Blood Runner: from stand-alone to contemporary fantasy series Considering I never meant to seriously write Blood Runner at all, it amuses me that I grew so attached. It was supposed to be a throw-away practice piece trying out a fast-writing…
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The art of spelling – don’t let autocorrect steal your magic The art of spelling is a dying one, it seems. In this age of smartphones and, okay, smart everything, they all come with a default autocorrect or automated dictionary…
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Medieval Weapons – hand cannons and things you can’t pronounce Medieval weapons were plentiful and go beyond your garden variety knightly sword. I do profess an undying love for them all. Over time, I’ve accumulated quite a lot of reference…
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Trusting the Imbas – the art of listening to the earth As a Druid, we learn to trust the Imbas. But what does this mean? Listening to the earth is at the heart of being a Druid. And when we…
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Story Element Tropes in Fantasy Writing Knowing what we know now, let’s have a look at some fantasy story element tropes and talk out ways to avoid the clichéd version. The bulk of advice about fantasy tropes tells us to…
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Plot Tropes in Fantasy Writing This time, let’s get into ways around a clichéd version of a few fantasy plot tropes, so you can take that perspective into any others to help improve your story telling. Again, the bulk of advice…
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World-Building Tropes in Fantasy Writing Now let’s focus on ways to not regurgitate clichéd version of fantasy world-building tropes to make your story unique. Typical advice around fantasy tropes is to avoid them. However, knowing that all those tropes shaped…
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Character Tropes in Fantasy Writing Let’s think about the ways we might steer clear of rehashing clichéd versions of fantasy character tropes to make your story more interesting and, hopefully, memorable. The usual advice about fantasy tropes is to avoid…
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Fantasy tropes – love them, hate them, make them your bitch Fantasy tropes get a bad rap. Everybody’s used them. None of them are new. And you want to be original, dammit! Popular advice about fantasy tropes Most advice about…
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Reading and smelling books by an unashamed serial bookworm Reading is a sensual experience to me. Yes, I smell the paperbacks and hard cover books I read. Don’t you? I love the feel of those old cloth book covers on…
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