I am currently in the beginnings of my book, which will be a novel about all sorts of mystical stuff. Ancient lands, like Atlantis will be involved, as well as the main character from present day (in an American city, or maybe a Canadian one, havent decided yet)discovering who he truly is, after being accused for murder of his family. My question is, should I research further into Atlantian culture to make it accurate or should i just write and make it up as I go along?

If you're a person who tends to get mired in detail and research until he forgets to write, START WRITIMG and research as you go along.

If you're someone who stumbles headfirst into things and then finds out 20 pages into the book that he's written bullshit and needs to start over again - RESEARCH and write as you go along.

If you do decide to research Atlantean culture, you probably won't have to worry about spending too much time on it--Plato talked about it in two texts, the Timaeus and Critias.

If you haven't seen Wikipedia's entry on Atlantis, it's well worth looking at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis

quote:

Originally posted by Babylon the Bride:
If you're a person who tends to get mired in detail and research until he forgets to write, START WRITIMG and research as you go along.

If you're someone who stumbles headfirst into things and then finds out 20 pages into the book that he's written bullshit and needs to start over again - RESEARCH and write as you go along.

Listen to the Lady Babylon. She definitely knows what she's talking about here. Trust me. Sometimes just DOING or STARTING something is more important than all the research and planning in the world.

*laughs crazily at that* Yeah, speaking of which ...

Yes, speaking of which.
*lol*

Another vote to go with Babylon's advice. Do you want people to identify your Atlantis with other stuff they've read? If so, research is probably a good thing. Speaking from personal experience, writing on the spot is fun and exciting, but it's difficult to create your own world and make it a consistent one.

i'm just interested in seeing how everything ties together.

First of all, thank you so much to everyone for all of your feedback. Secondly, where am I to find the Timaeus and Critias, written in Engish. Also, I know of a book, that my mother once had called Stones of Atlantis, which discussed Atlantean culture as well, but its out of print, she can't find her copy, and I would like to know where I might find a copy.

In regards to what Miss Babylon said, I tend to go a bit each way when it comes to writing, or I get frustrated and give up on it all together.

This indeed, will be my first novel. Now that I am a bit older, I have more patience than I did as a youth. Spent most of my youth writing poetry, and I still do. Thinking I might actually take breaks from this work to write poetry and that I may be able to get a book of poems published before I even finish this novel.

As for the Novel, I'm shooting for Fall of 2008 for completion. Anyone know where I can find out more about Atlantean culture? Ancient Egyptian culture? Babylonian culture? I remember something about an Edgar Cayce book being wrote about Atlantis. Did Nostradamus ever make any mention of Atlantis? If so, where?

Also as well, I'm going to make a note of the Pillars of Hercules somewhere, just havent decided exactly where yet. At the moment, I am still in the present day world with the novel.
Any advice and information shall be *greatly* appreciated =).

Regards,
J.M. Gutknecht

Luckily for you both Plato texts are available online for free.

Download Timaeus here

And the Critias here

(Both from Project Gutenberg.)


One thing you might need to remember is that there is no evidence that Atlantis existed. Any books on the culture are supposition, extrapolation and conjecture. So you might as well make it up yourself. And please, break the mold and don't use Greece as the basis.

Nostradamous is quite probably credited with talking about Atlantis, as he gets credited with talking about everything else. Though to make a prediction concerning Atlantis would have been a rather backwards thing for a Seer to do.

Cavenagh thank you for your help, I'm currently writing out ideas as they come to my mind for the novel. I am not just using greece as a basis for this novel, though indeed, greece will have a role to play. I am involving the greek/roman gods. I am writing a fictional book, but I also want to paint a picture of Atlantis that at least shows what it may have been, if it ever did really exist. In my Novel, I set the heyday of Atlantis to about 10,000 years ago. I also have a war, that ultimately leads to the destruction of the Atlantean culture and the island itself. I quite honestly think it's going to take a lot of work. I am deriving inspiration from every possible corner, making ideas where ideas shouldn't exist and making careful use of my imagination .

quote:

Originally posted by ravagedpoet:
Also, I know of a book, that my mother once had called Stones of Atlantis, which discussed Atlantean culture as well, but its out of print, she can't find her copy, and I would like to know where I might find a copy.

Ask your library if they can InterLibrary Loan it. I borrowed that one myself last year because the Bimini Stones are just fascinating, and they weren't too far away from where I was living at the time.

I'd much rather outright purchase Stones of Atlantis. There has to be someone somewhere with knowledge of where I can find a copy for purchase that I don't have to pay an arm and a leg for, but thanks for helping . I might have to do a library loan :\.

Try here yet?

Thanks aita . I'm sure parts of the book will come in handy, though that book is based more on facts/speculation and my book is pure fiction, it does help to have a few ideas.

i'm plum exhausted at the moment, been writing for about 5 hours now . I'm on about my 9th handwritten page.

Of course, thats not quite including the fact that this isn't actually the novel, its more of an outline. A bunch of ideas crammed into what I hope will be about 25 - 30 pages of notes, which once expanded on (i.e. adding dialogue, actually telling the story) will turn into 400 - 500 page novel. Long road ahead .

quote:

Originally posted by ravagedpoet:
Anyone know where I can find out more about Atlantean culture? Ancient Egyptian culture? Babylonian culture? I remember something about an Edgar Cayce book being wrote about Atlantis. Did Nostradamus ever make any mention of Atlantis? If so, where?

Always, always, always start with Wikipedia. Truly. If you're not familiar with it, it's an online open-content encyclopedia that was recently found to be as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica.

Their entry on Ancient Egypt contains a section on culture here. Even if it doesn't provide all the information you want, it'll be a good starting point (the articles usually have very good links at the bottom).

In addition, most texts on Egyptian archaeology will discuss the culture to some degree or another.

Same goes for Babylonia and Babylonian cultures. If you're interested in them, you should make yourself familiar with the Code of Hammurabi and the Epic of Gilgamesh.

If you want a hard copy of the Timaeus and the Critias in English and don't want to print everything off the internet, you can find copies of them in most bookstores in the Philosophy section under Plato. Penguin put out a single volume that contains both, and it's quite good (the Plato & Aristotle course I took years ago in college used it and I remember it being very readable).

Regarding Stones of Atlantis, Alibris has a whole bunch of used copies listed, starting at $2.95 (I did a quick search and came up with this). (ETA: Whoops, just saw Aitapata's link. Hers has better prices!)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Uqbar,

Thank you for help Circus, I will be ordering Stones of Atlantis shortly. Meantime, I have written about 70% of the plot without going into too much detail. Which means, the 12 total pages of plot notes that I have written could end up turning this into a 400 somethin page novel. If I expand on each idea, add dialogue, etc, it will become a decently sized novel. I havent got all the details ironed out yet, but I just started writing this a week ago. Most of the work I did last night. I wrote for a little over 7 hours . Im tired as hell right now as I prepare for class lol.

Oh. and regarding the Stones book, I won't be buying a paperback, not a used one anyway. Hardback is much much more sturdier and reliable. And I got a copy coming for $10. $6.50 for the book, $3.50 shipping and handling.