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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.
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 »
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 »
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 »
What’s that sound? Is it a striga hiding in the shadows, maybe a werewolf howling at the moon, or a kikimore doing whatever it is kikimore’s do? It’s certainly some kind of monster, because this week we’re talking about Netflix’s latest hit: The Witcher. It’s … read more »
Minions are a mainstay of speculative fiction, to the point that they are sometimes as well-known as their named overlords. What would Saruman be without his Uruk-hai, or the Dominion without its Jem’Hadar? And yet, minions are often plagued with problems. They’re too easy to … read more »
My story project (urban fantasy / horror mystery) is expansive enough that I’ll need to divide it into 3 or 4 books. It’s very much a single story and not a series, although I’ll make sure to line up different parts of the story with … read more »
This week we leave the idyllic forests and pristine meadows behind to enter the deep dark dampness of the swamp! Or the bog, marsh, fen, mangrove forest, whatever floats your swamp boat. These wetlands are often portrayed as dangerous and unfriendly to humans, which isn’t … read more »
Characters are overpowered for all kinds of reasons, but the effect is always the same. Either the character overcomes challenges way too easily or the author has to insert a massive contrivance to keep the conflict going. Neither outcome is satisfying, so if you ever … read more »
Hello Mythcreants. Writing stories I’ve found myself having a hard time preventing my characters from having access to outside help who would solve their problems for them far too easily (cops, armed forces, figures of authorities, or just reveling everything outright to the people…), especially … read more »
There’s a moment in every climax where the hero goes from losing to winning, or from winning to losing in the case of tragedies. It’s when Luke turns off his targeting computer or when Eowyn declares that she is no man. It’s got that special … read more »