Browsing all articles tagged with writing advice.
Consider the Start of Your Story a.k.a. The Hook and The Arm It’s Attached To
Is the hare really faster than the tortoise? Did the chicken come before the egg? Green means go, red means stop, but yellow means something in the middle – so half a stop, or half a go? What I’m trying to say is that everything starts somewhere. As writers, we have the godly say-so to [...]
New Models for Magicians
In many fantasy stories, magicians often follow one or two traditional models. Many are often portrayed as guides or teachers that assist the protagonist. Often this mentor is described as an old man, with a long, white beard. They wear robes and carry walking staffs. Merlin and Gandalf cast long shadows over the genre. Alternatively, [...]
Exploring Rural Landscape
The quest is a hallmark of great fantasy fiction and some of the best quests see our heroes traverse a variety of locations before reaching their goal. When done well, the environment can become a character in its own right. But all too often in writing fantasy, the environment can be bland, the landscape uniform. [...]
Rules? Where We’re Going We Don’t Need Rules
There’s a strong tendency in critique groups, whether online or in person, or in writing guides, or even just in casual conversation between writers, to talk about The Rules of Writing. They’re often talked about as if they are immutable, as if ignoring them will make you fail. This is false. One can say there [...]
The Fantasy Language Problem – Part Two
This is part two of Django Wexler’s guest post on fantasy languages. You can read part one here. (Click or mouseover links for humorous footnotes.) The preceding section is not intended to be an exhaustive list of troublesome terms, but rather to merely convey the scope of the problem. [#11] It should be obvious by [...]
Creative Writing: Writer’s Block aka The Dead End
So for an opening article to get me into the swing of things here, I thought I’d tackle something that every writer can relate to. No, not overpriced fuel or the pros-cons of a liquid diet, writer’s block. Imagine you’re walking down the road minding your own business, clutching your ‘to-do list’ like the map [...]
