Do you spend weeks and weeks designing the ceremonial cloaks that your orcs wear for their Annual Wereboar BBQ? Do you sketch maps of obscure villages that haven’t existed in your world for thousands of years on napkins? Do you lie awake before bed and think, “I really should figure out how the ogres in … Read more
After a recent break from writing, I’m back in the chair and am assessing my unfinished stories and the world I’ve forged around them. One story in particular, The Rage Within, was written to explore a race called the Dagorans. They are a gray-skinned folk afflicted with a berserk-like rage. Sifting through my notes revealed … Read more
It’s becoming easier and easier for people to put books down these days. With so many entertaining distractions in the world, writers have to fight for readers’ attention more than ever. Normally, I approach these articles only from the stance of a writer. However, today I’m going to wear two hats: one small writer’s beret … Read more
This article is by Ashley Capes. The idea that magic in fiction might possess or need a ‘system’ was nonexistent to me when I first read my favourites as a boy in the early 1990s. Magic was but a component to the awe and wonder within the stories. I didn’t need to know how magic … 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
World-building is a topic that comes up often in fantasy writing circles. If you’re writing epic fantasy, most often it’s going to be in a world of your own creation. Even if you’re writing in our own world, if you have fantasy elements in your story (e.g., magic, mythical creatures, necromantic hamsters), then you have … Read more
The key to finding your way as a writer is to discover what kind of writer you are. Are you the type that talks about writing but doesn’t really do it much? Are you the kind that works diligently every day, but always ends up deleting or scrapping the whole manuscript? Are you the perfect … Read more
Maintaining your audience’s suspension of disbelief is a challenge that every fantasy writer must face. Obtaining, and holding, that suspension relies on your ability to convey a believable story, setting, and cast. If the suspension of disbelief is dissolved, so is the reader’s will to continue on with the story. So, how do we make … Read more