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Hate it or love it, none can doubt the beauty of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work. He was one of those minds ahead of his time. He took fantasy “way too seriously,” sometimes overshadowing his “real” work as a philologist. Now, a hundred years after he wrote his … read more »
It’s a basic rule of storytelling: the stakes get higher as the story goes forward. But how do you do that? How do you know what’s good escalation and what’s just skipping all the necessary build up? What should you do when you’ve escalated as far as … read more »
Chris, Mike, and Oren get into the weeds of worldbuilding. How much culture is too much? What little details are distracting? And do you really need depth, or just an illusion of it? Read more »
Ariel, Chris, and Oren describe the difference between showing elaborate spectacle and simply telling what happens. They discuss how showing can invoke deep emotions and contemplate when telling is warranted. Listen to hear how writers enhance storytelling with showing and telling. Read more »
Mike, Oren, and Chris discuss how stories should be paced: the good, the bad, and the infuriatingly slow. They tackle the differences between visual and written media, how to pace a roleplaying game, and end with Chris’ advice for pacing dialogue. Read more »
Mike, Chris, and Oren offer tips for depicting factions in stories. They describe how competing groups manifest in real life and list their favorite factions from Star Wars, Star Trek, Hunger Games, and Game of Thrones. Then they debate which Hogwarts houses they’re in. Read more »
J.R.R. Tolkien’s influence lies behind a lot of modern fantasy gaming. It’s no secret that Dungeons and Dragons is, to put things politely, a big sloppy pile of appropriated concepts. The elves and dwarves you see in you player’s handbook are based on Tolkien’s elves … read more »
Some storytellers really like their worlds. You’ll know them when you find them: their stories feel like a transparent excuse to use the maps they created. That’s because they’re committing these storytelling sins. Read more »
In The Hero of a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell demonstrated that many of the most popular stories, even over thousands of years and across cultures, shared a specific formula. That formula is now commonly referred to as mythic structure, or the hero’s journey. Even if … read more »
In the film version of The Return of the King, Gollum falls into the lava and slowly sinks. But as it turns out, lava is much too heavy for people to sink into. Gollum should have remained on the surface and burst into flame instead. A science columnist made a point of this inaccuracy. Read more »