A Fantasy Geek’s Guide to YouTube: Weapons and Warfare
Richard Marpole
YouTube is an app, a website, and a cultural phenomenon. It’s also a vast and barely-explored wilderness full of content that ranges from dynamic to dire. Whatever your interests are,…
fight scenes
Worlds Within Worlds – Part Three: Magic Warfare
Christopher Mahon
Fallout taught fans that war…war never changes. Military historians, however, argue otherwise. Case in point: the stirrup. Before firearms dominated the battlefield, it’s generally agreed that the stirrup was the…
Sieges and Siegecraft – Part Two: Defenders
Aaron Miles
Shore up the defences, man the walls and get those supplies inside! Last time, we looked at siegecraft from the attackers’ side; this time, we’re on the defensive. There are…
Sieges and Siegecraft – Part One: Attackers
Throughout the bloody pages of innumerable fantasy books there are countless examples of the siege in fiction. From epic wars that last for years to brutal assaults that are swift…
Is Violence In Fantasy Less Confronting?
Nicola Alter
The fantasy genre is no stranger to violence. High fantasies are known for their epic battles, sword fights, warrior heroes, merciless villains and clashing forces of good and evil. Many…
Writing Fantasy Battles – A Look At Strategy
You’ve seen the blood spray through the air, you’ve felt the crash judder through your arm as the enemy hits your lines, but have you ever thought about the big…
Berserkers In Fantasy
In fantasy, we see a lot of magicians, shape-shifters, werewolves and all manner of humanoid characters with supernatural qualities. One type of powerful character that crops up more rarely, however,…
Three Things Fantasy Can’t Get Right with Combat
Trent Cannon
This may come as a shock, but I don’t think any of us read fantasy for realism. In fact, we usually read it to escape from the real world and…
How Writing Is A Lot Like Fighting – Part 1: Introduction
Overlord
I recently read The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson and there was a lot to like about it. With this in mind, I’ve been keeping an eye on the…
Writing Fight Scenes – What an Editor Wants to See
Hierath
As an editor, something I’ve discovered when I’m editing books for other people is I’m making the same comments over and over again in relation to action scenes. I thought…
Lights, Camera, Action!
Thomas A. Knight
The cornerstone of almost all great fantasy books is the action scenes held within them. This is also one of the skills that many authors of today have trouble with.…
Writing Fight Scenes
Marc Davies
Writing fight scenes is often an important task for a fantasy author. Some writers find they come naturally. Others find them daunting, and can’t think of anything worse. Whichever category…