In a previous article some time ago, I wrote about developing a character named Breldin, and how I created his home setting, the town of Trindall Grove, based on the way I wanted to shape his personality over the life that he’s lived. I want to take this moment to return to Trindall Grove in … Read more
Last time on Cover to Cover, I introduced this series of articles, which follows a novel from birth to potential publication. The previous entry was all about ideas. How to grow them, nurture them, and expand them. This time I’m going to show you how to take that idea and mold it into an actual … Read more
This article is by Steven M. Long. Everybody outlines. The second a writer imagines one scene following another, that writer is creating an outline, even if the outline is incomplete and only in their head. Referring to a novel writer as an “outliner” usually indicates someone who feels more comfortable with and sees the benefits … Read more
Steven Brust is the author of twenty-six novels so far, with his most popular following the assassin Vlad Taltos (starting with the novel Jhereg). His most recent novel, The Incrementalists, is a collaboration with author Skyler White. Steven is also a member of the Pre-Joycean Fellowship, a group of writers who value 19th-century values of … Read more
With the release of the next generation of gaming consoles, namely the Xbox One and the Playstation 4, gamers of all types are amped to get their hands on a controller. With the new capabilities of these fresh consoles, gamers can set their expectations high and have them answered. But what I’m really excited for … Read more
This article is by K.M. Weiland. “Plot vs. character”—we hear it all the time, as if the two were mutually exclusive. Either your book is plot-driven or character-driven. Can’t possibly be both, right? And anytime we run afoul of an either/or conundrum, you gotta know people are going to start believing one or the other … Read more
As fantasy writers, we accept that certain elements are expected in our novels. For example, the fight scene. Whether it’s an epic battle or a street duel, there’s going to be a fight somewhere. But what about love? I recently talked with a few friends about writing romantic scenes. The general feeling that these writers … Read more
Forests are a staple of the fantasy genre. From Middle Earth to Hogwarts, or the forests of Hansel and Gretel or Red Riding Hood, the forest is a setting that crops up time and again across numerous fantasy worlds. Sometimes these forests are magical, as in the above examples, and sometimes they are not. A … Read more
Winner of the Sydney J. Bounds Best Newcomer Award and 2007 World Fantasy Award finalist, Scott Lynch is the author of the Gentleman Bastard Sequence, several short stories and an online serial, Queen of the Iron Sands. He has a strong following who call themselves ‘priests of the crooked author’ and many others, too, have … Read more
This article is by Michael Cairns. Fantasy is an expansive genre in which the reader can be transported to far-off lands. Urban fantasy does something quite different, laying the fantastical world over the one in which we live. This can be a tricky thing to get right. Too much fantasy and the realism can be … Read more