by kingdompen | Sep 4, 2017 | Articles, World Building
By Brandon MillerHave you ever worried that the fantasy world and story you are writing is too weird to be believable? Some fantasy stories are so far afield of reality that their authors have (valid) concerns that readers will be lost and skeptical of the world,...
by Brandon Miller | Aug 25, 2017 | Articles, Characters, Plot, Theme
What do character, theme, and tension have in common? They are all results of genuine internal conflict in a story. What is internal conflict? As opposed to external conflict which involves characters battling antagonists, internal conflict ensues when a character...
by kingdompen | Jun 26, 2017 | Articles, Theme
My favorite sci-fi stories always seem to be tight. The sci-fi elements, the characters, the world, and the theme are all closely intertwined. Whether the stories are relatively small scale (the movie Arrival) or full-blown trilogies (Jill Williamson’s The Safe...
by kingdompen | May 16, 2017 | Articles, Characters
A dark, brooding hero isn’t particularly nice to anyone, and he is particularly mean to a few nice people. A tragic event in his past has shaped his sour outlook on life. He might live on 221B Baker Street, or he may call up CIA agents just to tell them they look...
by kingdompen | Apr 17, 2017 | Articles, Style
Readers can't relate to a story without narrative description. It happens in a vague world of shadows and smoke that readers have never visited—a world of floating voices and gunshots (splitting the silence, probably) but no real physical matter. It fails...
