Leading off from my last post about worldbuilding the little details, I thought I'd write briefly about creating creatures, which is one of my favorite aspects of worldbuilding for fantasy settings. In this post I will briefly discuss how I go about creating fantasy creatures, using this charming little guy as an example: That is …
Recently, while giving me feedback on a story, LL Phelps of the Taipei Writer's Group asked me about worldbuilding, and specifically how I go about filling my fantasy worlds with details. I like to think that I'm pretty good at "little details" worldbuilding, and I've spent a lot of time practicing working it into my speculative …
Excellent post from my writing group mate Patrick Woods over on the Taipei Writer’s Group blog.
When I was around 14 years old, part of my English class involved quiet reading. We all had a book from the school library, and read it for maybe 10 or 15 minutes. The book I was reading made me laugh so hard I couldn’t contain it. The mirth just forced its way out as stifled giggles, snorts, and teary silent shaking. The people near by kept looking at me like I was having some kind of fit.
That book was Witches Abroad, by Terry (later, and most deservedly, Sir Terry) Pratchett, who died this week aged 66.
It wasn’t the first Discworld book I’d read. I was introduced to Discworld via Audiobooks, which back then were books on cassette. Tony Robinson read abridged versions that were about 3 hours long. I laughed my way through these, then later bought the books and realised there was so much more –…
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As an early twenties male who has been writing fantasy and sci-fi since my early teenage years, I identified strongly with this blog post by Robert Jackson Bennett which I recently encountered through Twitter. The basic gist of it is that many male fantasy and sci-fi writers have a hard time writing female characters because it …
When I was younger, my parents tried their best to help me develop a musical life. I remember my first piano lesson with my father--around five or six years old, I would guess--and both the excitement preceding it, the first few enthusiastic practice sessions, and the eventual frustration with my parent's well-meaning encouragement to practice …
Continue reading How Narrative Fiction can Enhance Music, and Vice Versa.
Recently I’ve been working on a short story to submit to this quarter’s Writers of the Future contest. The story is a gothic fantasy, set in an alternate world which is dominated by flintlock weapons as well as faerie, divine, and demonic magic. I’ve actually written two stories set in this world, and I’ve been working on an outline for a novel with the same setting.
Overall, I like it a lot. But there is a wrinkle: For whatever reason, when I write in this world, I want to write in Present Tense.
I don’t even understand why. Honestly, for whatever reason, I just like the “sound” of the Present Tense within this world. For example: “In the Clandestine Market, one can buy all manner of hidden things” sounds better to me in the context of this story and world than “In the Clandestine Market, one could buy all manner of…
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J.T. Greathouse 