A Quick Guide to Worldbuilding Cultures

In a previous article — called Worldbuilding on the Crossroads — I wrote about a technique writers can use to quickly create cultures for their worlds. For a background group this might be sufficient, but what if instead of a mere outline of a culture, you want to create an in-depth culture? A culture filled … Read more

Keeping It Short

You’ve got a short story that goes on too long? A chapter that reads at a dying snail’s pace? A challenge entry that trails beyond the maximum word count? You’re also relatively new to writing and haven’t yet dragged your way through all the millions of writing articles? If yes to the last and anything … Read more

3 Tales from Limburg

Limburg is a land of rolling hills and meandering streams, chock-full of old towns and villages. It is a land of castles, abandoned mines, Roman, Prussian and French remnants and ruins, all kept together by modern Dutch, German and Belgian buildings. It’s a peculiar hodge podge recipe of a whole bunch of ingredients I happen to … Read more

Worldbuilding on the Crossroads

When I imagine the world — our world or my worlds — I imagine it as a vast, almost incomprehensible network. It sprawls in a million directions, up, down, left, right, and is one big web of chaos on the surface. But when you zoom in, the network becomes manageable, the million lines are replaced by dozens. … Read more

A Primer on Cults for Writers

What are Cults? While there are numerous interpretations of what a cult specifically entails, there is consensus on the fact that a modern cult (we will not be talking about ancient cults, which is a subject onto itself), exploits the beliefs of its members for the gain of the cult. Furthermore, the International Cultic Studies … Read more