What are the advantages of writing in either 1st or 3rd person perspectives and should we be able to use either when we want or even switch between perspectives within a story? Telling a story requires all sorts of things to be put in place. You need interesting, believable, and Continue Reading
The headache of naming your characters
Introduction Characters can’t breathe until they have a name that you believe in and they can’t walk, talk or impact the world you are imagining them in unless they exist. It’s (almost) impossible to write a full story about the ‘man with no name’ and still have feelings for the Continue Reading
What is a god or goddess?
My fantasy books include mythological creatures and, of course, gods and goddesses. I hit upon a problem though in trying to determine where some of my characters lie on the ‘god scale’. So I decided to define what I thought makes an entity into a god. This strange piece below Continue Reading
The lost cave of the depressed tortoise
I was running through some old files on my computer, looking for articles to re-publish here on this site and came across this rather peculiar piece. It was apparently written in March 2017, exactly a year before I hit my ‘trans-breakdown event’ when things started making sense and the world Continue Reading
National Writing Day (UK)
I have to confess that National Writing Day has somewhat sneaked up on me; it wasn’t something in my calendar. In fact, I’d never heard of it before, so it was by chance that I caught it was happening. The main partner for this is “First Story” which promotes writing Continue Reading
The unlimited power of words makes us … in need of Adams
As a medium, writing differs from other modes of art. With pictures, we take in the impression with our eyes. As in the picture above, the scene is often set, the concept (or at least the elements of it) clear. With music, we take in the impression with our ears. Continue Reading
Does sex in fantasy stories have to be fantasy sex?
Three-dimensional characters need to have sex in three dimensions, that is to say in a way which aligns with their physical, mental and culturalcharacteristics. A demon is a demon and sex is not going to be fifteen minutes in the missionary position! Introduction Let me start this article with a Continue Reading
The writer award system
I’ve posted this in several forms elsewhere, but for all you writers who also feel the pain and frustration, here is the Official Alyson Writer Awards system. Hope it helps!