The Sacred and Profane in Fantasy Writing: Who Gives a F___?
T. O. Munro
As I started writing this my five-year-old niece was settling down to a sleepover with my youngest daughter, and my second daughter had just reminded me that we would have…
writing advice
Havens And Hells In Fantasy
Nicola Alter
When we talk about how we feel when reading we often refer to characters or plot. We vent about a villain we hate or gush about a hero we love.…
A Cast of Roles
Aaron Miles
Through the course of a novel, the author will create and introduce a wide array of different characters to the reader. Often they might do it on automatic, smoothly introducing…
Syncing Scrivener Files Between Computers Using Dropbox
Adrian Faulkner
One of the simple joys of writing is the fact that it can be done anywhere. All you need is pen and paper. Some writers prefer the structure of a…
Making A Connection
Most people think of reading as a purely intellectual pursuit, but the best books are the ones that inspire emotion in the reader. While you can appreciate a novel on…
Another Point (of View) – Part Two: Third Person
Geoff Matthews
Last time, as you recall, or maybe you don’t, we looked at narration in the first-person. It has, as a writing style, many good points and some pitfalls. Well, third-person…
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…
Worldbuilding: Don’t Neglect The Landscape
You have your story, your plot, your characters, sub-texts and themes. On a piece, or several, of paper you have sketched out a map, worked out the travel distances and…
Character Group Dynamics
One of the most important tasks of a writer is to get the reader to engage with their characters, but almost as important is how your characters engage with each…
What I Learned as a Tabletop Gamer
Trent Cannon
In news that will shock precisely no one that has spoken to me for any amount of time, I am a massive nerd. Like, huge. I am the kind of…
Everyone’s Got A Point (of View) – Part One: First Person
I’ve never liked violence. Doesn’t mean I’m not good at it, I’m just not fond of it. But survival’s become something of a habit and if that means getting in…
Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off #2: One Reader’s Initial Thoughts
A.F.E. Smith
I’m one of Fantasy-Faction’s readers for this year’s Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO). And now that I’ve read the first chapters of all the books in our set, I thought…