Is Combat Boring? Jordan’s High Lord Turok and Dumai’s Wells
Today marks the conclusion of this four-part revisiting of the theories of combat in literature. I had begun by positing that combat is boring for a myriad of reasons. The…
Is Combat Boring? Lloyd Alexander’s Taran Wanderer
After last article’s break to look at the potential impacts of COVID-19 on the future of fantasy, it is time to return to the current series on the potentially boring…
Corona, Or the Future of Fantasy
With a perniciousness matched only by the disease itself, it seems that Corona has infected all of our communications as well. Fortunately, this particular variety of the contagion is far…
Is Combat Boring? Tolkien’s Pelennor Fields
Last article I revived the claim that combat in literature is boring. I talked about the tainting effect of movie special effects which have prompted authors to futilely chase after…
Combat is Boring – Revisited
In one of my first articles on this blog, I proclaimed that combat (in literature) is boring! Combat, in and of itself, often adds less value to a novel than…
The Cartography of a Novel
In the last article, I mentioned that I do a lot of visual work when I prepare to write a novel, particularly maps. Ever since I was a child, I’ve…
Families & Fantasy
There is a dearth of families in fantasy. There are, of course, exceptions, but most of these are where said families and/or children are important to plot, character, or theme. …
Characters and Description
Last time I began a discussion of description by talking about setting. I made the observation that the approach I think works best can be summed up as ‘less is…
On Description and Story
This is the first of two articles prompted by related ideas on description: setting and character. For both, I believe the best general approach is somewhere along the lines of…
The Author’s Dilemma: Who lives and who Dies
The fantasy genre tends to be violent. By its very nature, there are usually swords, sorcery, monsters, and dragons… or at least some variety thereof (although to be fair, fantasy…