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Mages are difficult to oppress, what with how they can teleport and shoot fire out of their hands, but that doesn’t stop authors from trying. Some stories manage to get past the practical barriers of oppressing mages before running into the socio-political ones, but we’re … read more »
Speculative fiction storytellers will go a long way to make fantastical situations feel plausible. Sure, they will never be perfectly plausible because magic isn’t real, but it’s still no good if our audience is wondering why the hero won’t use teleportation during our tense climax. … read more »
The term oppressed mages refers to any situation in which characters are systematically marginalized for their supernatural abilities, whether those powers come from spellbooks or mutant genes. When I first wrote about this trope, I mostly stuck to general points rather than going after specific … read more »
How do I mix magic and science fiction tech without it feeling haphazard or unbalanced? – Anon Hi Anon, From a storytelling standpoint, magic and scifi tech are nearly identical except for theming. If you’re not careful with things that feel different in theme, it … read more »
Let’s face it: most of us really want to attend a special school where they teach you magic spells. The only problem is that these schools all seem to be incredibly dangerous. Sometimes they’re filled with monsters, other times there’s an evil teacher out to … read more »
I’ve noticed recently that a lot of my favourite stories centre around gods or god-like beings, such as more or less all of mythology, Doctor Who, The Sandman. Discworld’s Death books, the RG Veda manga, the Oh My Goddess anime, the Haruhi Suzumiya anime, the … read more »
Why settle for just one god when you can have a bunch of them? That’s right, this week we’re talking about pantheons, the divine clubhouses where a bunch of different deities hang out. We discuss how pantheons often work in mythology and then talk about … read more »
Story openings can be difficult as authors struggle to introduce the protagonist, show them in their everyday world, hint at what’s missing, and begin the vital process of building empathy. And all of this has to be done in a way that doesn’t drag the … read more »
Magic school stories are incredibly popular – and also really hard to get right. To this day, Harry Potter is still the best example of the genre I’ve seen, despite its many problems. So what’s up with this seeming contradiction? Why do both storytellers and … read more »
Whenever we create a magic system, we have to choose how it ends up in the hands of our characters. While this comes in an unlimited number of flavors, acquisition generally falls into five basic methods. These methods determine who has magic, who doesn’t, and … read more »