Swords are the iconic melee weapon, but they have rivals on the battlefield. On the medieval European battlefield, in fact, swords were made less and less effective by armor’s advances. Some heavier or stabbier swords still had viability against plate
Last week I ran through knife-v-unarmed and knive-v-knife combat, giving a basic overview of how those fights go. Like any fight with a knife, they’re close, fast, and always on the edge of death. These are also two of the
We’ve taken a good long look at why knives are so dangerous and where they’re dangerous; it’s time now to consider how characters can respond to a knife attack when they’re on the receiving end. Due to the vastness of
Knowing where to stab and slash is important. Today we’ll go over the various targets a knife wielder will go for, giving an overview of the attacks that target those areas and the expected effects of the wounds over the
Knives are easy for us to underestimate. They don’t have the range or thunder of a gun; they don’t have the reputation of a sword. When you’re writing, the knife can easily become a tool instead of a weapon for
As I showed last week, we are not bound to strict reproduction of Biblical symbolism. Nevertheless, we must not take that truth as carte blanche to ignore historical and Biblical uses of a symbol in our own use. We must
Christians who pay attention to what their media is saying have a lot of concerns. Fantasy in particular has a lot of critics,1 and a particular trope in more modern fantasy seems worrying: good dragons. Should we write dragons as
Poetry and prose are the two great structural classes of human script-art. Prose is the standard, in our view, and poetry the exception. Historically, poetry has a much stronger presence in the world of art than prose, being much better
Poetry and prose and the two great structural classes of human script-art. Prose is the standard, in our view, and poetry the exception. Of course, historically poetry has a much stronger presence in the world of art than prose, being
Sometimes you shouldn’t write it. No, really. There are parts of every story that you shouldn’t put on the page. Sometimes they seem so attractive, so fun to write, so interesting a part of the story. But you have to