The best house cleaning spells are some of the best offensive spells in urban combat. You just need to be creative instead of going with "magic...
Just beware the subplots - I've gone off the deep end a few times and ended up with such a tangled web that no reader could reasonably follow it....
Most public schooling gets you to the level of being able to identify flaws in prose, reading and other aspects of writing; rarely does it give...
I agree JayG, I'm not particularly experienced, but I've practiced this craft for some time and writing an entertaining book that is enjoyable to...
Do as you please, but planetary gravity augmentation and genetic Martians are off the table for hard sci-fi in that timetable. Given that the trip...
Magic should not be a deus ex machina. It should be given limited or specific functionality and honed as a type of science. I have a strict system...
I think its much easier to treat the villain as the hero of their own story; and even write a good amount of notes and authorial passages to...
An unlikable MC is different from an unrelatable one. Let's play a game. A character that is a criminal, mass murderer or twisted freak -...
Beware the worldbuilding plague... one thing leads to another and I've got an entire universe fleshed out from its very beginnings and little to...
When you actually get to reading through "Holes" with a critical eye on its mechanics, you should quickly find the book's flaws to be something...
A prologue only is necessary when you cannot have it done as chapter 1 and that is typically limited to a complex mythos lacking context. A good...
I don't do 'pop-up' villains and from the sound of it, these villains aren't either. Enemies are fine, even if they fight amongst themselves,...
Plot holes and loose ends are a sign of a bad writer! Its one thing to have an open ending, but an open ending doesn't need to have a...
I always like having the main visible villain being political or militarily powerful and the second one behind the strings being a cunning devious...
Unless you are writing for feminists. I doubt any single trait would be deeming a character on whole to one faction or another. Now if you have a...
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