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Johnathan Vance's avatar

There's a lot here to unpack and we could WRITE BOOKS back and forth discussing whether or not a fantasy *remains* a true fantasy with modern language, where the line is, and who cares.

Personally, I am torn and I think it often shows up in my rough drafts. On the one hand, I enjoy writing purple, especially when the heavy hitting lines are restrained for the right timing. When I think about the modern reader, though, I consider how many people actually still reading have the attention spans for such writing.

Truth be told, I don't love pretentious folks that crone on and on about what makes writing objectively "good" even if we do have standards for craft. But, I will say I am partial to a certain amount of lyrical/poetic styling that I believe defines "art."

In my mind, "art" and "writing" are separate, as any good story can be told in a variety of ways, but where "art" is concerned, the story is not necessarily required.

You know me, I tend to write on the artistic side.

So, modern fantasy writers have many challenges to face when it comes to readers, but making things "sound old" seems to be a dying art. And often, "sounding old" can simply be exposure to a word that might be archaic, even if only by a decade.

I absolutely loved how you broke down the germanic vs. latin roots here. This is phenomenal work. I felt like I learned a lot reading through it and realized that I need to be working harder to study my own craft.

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Happy Nielsen's avatar

I don’t think you understand that you have just ruined my life becuase now I NEED you to write a reworked version of fourth wing. Like, it is now a necessity like breathing or say, craving toxic men

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