You’re a fantasy writer. You’ve created an amazing and original world, full of wondrous magic, mind-blowing monsters, and fascinating new cultures. You’ve got powerful heroes, menacing villains, and mysterious mentors. There’s just the right amount of romance. In short, you’ve got all that good stuff you’d expect to find in a fantasy novel. Only, somehow … Read more
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
Have you ever come across a section of a book where it felt like everything happened at breakneck speed, and you could only just barely read fast enough to keep up? Or have you seen the opposite, where it’s all nice and slow and mellow, and where you’re able to really take your time and … Read more
This is Part 2 in this series. Part 1 addressed how to write beginnings. If beginnings are important, endings are doubly so. From the first line of a story each word, each scene is driving the reader toward an eventual specific point. Predetermined, concrete, the ending is in place before the reader even knows the … Read more
Opening lines are touted as some of the most important of a story. How-To books and author blogs tell us to engage, captivate, immerse, excite—and to stop at nothing less. But what is the secret to an amazing story opening? Why do stories seem to succeed or fail on page one? In the Beginning Let’s … Read more
Fantasy writers like to talk about world building, but what do you do once the world has been built? One of the things I enjoy with fantasy is how it can transport me to a different world. A place that only exists in my mind. To achieve this, world building is important, but it’s also … Read more
Lights, camera, action. It’s time. You’ve written your novel almost to the end. You’ve ramped up the tension and excitement, and the fate of the entire world is at stake. The audience is waiting with bated breath for what’s to come. All that remains is to write the final showdown where your heroes vanquish the … Read more
One thing we worry about as writers is being original. Often, the concern comes along with the overwhelming realization that most, if not all ideas have already been done. Ours are hardly the first stories with peasant dragonslayers and worlds with elves. Whatever we want to write about has been touched, tainted, done better or … Read more
Like many writers I’m a huge fan of many things – from novels and superheroes to anime and Doctor Who. But recently, watching a show with my young daughter, I’ve been pulled beyond a threshold I never expected to cross. I started writing fanfiction. It is the best thing to happen to my writing in … Read more
If you’ve been around people interested in the art of storytelling, chances are you’ve heard someone claim that characters need agency. If you’re anything like me you may have a vague impression that it’s about giving the character a reason of their own for doing things. That’s sort of correct. I’ll try and clear things … Read more