With the new Star Wars movie hitting big, people unfamiliar with fantasy and science fiction may feel out of their depth. For you normal folks, I offer a short introduction – a non-nerd primer so to speak – of accessible examples from fantasy and science fiction in four different media. Movie: Star Wars Recently my […]
A fantasy or science fiction author chucks out one or more real physical laws in order to construct an imaginative world where magic and dragons coexist, where starships can exceed the speed of light, where heroes still look good even with blue skin. But there’s danger in straying too far from this real universe where […]
I’d like to give you a short thinker blog. Have you ever wondered if the epic tale of Frodo and the Ring of Power is actually the frame for a much more intimate tale of the value of friendship and loyalty? What if when stripped down, the real crux of the three books is perfectly […]
Time travel, ghosts, entities from another dimension. Now that’s great fantasy. But you mostly don’t think of Charles Dickens. More’s the pity. Fantasy A Christmas Carol is classic literature… and classic fantasy. The novel has what fantasy needs: Memorable characters going through extraordinary circumstances while facing daunting odds but eventually coming out victorious. In this […]
In reality and fantasy, individuals act out of differing motives and backgrounds. But all people have a core they are striving for, an inner itch they seek to scratch. Villains Our contemporary culture has given us some amazingly complex fictional villains, ones with overlapping motives and obtuse back stories. This is because real villains of […]
Starting a fantasy novel? Where to begin? It’s in your head; you can see the scenes, the characters, the settings; you’ve even envisioned the ending. Now, where to start it? A friend told me a hint: Start on the day that is different. That will grab your attention and your reader’s attention. Let’s look at […]
Let’s talk about fantasy worlds from various sources. I’m going to start, of course, with C.S. Lewis’s Narnia, a world simple enough for children and complex enough for adults. Magic Magic infuses Narnia from the beginning when Aslan sang it into being. But for the reader magic starts from the time Lucy hides in an […]
In order to connect with us meager humans in the real world, a fantasy novel needs to have at least a few things in common with life as we know it. Your populace could well have tentacles about their mouths or three arms at the top of their heads or hair on the bottoms […]
In any fantasy or science fiction story, whether literature or film, there’s always at least one premise… One pill to swallow, if you will. Too many pills forced down the reader’s throat and they’ll choke. A person can take one, maybe three, premises, but too much more than that and the story simply gets silly. […]
Literary prejudice is an ugly thing. Years ago I took a night course on short story writing. (And you may say that while I might have taken it, it didn’t take in my writing. But whatever.) My teacher was very able. (She would say, “Don’t use that word ‘very’ or have too many parenthetical asides.” But […]
