue. Yadda, yadda, yadda. He’s dressed plainly, you can shorten it to him wearing jeans and tennis shoes, if you even need to describe that. If what he is wearing is something you really want to describe, bring it up through what is happening in the scene. He is tying his tennis shoes as someone speaks to him. Someone spills a drink on his jeans. Be subtle!

I hope that helps.

- The Artificer