I like strange words; I like them so much I create at least one or two new ones for every story, not even counting the names. I cannot, however, take full credit for the terminology I’ll be discussing today: ‘secondary
Good stories do not use miracles to solve problems, the lore says, and they do not use miracles to solve problems because miracles, according to common wisdom, destroy a story’s stakes, rendering great thrillers into dramatic yawn-factories. Yet the great
So, last week I went over three categories of worldbuilding problems (irremediable, unremedied, and inherent) and four types of wounds they can inflict on a story (to the setting, the plot, the characters, or the theology). Today we’re going to
Worldbuilding, no matter how you cut it, is a difficult task, at least if you’re actually trying to do it right. Sometimes you feel like you have to become an expert in a hundred different fields at once; sometimes, you’re
Note: Last edited 12/22/20. Title added 12/29/22. Ban’s armor gleamed in the sunlight as he strode forward, passing between the two tall walls of stone. He was bound for the Great Way all his kin had walked or would walk,
Note: A poem about… see if you can figure it out. Women wail as warlords waste, Lusts of flesh with cold steel embraced, Stomachs torn for birthless babies, Blood for dead men who know life’s taste. Death we tasted, and
Note: Last edited 4/17/22. Audie stared up at the trees. Could he do it? Could he walk forward into the unknown? A moment’s thought would dissuade him, he knew. He lunged past the first trunk, and the forest appeared behind
Note: Last edited 8/3/20. Richard leaned against a rock, chest working, cold air roughing up his throat. Darn spring mornings- beautiful, sure, but the chill was no fun when all you wanted to do was lie down and start breathing
Note: This allegorical story was last significantly edited 1/28/20. The stained glass had a story, a story few remembered and fewer told, for it was, they thought, a silly legend, unworthy of telling in these days of grand scientific fact.
Note: A fantasy poem about the Whispering Mountains lasted edited 11/5/19. Poem includes a mention of a character who remains in the background of my stories, albeit under a different name. Heroes with songless tongues, hear my cry, trumpet my