articles on writing
Fantasy has its Game of Thrones. Science fiction has its The Expanse. (Picture from here. Leviathan Wakes is the first book of The Expanse.) Game of Thrones was the TV adaptation of a successful set of novels. (A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin.) The Expanse was the TV adaptation of …
It’s almost axiomatic that religious things are different from secular ones. Over and over again, we see the dichotomy of the sacred and the profane cropping up in human societies. But what needs to be sanctified? And how is this state achieved?
“How would you define scene development and what is the key to making it consistently good throughout a novel?” This was a question asked of me by a ghostwriting client. Scene craft is something that has become organic enough for me through years of experience that I’ve ceased to think about what goes into it. …
New Writers Ask: What is Scene Craft and Why Should I Care? Read More »
Join me in another flashback to my early backpacking trip across Crete, when I camped in the Minoan ruins of Falassarna and heard whispers from the past. NOTE: Of course, Thor and I had to make another trip to Greece, as he’s fallen as much in love with the islands as I am. This time, …
A Rambling Writer Rerun: Crete, part 6: Falassarna Whispers Read More »
The last time we had a theory essay, I talked about thinking through the logical results of one’s worldbuilding. Closely related, but not quite the same, are the unfortunate implications that worldbuilding can sometimes have. By this I mean, not the practical effects on the world — the easy ways to make a kingdom richer …
New Worlds Theory Post: Unfortunate Implications Read More »
We’re nearly done with our discussion of mental health because I’m nearly at the limits of what I can talk about with any kind of confidence. But before that concludes, there’s one specific condition I’d like to look at more closely . . . because arguably, it’s one more of our characters should be suffering …
Phyllis’ blog originally published November 2011. Bringing this back because costumes! And because whatever happened to American Steampunk!? [For an update, check out Neverwas magazine’s opinion on that. Steampunk is alive and well–just not here.] The weekend of July 22-24, 2011 Portland, Oregon’s first convention dedicated solely to Steampunk. Since I sold my first SF/F trilogy …
All three of my children are avid readers. The day I was inspired to write this little essay, my oldest daughter, Kristine (on the left in the featured photo), was sitting in the living room reading Lord of the Rings with a stack of history books and Jane Austen-related material next to her chair. She once …
Even as the final episode of Game of Thrones wound down to its closing moments, the howls of outrage reverberated around the globe. “How could they kill Daenerys?!” “How could they kill Daenerys like that!” “Why didn’t they have Jon Snow become king?” Inevitably, some of the malcontents laid the blame entirely upon the HBO …
When it comes to looking at the treatment of mental illness and disability throughout history, all too often, the simple answer is “there was none.”
To the modern, western, medical mind, intellectual disabilities are generally distinct from mental illnesses. But as we’ve already discussed, other frameworks for understanding such problems attribute them to different causes, and as such, don’t necessarily differentiate the one from the other. In particular, the responses to them were often the same, so before we turn …
In a prior ”confession,” I talked about the qualities of a hero in context with a book I was writing for a client I code-named Murphy. My pointing out that a master of strong and intelligent followers would be more impressive than a master of weak, incompetent ones prompted Murphy to tell me that toning …
Confessions of a Ghostwriter: A Dish Best Served Cool Read More »
