@bookdragon I promise I’m not ignoring everything else you wrote, but I’m interested to hear about your theory that all spec fic is allegory! That’s definitely not an argument I’ve heard before. This is a lot of work to ask of you, but would you mind starting a new discussion thread explaining that idea?

@sarafini Gotta get those books written so you can apply that good theory to good craftsmanship, lol. Congrats on the score =P I’ve thought about this quiz off and on since I posted it here and have been thinking of ways I could improve it. At some point I’d like to make an updated version.

@imwritehere1920 Nice to see you again! And you also, @candide. Sorry for not responding to your response. I stopped in, made an “I’m back” post, and then just forgot to check the forum again for a while =P

@imwritehere1920 My week’s been pretty stressful as I’m preparing for Good Friday and Easter stuff for my church’s audio/video team while…[Read more]

Hi, Abby! It’s cool to see someone who writes for the stage around here. I’ve edited a historical romance book (set in my local area, so it was a ton of fun to research!) with strongly Christian themes that my client is shopping around, so maybe I’ll have a good book to recommend to you when it finally gets published, lol.

(I love all those…[Read more]

Hi, Liz! Nice to meet you. What genres do you write in? Do you have a particular book manuscript you’re trying to publish?

Sorry, I wasn’t very clear.

I’m not talking about literal man vs nature in the sense of being stuck on a mountain with a bear trying to eat you. I was trying to suggest you look at the structure and thematic implications of man vs nature and man vs God.

Man vs nature tends to involve a human trying to prove he’s worthy to exist in a brutal,…[Read more]

@noah-cochran

First, I just realized I have no idea what the Dystopian spread of genres has looked like over the past decade. I grew out of the YA-focused part of the genre a couple years after the Hunger Games series ended.

Looking through Amazon tells me it probably hasn’t changed terribly much, though.

So, what I’m wanting is fresh plot ide…

[Read more]

Azgaar’s map tool is pretty great as a free option. I had great results with a certain tool (ugh, I can’t figure out which one it was) for a DnD campaign: https://imgur.com/a/fGBUDS3.

What are you trying to do that Inkarnate isn’t working for?

@k-a-grey

I have the same problem =P I was writing an article with a very particular word count the other day, and I eventually realized I had to cut my favorite paragraph, despite it being snappy and punchy, because it did little more than introduce a concept the audience was already familiar with.

Regarding Medium, I’m very new and don’t have…[Read more]

@imwritehere1920

Thank you! I spent New Year’s Eve with a splitting headache, but the next day was pretty nice. I hope the new year is treating you well too :-}

@this-is-not-an-alien

Good job defeating recaptcha, lol. Glad you liked the article! Hopefully if you felt attacked that means it sparked a writing idea =P

@andrew

Hey, thanks for reaching out on here.

What you’re describing between your two posts here might be a health issue, so I strongly suggest talking to a doctor about your frustrations with these thoughts, if you can. You’re describing a couple big symptoms of ADHD, though that of course by no means says that you definitely have ADHD.…[Read more]

@josiah No worries! Thank you for restoring it :-}

@erynne Thank you for the topic invite!

I really like the article by @r-m-archer , and it brought to mind that there is a distinction between antagonists opposing the protagonist and outright villains. I’m going to talk about villains, but I’m assuming they’re also antagonists.

Lucifer from DC comics, specifically Sandman by Neil Gaiman and Hellb…[Read more]

@allertingthbs A very good question, mine brother.

I think there are a couple reasons.

Fantasy (at least in constructed world) allows you to go crazy in your worldbuilding. You don’t even need to assume physics work the same way as in our world, if you don’t want to! You can create magic systems and fantastical races without worrying about the…[Read more]

@josiah I once more beg you to check the spam filter for one of my long, link-filled posts =P