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.
Sometimes a story is created as one thing, but you want to make it into another thing. Books to movies, TV shows to video games, graphic novels to roleplaying games – all of this is adaptation. Today, we’re nerding out on how adaptation works, how … read more »
It’s very common for storytellers to accidentally make their big conflicts too easy. But what if I told you the reverse can happen too? These conflicts are too difficult for the hero to credibly overcome, forcing the storytellers to resolve them in an unsatisfying way. This … read more »
Due to a number of prejudices and misunderstandings, a lot of people don’t understand what fanfiction is or how it works. Today, we aim to fix that. We talk about what makes something fanfiction, why most of the negativity around it is unearned, and what … read more »
In storytelling, happy endings are the default for good reason. But there is another option. Sometimes the story doesn’t end well; nothing goes the hero’s way, and they either die or lose what is most precious to them. That’s right, this episode is about tragedies: … read more »
When it comes to film adaptations of classic novels, people have, shall we say, strong opinions. A common refrain is that the movie is always worse than the book. Fortunately, that isn’t true. While plenty of film adaptations are indeed worse than their source materials, … read more »
Before your hero can clock in for a space 9 to 5, they first have to commute to work. To do that, they’ll need a rocket, space elevator, steam train, or maybe just a horse. That’s right, this episode is all about moving people, but … read more »
You might be tired of dark stories, I might be tired of dark stories, but, nonetheless, the dark stories just keep coming. Since that’s apparently the state of things, we might as well try to get dark stories right. Oversaturation aside, there isn’t anything inherently … read more »
Sometimes you want a story to do one thing, but you also want it to do another thing. Can it do both things? Should it do both things? That’s our topic for today: multitasking! This critical skill will help make your stories more efficient, allowing … read more »
Hello Mythcreants I am back. I want to ask if portraying Vengeance as something that can be good is inherently bad. In many stories Vengeance is vilified as evil and more often than not it’s expected that they have to grant forgiveness to the bullies … read more »
Pew pew, laser beams! Oh no, they were blocked by an energy shield, zooooorrp! This week we’re talking about scifi weapons, because sometimes we have to come down from the writing-craft mountain and do some good old-fashioned nerding out. We talk about what these weapons … read more »
