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 fantasy tropes is to flat-out avoid them. A…
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Blood Runner bonus – behind the scenes story motivation
So, funny story – I never meant to write Blood Runner at all. Surprised? This year (2019), as I’m now working to turn it into a series (say what?!), I was forced to analyse the story motivation…
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There’s a reason why I write about fantasy magic – magic is my most favourite thing! And I don’t mean only practical magic as a modern Druid, I mean magic of every kind, real or imagined. Although,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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 my fingertips. The crackle of a…
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Druid tools are items of mysterious purpose both to our modern understanding and to non-Druids in the past. Since no Druid practices were ever written down, it’s tough to know the real or exact purpose for some…
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What’s a Dialogue Tag? Dialogue tags are narrator interjections, sometimes referred to as attribution, that note who speak the pieces of dialogue in your story. Historically, we were taught that adverbs included in the tags, describing how…
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Magpie of research data that I am, here’s some more of my reference, this time on Egyptian magic. Sad to say, when I scratched down my handwritten notes at the library, I didn’t fully document sources (I…
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