Oren is a grumpy old man whose physical age hasn’t quite caught up with him, at least that’s what the kids who won’t get off his lawn keep saying. He’s been into roleplaying games since he was knee-high to a d10, and into prose writing for nearly as long. He loves stories and games that push the envelope of storytelling, like the Discworld series and the RPG Primetime Adventures. He’s also a huge Star Trek fan, though his rants on the mistakes of Voyager and Enterprise might make you think otherwise.
The meaning of “anticlimactic” is refreshingly simple: the climax is a disappointment. We might call a story anticlimactic if the main villain is defeated too easily, if a major story arc just disappears without explanation, or if the throughline isn’t properly resolved. The story’s climax … read more »
Behold, a podcast with emotions so deep you can feel them in your bones! No, not deep enough, your marrow! Or maybe your T-cells? That’s right, today we’re talking about melodrama, the thing that happens when authors try to make more emotional scenes by writing … read more »
Any story that features magic has a magic system, be it in the form of overtly supernatural sorcery or in the form of technology so advanced it would make Arthur C. Clarke blush. Here at Mythcreants, we have a number of articles that will teach … read more »
With a snap of our fingers and an abracadabra, we summon this podcast to appear, as if by a system of magic. That’s right, it’s time to talk about magic systems, something your story has the moment you decide to include supernatural elements. Not all … read more »
Being a blockbuster juggernaut, Star Wars is where a lot of storytellers get their inspiration. Lots of writers want to emulate the trench run’s intense excitement or the emotional pathos of Luke confronting Kylo Ren on the salt planes of Crait. As such, today we’ll … read more »
Sometimes, characters die. In some stories, characters die a lot. But is this good for the story? Does it add gravitas and realism, or is it just a cheap way to ruin everyone’s day? We discussed this topic way back in the day, but we’ve … read more »
We’ve all had the experience of reading a book or watching a show only for our favorite storyline to disappear without any resolution. Crafting a compelling plot requires an intriguing hook, strong stakes, and exciting conflict, so it’s weird when storytellers throw all that work in … read more »
Hello Mythcreants, I’ve been trying to toy with a scheming protagonist with a master plan rather than a villain with a master plan. However, I want to keep his plan largely secret, but I don’t know how to do this without irritating readers by making … read more »
Long-running story tropes become long-running for a reason, but what if more was possible? What if we could reach outside the familiar and tell different kinds of stories? Not only would we get to experience something cool and different, but we might even make stories … read more »
It’s been over six years since I first wrote about sexism in Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time. At the time, I didn’t expect to touch on the subject again, but that post’s comment section remains active to this day, so I … read more »
