We'll send our best work every month.
Most writers know that their important protagonists should have the lion’s share of viewpoint scenes. However, some stories need another point of view to communicate information the protagonists don’t know. Often, that point of view comes from the primary antagonist. Unfortunately, using a villain’s point … read more »
A good reveal can be the high point of a story, but a bad reveal can ruin everything. The reveal is a delicate art, and that’s what we’re talking about today. We each discuss some of our favorite and least favorite reveals, in the hopes … read more »
Someone get me a blackboard to tap on; we’re starting today with a history lesson. In 1973, author Paula Smith wrote a Star Trek parody story, A Trekkie’s Tale. Smith was making fun of trends she saw in the fanfiction of the age, and to … read more »
Every world needs animals to give the setting life. I’ll focus on creating realistic and semi-realistic creatures and aliens, but these techniques can also be used to create races, plants, and other organisms. As an ongoing example, we’ll be making a creature as we go. … read more »
Kelly emerged from the bathroom to discover all the furniture was upside down. Oh god, how could she fix this mess before John got back with his parents? He’d freak. He had planned every aspect of their visit precisely. He specified that the house had to be in perfect order and told her to wear the most conservative dress in her closet. But while she slaved over every eyelash, something had vandalized her careful preparations. Read more »
A few weeks ago we talked about how space opera has held up in the face of advancing technology and a changing culture. This week we’re giving cyberpunk the same treatment. Because cyberpunk is almost always near future, it’s particularly vulnerable to the passage of … read more »
We want to be excited when our favorite roleplaying system releases a new edition. The designers have been hard at work, we hope, fixing problems and adding new functionality. But that’s not always what we get. Sometimes, we open a shiny new book and find … read more »
I’ll admit it: my title is pretty sensationalist. But I can’t bring enough attention to this issue. When we’re hired to do content editing, 95% of the manuscripts we look at need significant work in this area. Before we look at their work, most writers have … read more »
A hard lesson in adventuring economics. Read more »