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Chris is the lead editor and a frequent blogger for 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.
Pow, biff, ka-bam! That’s right, it’s time to talk about fight scenes. These are a staple of speculative fiction, and the movies make them look so easy! But anyone who’s ever written one knows that’s not the case, so today we’re discussing tips for making … read more »
Storytellers love character archetypes. They feel ancient and symbolic, and they’re just fun to play with. A while back, we mentioned some archetypes we think stories are usually better without. To banish the rain on our archetype parade, here’s five we want to see more … read more »
Is there a way to write a tight story which takes place over many years? (How?) I’ve recently realized, most of the books I’ve read don’t last more than a year, many lasting only a few weeks. As I’m planning a series where each book is anywhere between four and ten years long, I’m worried in case that is unfeasible and I should change it before I go any further. Read more »
We love roleplaying, and we make no secret of it. In fact, we shout it from the rooftops whenever possible. But what are our reasons for playing in the first place? That’s what we’re talking about today. We discuss what first drew us to roleplaying, … read more »
Making your protagonist a relatable underdog is a great way to encourage your audience to bond with them. Unfortunately, it’s easy for this effort to go wrong. Instead of feeling sympathy for your hero, the audience might think your character is whiny and unpleasant. The narration … read more »
This week, we’re talking about quests, and not the kind where you go out and kill ten boars. These quests are the stuff of legends, of great heroes venturing out to seek a relic of power. Or of a young child taking a gift basket … read more »
Writing and roleplaying are vastly different mediums. Writing offers much greater control over the story, but roleplaying has something else: a strong connection with the audience. Whereas writers have limited knowledge of how readers respond to their work, game masters (GMs) must be closely in … read more »
Prologues and epilogues seem so simple. They come before the first chapter and after the last chapter of a book, right? But maybe there’s more to it than that. When is a prologue really chapter one? When is chapter one really a prologue? What is … read more »
Last year, Handbook for Mortals by Lani Sarem cheated its way to the top of the New York Times YA bestseller list. It wasn’t #1 for long, though. Observers quickly noticed how strange it was that a book no one had heard of by a … read more »
We all want to write what we’re passionate about, but sometimes that’s not as simple as it sounds. What happens when an author discovers halfway through a story that they’re more interested in a side character than the protagonist? What’s a writer to do when … read more »