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A Worldbuilding Balancing Act, or: my beef with Beau Brummell
I’ve talked a little bit about the research that goes into writing fantasy stories. Even if the world you’re writing in is not at all the one we live in, I tend to think it’s safe to pull at least a little bit from our world’s history. Would people with this technology level in that Read more
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Down the research rabbit hole
Even when you’re writing fiction, there’s a whole lot of research involved, and a simple question can send you down into some really weird places. Read more
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Conlangs into Culture: A naming of names
Okay, so now you have your list of words in an invented language. Now what? How do you actually go about naming stuff? Read more
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Turning Conlangs into Culture: Worldbuilding through constructed languages
This past weekend I gave a presentation at InConJunction in Indianapolis, and one of the attendees requested that I make it available online later on. So let’s give it a go! First of all: What is a Conlang? Conlang is short for “Constructed Language”, meaning any kind of artificially and intentionally created language. You’re probably Read more
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On Gargoyles
We’ve been seeing a lot of gargoyles recently, haven’t we? The beasts in I, Frankenstein, the heroes (mostly) in the 90s animated series, the living stone Constable Downspout from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. But this is actually a relatively new monster: an often-winged demonic-looking creature that is strongly associated with rock and tends to perch Read more
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Fun with concept art
A lot of writers I’ve spoken to at conventions swear by the little extras at their table– I already have pins and little polymer dragons, but they particularly talk about the power of concept art and maps. Which resulted in the following conversation: Me: “Hey, do we have room in the budget for concept art?” Read more
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