The Long-Running Series Part 2 – Other “Easy” Lessons from Role-Playing Games
Lesson Three: Room to Grow Half the secrets of a long-running game or story (as I blogged last time) might be simply making it the best you can. The other half are more particular. Anyone can write...
View ArticleDoctor Strange vs Iron Man movies – Beating Hearts and Blind Eyes
How could the coolest, most unique thing about a Marvel movie turn out to be the worst thing? Maybe because it was all that happened in Doctor Strange. I was looking forward to this movie too. After...
View ArticleBeen There Done That? Similar Problems with Writing Similar Scenes
There are stories that rely on their central concept to shape much of their plot into their favorite kind of sequence, and try to make it our favorite too. It could be: a type of action the hero takes,...
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Who’s On First – A Character System for Variety in Scenes
Are you using all your story? All the characters, all the possibilities and combinations that a tale has ready to unleash? On the one hand, it’s a lifelong study—we writers try to make every book dig...
View ArticleFlying Free – get The High Road FREE Through April 21
It’s a strange feeling, taking a book I’ve written and offering it for no charge. After all my months of cramped weekends, all the times I finished a chapter and minutes later turned around to start...
View ArticleA Writer’s Confession: Kvothe’s Ballad
The following is a confession I wrote to myself some Easters ago after a session of reading, that I realize I’d never shared with this blog. It’s word for word as I wrote it then, so make of it what...
View ArticleLife’s A Pitch – the Quiet Writer and the Book Fair
It’s one of the more humbling moments of writing. Sitting at a live event—yesterday it was the huge Los Angeles Times Festival of Books—and watching so many people walk by my spot in the booth, barely...
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Grappling with the Superhero Grapnel
How much of a comics nerd am I? I grumble about heroes’ grappling guns being unrealistic… at least for the superheroes that are claiming to be possible. Meaning Batman. And Daredevil, and the idea that...
View ArticleVideo Gamers as Writers – Twitching Our Way Into Character
Some writers hone their skills by a mix of soaking up lessons from the masters and researching specifics, from history to sentence structure. I’ve done all that… but one of my best tools is playing...
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Why Wonder Woman is finally the Strongest Superhero (too)
So starting this week Wonder Woman is the ultimate superhero. We should have seen it coming. Not just the movie’s pedigree; was it really a surprise that an Oscar-winning director like Patty Jenkins...
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That Ultimate Buffy Scene – Willow’s Long Walk
What does storytelling mean to me? Sometimes, I have to look back at the tales that make me glad to play in the writers’ sandbox. The moments, and the craft behind them, that have burned themselves...
View ArticleFor Lynn
A friend died last weekend. Lynn Ward had been a part of our writers group for years. From the beginning she’d been insightful and honest about all of our work, while favoring us with tales ranging...
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What If – Magic-Killers had their own Masquerade?
One writing exercise I’ve used for the longest time is to take fifteen or thirty minutes after every novel I read to cobble together some thoughts on how I’d write something with similar ideas. For...
View ArticleA Jessica Jones Experiment – Take the TMI Test
So Season 2 of Jessica Jones is out. And this time it’s almost perfect. As a show, Jessica… how do I say this? Her first season was the only series that’s ever made me rethink Buffy The Vampire-Slayer...
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Teleportation – the vanishing few ways a writer can control it
A friend of mine is writing a book that features magic for teleportation and dimensional travel. Me being a student of “FantasTactics” (aka a “magic guru”), I couldn’t resist a chance to lay out a few...
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Review: Between Two Thorns
How many sides should a story view a conflict from? I’ve just finished reading one that takes a challenge as simple as winning freedom, and spins out a whole set of different viewpoints—Between Two...
View ArticleHow Big is a Hydra? Defining a Story’s Action
How strong is strong? How much power does a hero need, or a villain? It’s a question that I never get tired of looking at, both reading and writing… especially since I think many people look at the...
View ArticleLessons on a Flying Road
Yes it’s true: Freefall, the sequel to The High Road, will be out early next year. What’s more, the conclusion of the series is in revision and will follow soon as well. It’s been too long since I’ve...
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For Stan Lee
“Stan Lee.” Two words I thought I’d always be happy to see… until I saw them on the LA Times quick links section, where too many people only appear as obituaries. Just seven letters. That’s way too...
View ArticleBefore Reindeer Could Fly
Did you notice that Santa’s sleigh doesn’t fly? Or it didn’t, mostly, not in the source we all know. Remember: To the top of the porch, to the top of the wall,Now dash away, dash away, dash away...
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