Category Archives: Writing

Posts about writing

mapextract

Mappe

Art, Writing, , , , ,

So, as you may know, I’m doing my best to write a fantasy epic that I hope to get published properly and be like a real author or something.

All fantasy epics need a map, and that’s what I’ve been working on today.. It’s slow going because I’m effectively making it poster sized (much larger than the cropped extract on the right) and am doing my best to make the quality as good as possible.  Basically I’m a perfectionist..

It got me wondering what other (real) authors do to get their maps worked out.. do they do them themselves? I’m curious.

Review: Snakes Eyes I – A Man of Will and Experience, Joseph D’Lacey

review, Writing, , ,

The first of Joseph D’Lacey’s Snake Eyes pair of novellas, A Man of Will and Experience tells a tale where the fractured and many-layered psyche of the main character is as much an antagonist as any of the ‘spiders’ or plant-zombies he encounters.

Beginning in a dream, transitioning to a very-normal world and a hyper-normal protaginist, the reader is presented with an intriguing dilemma of a character who has noticed something that nobody else has.

The mystery gradually unfolds and soon the story begins to move from layer to layer, but whether we are transitioning from reality to fantasy or vice versa is never clear.

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Heroes, part two

Self, Writing, , , ,

Authors need to read. Learning by example is one of the most fundamental and seemingly obvious pieces of advice anyone can give an aspiring author like myself, for a huge number of reasons.

In a previous post I explored a few of my writing heroes, but a list of favourite writers, like a list of favourite books or films is never truly exhaustive, and so I figured I’d pick up that thread and continue running with it, like a deranged kitten of some sort.

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Ministratum – A Matter of Mood

Writing, , ,

Sometimes writing is difficult, and coaxing the words is a challenge that would try the most creative among us, and yet other times the words appear to come almost unbidden.  These times are special; stories can grow almost by themselves, like watching a skeleton grow flesh and come to life.

I frequently find it interesting to look at the mood of different parts of my work and I cannot help but see a certain similarity between my own thoughts and feelings and those parts of the book that seem to write themselves.  I think this is somewhat natural – possibly so much so that saying so is a little redundant, because it is so obvious.

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Another Novel Update

Writing, , , , ,

Planning ahead is something some authors find hinders them, and restricts their characters, and prefer to just write from the beginning through to the end with only a light hand on the tiller.

Myself, I am not one of those authors; I prefer to make sure I have a plan as well-defined as I can have from the start, and I would be surprised if most authors did not have at least some kind of pre-defined plan, even a loose one.  I find it hard to imagine how anyone could produce anything coherent without one.

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More Ministratum

Writing, , ,

Chapter thirteen is the part of my book that has been most heavily based on an afternoon of gaming so far, and consequently it has been one of the most challenging to write.  That seems paradoxical, however when you consider the difference between four friends having a laugh and attempting to create a serious high-fantasy world with a cast of three-dimensional coherent characters, then the reasons become clearer.

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The Ministratum Cycle – An Update

Self, Writing, , ,

Today the word count of my embryonic novel has passed the 62 thousand word point, which I’m told is meant to mean that it gets easier because I’m meant to be well past the difficult ‘getting started’ point.  I don’t really feel that way though right now.

My medication is being rather funny in that I’m starting to feel like I’m on a 30 hour day cycle, sleeping ten hours, then awake for twenty.  Unfortunately the Earth is simply spinning too quickly, and despite my asking as forcefully as I can it simply refuses to slow down.
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The Founding of the Ministratum Cycle

rpg, Writing, , , , , , ,

My story concept for my current novel began about a year ago as a table-top role playing game (RPG) scenario. Set in a pseudo-medieval fantasy realm, the concept focused on a patriarchal theocratic society where what would often be considered normal freedoms would be oppressed.

It began with three main characters, who were somewhat fantasy clichés to begin with. There was the burly, lecherous blacksmith, the innocent nature-loving herbalist, and the young fresh-faced lad. In our RPG sessions these characters were portrayed by my good friend Phil, my other half Anna, and my good friend Tony, and I was the GM – games master – essentially the one who controlled the story.

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