May Newsletter You can give us feedback via the contact form on our website. (If you reply to this email, we might not see it.) Have a wonderful month! | |
Analysis, Worldbuilding, Space By Oren Ashkenazi on 05/01/21 Arr me hearties, climb aboard this here pirate spaceship and prepare to have yer buckles thoroughly swashed! Today we're taking a deep dive into the worldbuilding of Revenger, a space opera novel by Alistair Reynolds. Don't worry, I promise there won't be any more attempts […] Read in browser »
Commentary, Characters, Social Justice By Bunny and Svend Phillips on 04/30/21 The teen years are a formative time for many people. Young adults need to grapple with maturity, newfound independence, and a deepening sense of self, all while surrounded by stressful environments both at school and at home. These conflict-rich situations are ripe for storytelling, and […] Read in browser »
Commentary, Q&A, Disability, Social Justice By Fay Onyx on 04/26/21 I have a character who recently got blinded and now has to deal with what that means. How can I show him struggling and adapting to his new life without caricaturing or stereotyping the experiences of blind people and blindness in general? In addition, my […] Read in browser »
Analysis, Plot By Oren Ashkenazi on 04/24/21 Keeping a plot focused is one of storytelling's greatest challenges. Even the best of us sometimes wander off on tangents that don't add anything to the narrative unless the reader happens to be very interested in the specifics of a rifle's loading mechanism or domestic […] Read in browser »
Worldbuilding, Magic, Magic Systems By Chris Winkle on 04/23/21 Rational magic systems powered by consistent metaphysical laws are cool and useful, but they aren’t the right choice for every project. Whether you want spells to feel hilariously random or your magic is too complex and variable to explain, sometimes it’s more practical to invent […] Read in browser »
Q&A By Oren Ashkenazi on 04/19/21 Hello mythcreants. Putting mysteries, secret organizations, cabals, betrayal… are all good ways to make engaging stories and glorious plot twists. But sometimes I have the feeling those works of fiction tend to fuel all the conspiracy-nuts and encourage harmful behavior and thinking (rejecting all medias […] Read in browser »
Analysis, Endings, Plot By Oren Ashkenazi on 04/17/21 While satisfaction should be present throughout a story, the most potent dose of satisfaction is delivered by the ending. Or at least, it should be. When an ending fails to live up to expectations, it reduces satisfaction as well as the chances that audiences will read […] Read in browser »
Worldbuilding, Writing, Beginnings, Language, Wordcraft By Chris Winkle on 04/16/21 Opening a story in another world is tough. To understand what’s happening, readers may have to learn the names of people, species, places, and special devices. If you throw these names at readers too fast, they’ll be overwhelmed. But if you wait too long, they […] Read in browser »
Q&A, Romance By Oren Ashkenazi on 04/12/21 Hello again! Do you have any advice about relationships between mortal and immortal characters? I know Twilight got some flak for the relationship between 104-year-old Edward and 17-year-old Bella. Would it be less creepy if someone around Edward’s age dated, say, a recent college grad, […] Read in browser »
Analysis, Plot, Tension By Oren Ashkenazi on 04/10/21 Writing a single novel is hard enough, and writing an entire series is notoriously difficult. It's so difficult that when I published a post on tips for writing sequels, some commenters responded with the equivalent of "don't." In particular, it's a real challenge to maintain […] Read in browser »
Storytelling, Tone By Chris Winkle on 04/09/21 Stories come in a wide spectrum of tones, from light whimsy to gritty nihilism. When tone problems occur, it’s rarely because the tone itself is invalid. Instead, tone issues are usually caused by story elements that clash with each other. Let’s look at why these […] Read in browser »
Q&A, Characters, Social Justice By Oren Ashkenazi on 04/05/21 I’m thinking of writing Han Solo-type characters who happened to either women or non-binary. I’m inspired by women both in fiction & real life, such as Gentleman Jack and Julie d’Aubigny, roguish types who make other women (& few people) swoon while swashbuckling bad guys, […] Read in browser »
Analysis, Writing, Plot, Prologue By Oren Ashkenazi on 04/03/21 In novels, prologues are almost always a mistake, and the reason why is simple: they take place before the story starts. If the story hasn't started, what are you even reading? That's why prologues are usually exposition dumps, meaningless action, or, occasionally, a completely separate […] Read in browser »
Analysis, Commentary By Chris Winkle on 04/02/21 Many storytellers like to comment on storytelling in their stories. That alone isn’t a terrible thing, except so much of this commentary is pompous, harmful to storytellers, completely wrong, or all of the above. These meta messages say a lot about fiction-writing culture, and most […] Read in browser »
| | | |
