8
03, 2016
‘Who is your book about?’
Even though “What’s your book about?” is the most difficult question for an author to answer, a few others can be tricky as well.
30
12, 2014
Should you care if readers care about your characters?
The more I think about it, the more a term like “character-oriented” seems superfluous. Characters are but one element of a story. Like setting and plot, they are essential ingredients of a story. But are they any more important than the rest?
30
04, 2014
The problem with invincible protagonists
I must have killed hundreds of people over the years. Since I’m a writer of sword-and-sorcery fantasy, death come with the territory.
9
05, 2013
When it comes to dialogue, don’t trust the word on the street
One of my earliest college writing assignments involved a little espionage.
9
01, 2013
What would J.R.R. Tolkien do?
While watching the new Hobbit movie, I couldn’t help but wonder what the grandfather of the fantasy genre would think of the adaptation of his 1937 novel.
5
12, 2012
Storytelling can take many forms
Some of the characters I’ve enjoyed writing about the most are an inch and a half tall.
14
06, 2012
How to make a person
The problem with stories is they require people. I’m not talking about author and reader—though they, as well as their relationship, are fraught with challenges too—but rather the individuals that populate the story itself.
15
05, 2012
Choosing the perfect name for your baby (or villain)
The Social Security Administration recently released the top baby names for 2011. I know this because I can’t NOT click on an article about baby names.
10
04, 2012
Friends and family of writers, beware
Joseph Epstein said, “Every writer is a thief, though some of us are more clever than others at disguising our robberies.” He was referring to minor counts of plagiarism—an apt description, a novel turn of phrase, a treatment of syntax that (with a minor tweak) we could pass off as our own brilliant invention. However, the thievery doesn’t end there.