Reposted – The Business Rusch: Perfection

A timely reminder, readers: At every craft workshop I teach, I make at least one writer cry. This week, I’m teaching a short story workshop for professional writers. These are workshop-hardened folk, people who have been eviscerated by the best of them, people who come to my workshops having heard that I make writers cry, …

Reposted: The taste for magic

A thoughtful and inspiring piece, readers. Check it out: Why do we hanker for magic? That is a question that the large-C Catholic fantasy writer must squarely face, and the small-c catholic reader ought at any rate to find interesting. The practice of magic as such, whether effective or not, is explicitly forbidden by scripture …

Reposted – On Writing: Moral Foundations

Here's a valuable point from author C. Chancy, readers: On Writing: Moral Foundations Writing is best when you write about something that matters to you. It could be current events; today’s politics have plenty of fodder for snark and soapboxing. It could be the history of the first importation of peaches to England from China. It …

Reposted: My Jedi Academy

A worthy piece from Mr. Winchester, readers! Check it out! My Jedi Academia So recently we got snowed in for a couple of days so I finally got to watch the first two seasons of My Hero Academia. It’s a great, solid show. I expected to like it and it went PLUS ULTRA on my …

Reposted: Swan Princess versus Jasmine

Take a look at this excellent piece by Mr. John C. Wright, readers! Swan Princess versus Jasmine Political Correctness is factual incorrectness, or, in other words, falseness. Falseness is fatal to fiction. Even though fiction is fictional, in order to be dramatic, it must capture the real drama of the real human condition, including the …

Reposted: One Hundred Poets’ One Poem

Check out this excellent piece by John C. Wright, readers! One Hundred Poets’ One Poem I stumbled across video clip from a foreign movie that attracted my attention. The film is called ちはやふる — and I cannot read Japanese, so I have no idea at first what this means or what the film was about. …

Reposted: The Same Story Told Ten Thousand Times

Check out Mr. Kai Wai Cheah's latest article, readers: The Same Story Told Ten Thousand Times I’m thinking of a story. Can you guess what it is? It is the story of a young man who is whisked away into a parallel world. There he suddenly acquires a set of rare and overpowered special abilities …

Reposted: Well Done Stakes

Take a look at this great post by Nate Winchester, readers: Well Done Stakes Something I’ve come to learn about stories: When it comes to their stakes, it really doesn’t matter (except it does). I’ve heard it said more than once, “The audience can tell you the problem, but not the solution.” This applies to …

Reposted – How to Write Fast: A Review

All right, readers, I am taking a short break from the Writerly Sound Bites series once again. The last three articles took the wind out of my sails a bit, and I have some other items which need my attention. Hopefully I will be back with the next installment(s) at some point in the following …

Writerly Sound Bites, Number 8: Character Progression – How Characters Broken by Trauma Recover and Rebuild, Part 3

Brunhilde (Marvel Comics) Thus far we have looked at how children and men are broken and remade in abusive situations. It is not a pleasant picture and the road back is rough even for the strongest members of each demographic. Manipulation cannot be overcome in an hour, perhaps not even a year; it takes time, …