Recent content by Malik

So, hey, y'all. For those of you who don't know me, I've been here for a minute or two. I have an English degree with a dual concentration in sociolinguistics and the philosophy of language. Also, I had, at the time, the best-selling independent fantasy debut novel in history. I may still hold...

All my books are in Omniscient Third Subjective. The narrator is a character, who either witnessed the story or had it told to them and is now relaying it to you. This means the writing style has to have its own voice separate from the other characters. Done right, Omniscient Third Subjective...

I just plotted an entire series to cover a plot hole in my first series. Worldbuilding IS storytelling. How much worldbuilding is too much? If your readers get bored and tell you so, that's too much. Beta readers are your friends, here.

I forget where I read it, but the quote to live by is, "Reading is breathing in. Writing is breathing out."

My series has a country with gryphons as mounted aerial assets. Recommended reading if I say so myself. ;)

I haven't heard this. It's possible, but the trick is to get exactly the right amount of carbon in your iron for the task at hand. 0.50-0.65% is widely considered ideal; however, the characteristics of 0.50% carbon steel (mild steel) and 0.65% carbon steel (surgical steel) is considerable...

"Always do whatever's next."

And again--please read my earlier (years earlier) posts on this--if there was some kind of super-steel, you wouldn't have medieval martial arts in any form that we'd recognize today. Literally nothing that soldiers developed throughout history would work. You'd need to invent an entirely new...

You don't mine steel. Steel is iron ore, heated and mixed with charcoal (carbon). Steel is not naturally occurring. God, I wish more authors would figure this out. (You're not the first; I read this in Big Fiction every so often, and in indie fantasy fiction so many times I've lost count.)...

https://josephmalik.com/steel-the-everything-of-all-things "Swords are swords because steel is steel" Do a search for the phrase "swords are swords because steel is steel" in the Research forum. Look up my article on the Great Sword of War, also on this site. Then search for "Malik" and...

I'm a former amateur boxer and retired Army, with nearly 10 years in Special Operations. I've been beaten up, blown up, shot, stabbed, poisoned, kicked by a camel, I've had my neck broken, and I once spent a week in a coma and months in a wheelchair. My nose has been broken so many times I look...

Swordfighting isn't sport fencing. It's the incidental damage that wears a fighter down. More often than not--especially in armor--sprains, bruises, concussions, fractures, dislocations, and broken pieces of kit all add up until finally one or the other gets overwhelmed and makes a fatal...

My biggest secret to getting the writing done was to ensure my writing desk had the most comfortable chair in the house.

One of my favorite First Draft quotes is, "I need to remind myself that the first draft is just me shoveling sand into a pile so I can make it into a sandcastle later."