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Heroic Justice
Is It Okay to Bury a Gay Character If I Bring Them Back?
I saw an article you had about “bury your gays.” At first I thought that my story was exempt from that because multiple characters of different orientations die, but then I read the examples you gave and started doubting myself. You said “a big factor … read more »
263 – Trees in Spec Fic
If someone records a podcast about trees, and no one listens to it, does it make a sound? Hopefully we won’t have to find out, because this episode is all about our leafy friends and how they fit into our stories. We talk about trees … read more »
Ten Ways to Keep Authorities Out of Your Plot
Stories need problems to solve and heroes to solve them, which sounds simple enough at first. But then you realize that in most settings, there are authorities whose job is to stop these problems. They might be police officers, teachers at a magic school, or … read more »
Why “But Men Are Objectified Too” Doesn’t Hold Up
The hypersexualization and objectification of female characters is a major problem in storytelling.* Whether heroes or villains, female characters are often put in revealing or otherwise sexy costumes not because it makes sense for the story, but because it will presumably please straight cis men. … read more »
Unearthed Arcana Review: Revived Rogue
I’m of two minds about rogues. On the one hand, they’re a good class with a powerful combat kit and skill bonuses unmatched by any other class. On the other hand, I find them to be an incredibly boring class with little to no decision-making … read more »
Fashion Disaster
The most daunting type of battle. Read more »
How Do I Avoid Stigma Around Schizophrenia in My Writing?
Hello again, I’ve decided to include a character with schizophrenia in my story. I have schizophrenia, and I’ve decided that I want one of my contributions to the world to be a depiction with a character with my condition in a speculative story that isn’t … read more »
262 – Describing Characters
In real life, we have our eyeballs to tell us what something looks like. But in prose fiction, we’re not so lucky. Be it novels or short stories, we only have words on a page to communicate visuals, so how do we do it? That’s … read more »
Lessons From the Purple Writing of The Witcher
The Witcher book series, written by Andrzej Sapkowski and translated to English by Danusia Stok, started a popular video game franchise and now a popular TV show on Netflix too. I’ve seen the first season of the show, so that gives me some story context … read more »