Fantasy: The Blueprint of the World
Lucy Hounsom
Fantasy sinks its figurative talons into us all. Its origins are ancient, with roots in the epic Icelandic Eddur and Old English poems like Beowulf. It owes a debt to…
history
Elements of Structure
Aaron Miles
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 Truth About -Punk
Leo Elijah Cristea
There is something that really gets me thinking (well, there are many things, really, but this is a big one) about the genre and its tendency to label things, to…
Fantastical Creatures of Greco-Roman Mythology: Hippoi Monokerata
Faith M. Boughan
Welcome to the final instalment of our series on lesser-known creatures and monsters in Classical mythology! Over the past year, we’ve looked at everything from ancient dragon-like creatures to ancient…
European Dragons: From the North and East
Our final destination on our worldwide dragon journey is Europe. I know, I know—not very exciting, is it? But wait! Having looked specifically at Chinese dragons last time, it’s only…
Fantastical Creatures of Greco-Roman Mythology: Ophiotaurus
Ah, monsters. Who doesn’t love a good, unique monster now and then? As great as it is to read about another dragon or giant spider, there’s something special about a…
A Twist in the Fairy Tale
Victoria Hooper
I love fairy stories and folklore. I love the adventure and romance alongside the capacity for great darkness, the strange rules that don’t always quite make sense, the sense of…
Fantastical Creatures of Greco-Roman Mythology: The Leukrokottas
Welcome to another instalment of Fantastical Creatures of Greco-Roman mythology! If you’ve been following this series for a while, jump down to the subtitle below. If you’re new, here’s the…
Foundations of Fantasy: Beowulf
Ryan Howse
More than any other genre, fantasy tends to examine ancient epics. Whether it’s the study of archetypes and ectypes, or a historical understanding of narrative itself, or simply a desire…
Fantastical Creatures of Greco-Roman Mythology: The Taraxippus
Raise your hand if you believe in ghosts. Oh, come on. You, over there, reading this on your laptop on the bus—go ahead, raise your hand. No one will know…
Government vs. Anarchy
Gail Z. Martin
My Ascendant Kingdoms Saga books (Ice Forged, Reign of Ash—coming 2014) takes place in a post-apocalyptic medieval world where anarchy has become the norm. A disastrous war has left the…
The Chaotic Champion – Part Nine: Order and Chaos
Nyki Blatchley
I’ve spent most of this series discussing how the figure of the Chaotic Champion works in story. My contention is that he’s* a universal concept in human story, whether the…