mothwing: An image of a man writing on a typewriter in front of a giant clockface. At the bottom is the VFD symbol and the inscription "the world is quiet here" (Pen)
2009-03-01 03:52 pm

The Fantasy Novelist's Exam

I found this today:

The Fantasy Novelist's Exam, by David J. Parker
Additional Material By Samuel Stoddard

Ever since J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis created the worlds of Middle Earth and Narnia, it seems like every windbag off the street thinks he can write great, original fantasy, too. The problem is that most of this "great, original fantasy" is actually poor, derivative fantasy. Frankly, we're sick of it, so we've compiled a list of rip-off tip-offs in the form of an exam. We think anybody considering writing a fantasy novel should be required to take this exam first. Answering "yes" to any one question results in failure and means that the prospective novel should be abandoned at once.
 

The exam: my last NaNoWriMo novel scored 4/75. )