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.
Deciding which character will be the focus of your story is tricky business, and plenty of authors have trouble with it. In the early stages, it’s not always clear which character has the most central position in the plot or who will be most compelling … read more »
Hello again, I was thinking about how some stories focus only on one type of being, like how Steven Universe has the Gems, whereas other stories, like Tolkien’s work, have many different types of beings. What I’m interested in finding out is, what are some … read more »
A universal rule of storytelling is that the main character’s choices need to matter; that’s agency. However, a main character doesn’t always have to be working on their own goals; that’s proactivity. How do these aspects interact? Can you have a character with agency but … read more »
Endings are hard, especially endings for a long-running series. A lot of expectations get built up along the way, and how well you meet those expectations will determine whether audiences remember your story fondly or are just glad it’s over. Classic Star Trek varies wildly … read more »
You thought this was going to be a short blurb explaining the podcast, but actually it’s a meta reference to the episode’s subject. Are your expectations subverted? Probably not, because despite what you might have been told, subversions are hard work. You still need to … read more »
You may have heard the saying that a hero is only as good as their villain. Fortunately, this isn’t true, or a lot of very famous stories would be way worse than they are.* However, a good villain can make a story much better, while … read more »
You have an idea. It is beautiful and amazing and awesome. Now what? How do you take this idea and turn it into a story? That’s our topic for this week, and hopefully we can shed some light on this tricky situation. We talk about … read more »
I won’t sugarcoat it: going through the MCU’s phase-one climaxes was a real slog. The action and quips might be top notch, but the climaxes are limited to nonsense deductions and meaningless sacrifices. Fortunately, there are way more of these movies to look at. Specifically, … read more »
Every story needs to be called something, but the title you choose shouldn’t be a last-minute afterthought. Titles are a vital tool for communicating with the audience well before they turn the first page. But how does that communication work? What makes some titles better … read more »
Set your sails by a mage wind and gather round the werelight: it’s time for this worldbuilding series to take a look at the prolific and influential Ursula K. Le Guin, an author who penned everything from high fantasy to children’s stories about cats with … read more »
