Guide:How To Write Something Epic

This is a guide to help you write something -anything- epic: an article, a story, her or elsewhere, in Warhammer 40K or anything. It's about epicness. Jochannon (talk) 19:34, October 24, 2013 (UTC)

Words Not To Use
Epicness is not something that happens in the text: epicness is what happens inside the reader's head; to write something epic, you need to evoke epicness, you need to make the reader think epically. It's not easy, and there are a few words you should never. Ever use. Such as. ..

'Epic'
This should be a no-brainer, but apparently it isn't: NEVER say it is epic. If you need to tell people it is epic, it isn't.

'Better'
This one annoys me, because I see it a lot on this site: saying your Space Marines(or any characters) are 'better' than any others, does evoke epicness. What it evokes is derision and scorn. Saying your characters are better than others is little better than shallow posing; don't do it. In my opinion, the word 'better' should be used very sparingly, if at all, and never, ever used in phrases going 'they are better at X than [some really epic canon characters].'

That is not to say that you cannot make your characters, Space Marine or otherwise, better at anything than other people: it means that if you want to make them better at anythign than other people, you need to make them better at it than other people!

Tip #1: Keep It Understated
As I said before, epicness happens in the reader's mind; if you go throwing up too many details, it will interfere with the epicness. here, let me show you: ". . .[I]n a series of hard-fought actions, the Brethren led Imperial forces to exterminate the Orks, culminating in a climactic battle over the Cliffs of Ger, where Skeat fought the Overlord in single combat, chopping off the Ork's head, and casting him into the magma flows below."

- from the article Dragon Brothers

So, when you read about some guy fighting an Ork warlord in single combat atop some cliffs above magma flows, lopping off his head and throwing him in the magma below, does anything non-epic come to mind? There's not really enough detail for it to be really epic, but I think to shows what I mean.