Category: fantasy
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On Setting, Part 3: Crafting Unique and Memorable Action Scenes
Before we launch into this, a caveat: what I will discuss here is a more critical technique for screenwriting than for novels or short stories. As I outline in this post on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I firmly believe that the strength of the written story, even in an action sequence, is…
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My sword and sorcery action adventure will be FREE this coming week!
(Feel free to reblog, if you feel so inclined) I’m excited to announce that Monday through Friday this week (July 10-14), “The Crimson League: the Fight for Hope” will be free to download on Amazon! It’s a sword and sorcery dystopian adventure set in Herezoth, where sorcerer-nobleman Zalski Forzythe has killed the royal family and…
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What all the great stories have in common
One of my favorite quotes from G.K. Chesterton–and he just may be one of the most quotable men who ever lived–goes like this: “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” This is a great introduction into what all…
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What makes you root for a character?
Today, I wanted to explore the phenomenon of rooting for a character. As a writer, it’s important to understand what will distance your readers from a character or fail to inspire a connection with them. Readers root for characters they care about and are invested in. So how do we make that happen? What makes…
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What the graveyard scene in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” taught me about high stakes action scenes
The graveyard scene at the end of the fourth Harry Potter book is one of my favorite scenes in the entire series. I cannot describe how gripped I was, reading it for the first time at the age of fifteen. I had never read or experienced anything quite like that in fiction. It was amazing.…
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Character Spotlight: Laskenay, Lady of Sorrows
As a woman fighting in a civil war, Laskenay doesn’t try to be a man. She’s wise enough to know she’s not a traditional soldier, and any chance she has to succeed or survive lies in adopting other tactics.
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The Crimson League shows everyone has something to contribute
Each leaguesman IS needed. Each one is beautifully necessary as the story of the League unfolds–the quiet ones and the brash ones, the thinkers and those who rush to act, the sensitive ones and the hardened ones. So it is in real life. Each one of us is unique and irreplaceable. We fight different flaws…
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The danger of writing magic
I recently wrote about why writing and reading fantasy is so, well, magical. There are lots of opportunities and benefits that come with writing in the fantasy genre and adding magic to your story, but there is also a temptation to avoid. DON’T MAKE IT ALL ABOUT A MAGIC SHOW When we include sorcery or…
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What’s to love about fantasy? The magic, of course!
As a “geriatric millenial,” as I’ve heard my age described, I discovered Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone my freshman year of high school. (Book 3 had just come out). I’ve loved fantasy ever since . . . Lord of the Rings, King Arthur, dragons, sorcerers, spells and curses . . . I am a…
Creative Writing with the Crimson League 