Fantasy, SF and Horror Book, Film, & TV Reviews
The problem with the hero archetype is that it is so easy to be dull. The hero starts out as a pauper, a trainee assassin or mage, a farmer, and then goes on a mighty adventure where a darkness must be stopped. That is, in its most simplest form, the hero narrative. Take inspiration from
I am a huge admirer of writers who can create a villain I care about. I know that sounds like odd wording but it’s true. I care about Cersei Lannister in A Song of Ice and Fire and I care about Lanfear in The Wheel of Time. I do not, however, care about Sauron from
I am a huge fan of the way Asimov’s ‘Foundation’ trilogy does not rely on the importance of character. This may seem like an odd introduction to a post about the importance of character, however I just wanted to iterate that I believe good books have been written, and can still be written, where this
It has been a while since I regularly uploaded to this site, so I figured the best way to return properly is to talk about my writing routine. I just finished doing a BA English and Creative Writing degree and have now started an MA in Creative Writing, so I’ve had to hone my writing
Imagine you are your character. I will be Li, a 25(ish) year-old woman, currently living in Wolverhampton, England. Creating this base for your character is important. She has a name, age, and general setting. These are the three first things to base everything else about your character and your story on. The character’s name gives
Writing is hard. Or can be. Even beginning this blog post is difficult, but for someone else it might have been easy. That would have defeated the point in writing it in the first place, though. I have always been a constant writer; that is to say that I constantly have something I am writing.
It’s true; actually, you could finish a first draft of a novel in two months (with a few days off), so technically you could write a novel before the summer holidays even begin. This is something I remind myself of every time I think, I’ll do 1000 words tomorrow; take today off. But if I do
Sometimes, the problem with creating a story is that it can get out of control. The simple idea you had to begin with is now a huge, complex story that is over 300k words. I was asked in the comments of my post How to Develop a Plot into an Entire Novel, if there was a
When you have an idea for a story, it can be a little tricky bulking it out enough to fill a novel. The first thing you need to think is: Is this actually a novel-length idea? You could write a short story or novella as the story might not need 30-100 thousand words. If you
I know that a lot of writers really do not like having their writing organised. Some days they will write from 1000-5000 words and other days maybe 0-30 words. This can work for some writers, and that’s good, but if I try to write like that I often stop writing for a week, or several
I believe it was Ernest Hemingway who said something along the lines of, “The first draft of everything is shit.” He’s not wrong. Writing a first draft is getting everything out on the page. Don’t concern yourself too much with character development or the amount of dialogue/action/description you have compared to one another. Just get
If you are a fantasy writer, you have definitely come across the hurdle of making a map for your new world. The thing is, you don’t have to spend much time on it to get what you need. Most fantasy writers use their map to plot the sequence of events – the journey – that
Starting a new writing project can be daunting. Whether it be a novel, short-story, flash fiction, or whatever, I always plan in the same way. Quick disclaimer: this is the method that works for me. There are other ways to plan your writing (I will list some others at the end of this post).