Keeping Characters Realistic In A Fantasy Setting
Aaron Miles
The fantasy genre is about the imagination, so it might seem strange to talk about realism in your work, but hear me out. Your characters are what sell your story,…
Writing
Writing Is Like LEGO and It’s Awesome
Adrian Faulkner
Somewhere out there, in the aether of time and space, is a scientific report waiting to be written about the links between writers and LEGO. Just about every writer I…
Short Story Markets and Why They Are Important
Overlord
There seems to be an opinion that, other than a few yearly anthologies, the SFF Short Story market died out in the 1960’s. However, although it is not as prevalent…
Elements of Structure
The Hero’s Journey or ‘Monomyth’ is one of the most pervasive and well known formulas in fiction, yet many writers have never even heard of it. The Hero’s Journey is…
The Initial Steps of Worldbuilding: Architect, Gardener, Tourist
Nathan T. Dean
Listening to the news in the real world – that horrid place where dragons are small and kept in vivaria and pixie is just a kind of haircut – it…
10 Ways To Up Your Word Count
Writing takes time, and in the case of novels, a lot of time. I don’t think there’s a writer out there who doesn’t wish they could write quicker. If you’ve…
Archetypes vs Stereotypes
What is the difference between a great character and a placeholder? Why is one warrior or wizard better than the other? They might serve exactly the same purpose in the…
Procrastination (Or Why You Can’t Trust A Version Of You From The Future)
Procrastination – it is the bane of all writers, something we all struggle with. How many times have we sat there ready to write and then find ourselves distracted by…
How To Create A Civilisation
You’ve listened to the pounding hooves of nomadic Dothraki as the Khalasar sweeps across the grass plains, you’ve looked out from the heights of Minas Tirith over the white city…
Five Common Mistakes Writing Fantasy Flash Fiction
Faith M. Boughan
During my time as a flash editor for various ezines, I’ve read a fair chunk of speculative flash fiction. Some excellent. Some good. Some bad. Some really, really bad. And…
Cannon Fodder: Music
Tegan Beechey
Today I will introduce a topic I hope to return to from time to time: Inspiration. This one word is incredibly important to writers of all stripes, and is the…
Authors, Reviews and Commenting
Stephen Deas
Most of the advice I’ve seen for authors is not to read reviews, although by no means all. I’m going to disagree and say it’s a useful practice but you’d…