Browsing all articles tagged with writing advice.
Knocking People Out: Easier In Fiction Than In Real Life
It’s a common scenario in many kinds of fiction, including fantasy: a character passes out, either because they’ve been knocked on the head or injured or drugged, and the world “goes black” or they “fall into darkness”. The unfortunate character usually wakes up several hours or days later in a new place, disoriented and sometimes […]
Blurring The Lines
So I started reading the Dragon Prince trilogy by Melanie Rawn. It’s part of the classical fantasy cannon, and the books have been on my TBR pile for ages. While I am enjoying the books, one aspect that stands out to me is the obvious tone implicit in the “sides” of the story and their […]
How Ideas Become Stories
One of the most common questions an author will hear is, “Where do you get your ideas from?” As if that was all you needed to write a successful book. Ideas are important, but they’re not some mystical spark from the divine, if you’re in the right mind-set you can probably come up with dozens […]
The A-Zs of Worldbuilding: Building a Fictional World From Scratch by Rebekah Loper
Though I usually don’t confess what I am about to tell you in polite circles, I imagine it will be a badge of honor on Fantasy-Faction: Once upon a time, when Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was still in its first edition, I was a Dungeon Master. One of the greatest joys of being Dungeon Master, […]
Taming MICE – The MICE Quotient and Storytelling
Fantasy is a genre of strange and diverse stories covering countless themes, concepts and ideas, in order to gain a better understanding of how our stories work and the nature of their structure, it can be useful to look at the ways they are categorised and study what traits make them what they are. The […]
Reaching Outside the Genre
The fantasy genre is a curious beast, its wide reach covering a range of topics and themes. It has stories about growing up, stories about overcoming problems, stories about slaying dragons and monsters. It’s not limited by location, ideas, character types, or any of the other criteria we normally use to define a genre. In […]
The Problem with Abandoning the “Strong Female Character”
Yet another descriptor has been caught in the verboten term net. Recently, several essays have appeared arguing that people should stop using the term “strong female character” (SFC) or “strong female protagonist” because a) The SFC has become just another trope in speculative fiction, providing authors with another cardboard token with which to people their […]
Creating a Fantasy Race
The fantasy genre is filled with an astonishing array of wildly different races that populate our stories. Some are drawn from older myths and legends like elves and dwarfs while others are brand new creations from the author’s imagination. Would-be worldbuilders might think it’s just a matter of slapping some limbs together and thinking up […]
Locked Up Abroad: Lessons From the Streets of Fantasy – Guest Blog by K. S. Villoso
You ever wonder if a fantasy novel can actually help you survive in a real life situation? I don’t mean teach you about sword-fighting and how to slay dragons, or brew your own magic potions to help you teleport out of dicey situations. I’m talking about something more realistic, such as how to survive in […]
Don’t Show, Don’t Tell – Guest Blog by K. C. Alexander
We’ve heard it, right: “show, don’t tell.” A four-word reminder to make sure your work is rich with description, follow-through, actions rather than (in a non-literal sense) words. But what about “don’t show, don’t tell?” (Not to be mistaken for outdated military doctrine.) Stick with me, kid, it gets way more interesting. And it starts […]
November: To NaNo or Not to NaNo?
To NaNo, or not to NaNo? That is the question! And the answer is – yes you should! Take a look around at the people near you this November. What are they doing with their time? How are they filling those dark nights now the clocks have changed? With romance, with TV, with that video […]
Swinging the Scythe
Death is an essential part of many of our stories, whether it’s just the threat of it to provide peril for our protagonists, or having some of the characters actually bite the dust for reasons of plot or drama. If written well a death scene can have a great impact on the reader, triggering a […]
