Chris is the founder and editor-in-chief of Mythcreants. On the side she also designs, codes, and writes stories. When she manages to escape from chronic workaholism, she likes to drink tea, wear funny hats, pet kitties, and crush her enemies at the game table.
Opening a story in another world is tough. To understand what’s happening, readers may have to learn the names of people, species, places, and special devices. If you throw these names at readers too fast, they’ll be overwhelmed. But if you wait too long, they … read more »
Aren’t all planets within viewing distance? Read more »
Werewolves with smartphones, vampires on motorcycles, mages with school in the morning, and nightclubs. So many nightclubs! We’re discussing urban fantasy today, revisiting a topic we first talked about way back in the olden days. We look at what makes urban fantasy so beloved, what … read more »
Stories come in a wide spectrum of tones, from light whimsy to gritty nihilism. When tone problems occur, it’s rarely because the tone itself is invalid. Instead, tone issues are usually caused by story elements that clash with each other. Let’s look at why these … read more »
There’s more than one way to use a superpower. Read more »
Prejudice and bigotry are inescapable aspects of real life, but they don’t have to be in stories. While it’s tempting to believe that by including prejudice, we’re making some kind of bold and progressive statement, more often than not, we’re simply reinforcing harmful norms. This … read more »
Many storytellers like to comment on storytelling in their stories. That alone isn’t a terrible thing, except so much of this commentary is pompous, harmful to storytellers, completely wrong, or all of the above. These meta messages say a lot about fiction-writing culture, and most … read more »
How to spice up your next court scene. Read more »
It’s increasingly understood that some stories are not everyone’s to tell, but how can you know which ones? When is a story just a story, and when is it someone’s heritage? Why is this such a big deal? This week, we try to shed light … read more »
While stories use multiple methods of engaging audiences, conflict and tension are probably the most essential for longer stories. What we call pace is the timing and intensity of that conflict and tension throughout. A pace that’s too low will put an audience to sleep, … read more »
