Continuing our October Nano-prep series, today (tonight, I guess, technically at this point) we will discuss what to do when the initial excitement of doing Nanowrimo begins to ebb. (Don’t worry if you have no idea what I’m talking about.
Scheduling
I talk to a lot of people who tell me that they’d like to write a novel (or short stories, or anything) but they just don’t have the time. You know what that says to me? It’s not really a
Subgenre Study: Military Science Fiction
A fairly major subgenre of science fiction is military science fiction. I bet you can name at least one book or movie in this subgenre off the top of your head. Starship Troopers. Ender’s Game. The Forever War. Military SF,
Nanowrimo Prep and Avoiding Plot Death
Nano looms ever closer, my friends. (Also, it’s my birthday!) I talked last year about Nano Zen and Plot Death — this cheats Nano Zen a bit, but I do think it’s important. It’s hard to experience Plot Death if
Harry Potter Re-read: Order of the Phoenix
Oh, Order of the Phoenix, longest book of the series. Perhaps annoyingly so, because it’s the first book to break the mold of school-year specific plots. Harry spends about 75% of the book whining and yelling at everyone and at
Subgenre Study: High and Low Fantasy
Today we will be looking at High and Low Fantasy and the confusion surrounding the terminology. It has nothing to do with how good the stories are (Eragon, for example, is high fantasy but most would argue not high quality)
Hooray, October!
It’s October, Squiders! Best month of the year. Bold claim, I know, but how can you resist? The leaves are turning on the trees, the heat of summer is burning off, and then there’s Halloween and my birthday and Nano-planning,
Subgenre Study: Off-world Fantasy
Most fantasy can be divided into either real-world or off-world fantasy (sometimes called second world fantasy). The distinction is obvious: real-world fantasy takes place in the “real world” (so most urban and contemporary fantasy, as well as things like historical
Working on Multiple Projects
Perhaps you’re one of those sane people who works on a single project at a time. You sit down and work on a one thing from start to finish and then, when you’re done, you move onto the next project.
Harry Potter Re-read: Goblet of Fire
When I first read Goblet of Fire, I had to stop and read the graveyard part twice. You see, I’d read the first three books about a month before GoF was released, and they’d all followed a nice formula where



