Worldbuilding is a complicated craft, and with so many possible settings out there, it’s difficult to give advice on the subject as a whole. Fortunately, there are some principles that are useful across the board. That’s what we’re talking about today: best practices that will … read more »
We all lose things, but what about losing knowledge? How is knowledge lost, and what effect does it have on your story? When trying to find the lost knowledge, is it always in the last place you look? That’s what we’re talking about this week, … read more »
Hey there, friend, do you feel like joining some vampires for a night out on the town? What about riding with a werewolf motorcycle gang or chasing down demons in the city’s unrealistically accessible sewers? I hope at least one of those things appeals to … read more »
Joseph’s Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces (HWTF) has been incredibly influential since it was first published in 1949. The book is the basis for the popular structure known as The Hero’s Journey, and it’s influenced numerous storytellers such as George Lucas, Richard Adams, … read more »
Many of us grew tired of conflicts between absolute good and evil a long time ago. These conflicts often reduce antagonists to caricatures, include dehumanizing stand-ins for real groups of people, and feel too simplistic to be interesting. So, instead, many storytellers have depicted conflicts … read more »
In this series on worldbuilding, I’ve looked at both science fiction and high fantasy worlds. Today, we’re combining the two with a look at Frank Herbert’s Dune, a book that sits firmly in the space fantasy subgenre. Dune is a classic, a book that has … read more »
Building new cultures from scratch is a cornerstone of speculative fiction. From the fictional nations of high fantasy, to the interstellar empires of space opera, to the shadow kiths of urban fantasy, we authors are always crafting new societies to thrill and amaze. But for … read more »
We often think of worldbuilding in terms of creating entire new worlds from the ground up, but there are other options. That’s why today we’re dissecting the worldbuilding in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. Her setting doesn’t have a fancy name because it’s set on our … read more »
For no reason at all, disease seems to be on a lot of authors’ minds right now. Whether you’re writing up a storm in self-quarantine or just thinking of new ideas during this difficult time, we’ve got all the disease-focused discussion you could possibly want. … read more »
The fantasy genre is stuffed with sieges, even in series other than Lord of the Rings! From the Battle of Winterfell to whatever Prince Caspian was doing at Aslan’s How, fantasy storytellers are always eager to show us battles of catapults and scaling ladders. But sieges are complicated, … read more »
