The archetypical ‘pure evil’ race (no, not that kind of race) in fantasy is the orc, as inspired by (ripped off from) Tolkien, often by way of D&D. If you’re interested in writing fantasy, you almost certainly have some thoughts
Stories can have some wild, wild premises. When it comes to the beginning of the story, the catalyst if not the chronological beginning, we’ll accept a coincidence that would break the entire story if it were the hinge of the
Last week we looked at a scene from The Princess Bride. This week we’re going for something a bit more brutal, much less comedic, certainly more gory. This won’t include a review of the movie the scene is from- I
What does a fight scene do, besides the obvious of ‘stop one person, allow another person past,’ tournament style? I could say that I’ll be answering that question, but honestly, it’s too big. Fight scenes come in all shapes, colors,
In this second installment of the series, we’re still looking at G.K. Chesterton, because I’ve been continuing a read-through of his works. Today, though, we’re not looking at his fiction; no, we’re looking at what his literary criticism, at his
G.K. Chesterton, as I have already noted, could write some odd stories. In that, he is far from exceptional. What makes Chesterton so intriguing is his mastery in writing those odd stories, that he could take a premise as outrageous
Nowadays, lamenting that everybody else seems to live in a separate reality is a not unknown pastime of the sane (assuming I do not presume too much by lumping myself into that sum). Whoever you are, you’ve probably run across
As last week laid out, Henty has a standard protagonist, and that standard protagonist seems a bit Mary-Sue-ish. He’s not got much vice, he’s really good at what he does, and he sits at the right hand of so many
G.A. Henty wrote about a hundred books with the same protagonist. He did not, to be clear, write a series of that length; his longest series is three books long, and indeed he only wrote three series to my memory.
Despite what our first instinct might be, we must recognize that more much we like characters and how good they are really doesn’t correlate very well. Of course, we’re none too fond of Puppy Kicker McEvilface, and certain evils just