Kay, thanks everyone. Lastly, do I need to learn how to name Chinese people and all the name meanings, or would it be fine to just work with my knowledge as an American who loves anime, has read some cultivation novels, and did spelling bee in middle school and therefore is very familiar with Western name/word roots? As interesting as I think it would be, it feels like too much investment for this project as it currently stands. I could do one or two names, but a whole webnovel cast of heroes, villains, temp characters, and all that? too much.
Though, having written that out, I just realized a workaround that still can hit some of the naming notes- start character in exile, and only name the MC and primary villain and maybe a few more key people in Chinese.
Tvrkm
- Sep 12, 2021
- Joined Jul 14, 2018
MikXL_23 You are right, but if I'm going to work with tropes of a new genre, I wanted to make sure I hit some of the right notes. Some of my fantasy projects take notes from Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Most of my magic systems feel closer to Western stuff.
It's just that Cultivation is in webnovels, which have lots of chapters that can make it harder to sift through for the right notes to hit in the magic system. Not to mention that cultivation is a strange middle ground between hard and soft magic systems. The levels make it seem hard, but the process is soft and vague.Cultivation is what I would call an academic magic system, like Harry Potter, in that you are basically limited by how well you can study to learn new abilities. But as for understanding what it is that is being learned, I don't really get what it is. I could make up spells in Harry Potter by saying that it is incantations and wand waving. As for cultivation, they talk about cultivation techniques, and I don't really understand what it is, fundamentally.
I guess that this has gotten some of the important basics for getting started. I guess I will need to craft my own version from here.
Yuyumamoru I rarely remember my dreams well enough to use for stories. One did factor into this, but that was actually used for a different story before I applied the principle for this.
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ThyUnknownSaint I think I've read a decent number, but the problem is I like specifics. I think about cultivation and wonder what the heck a cultivation technique actually is- mantras? a procedure? a state of mind? Then the levels- some terms are common, like Qi Condensation, but once you get higher, I don't know what they are supposed to mean.
I'm not too serious yet, but it might be a good exercise for writing without the framework of someone else's story and fans and such. I keep finding elements that, if I don't use them here, I'm not really sure where I would use them, and they are fun to me.Randomly decided to make a cultivation project. But, I need some of the basics to get started. Realms, elemental interactions, that kind of stuff. Mostly, I want a good sequence of realms and what it really means to be in that realm of strength. Or is it basically just make up whatever sounds good, and basically have it mean nothing because the MC gets random OP powerups and strong plot armor? I kind of want to avoid the last bit.
Sigh. Worldbuilder's syndrome strikes again. I really wanted to work on just my Assassin's Redemption story in terms of full novels, and Swarm Academia for fanfic/exercise, but noooooooo, my brain says, "apply gemini dragon system to cultivation and make another webnovel." My brain is such an idiot.So, where can you see them? If I'm on browser, which I would prefer for the convenience of typing out responses, I can't find a "paragraph comments" button. Where is it? Help!