It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve worked on my DIY MFA. Part of the reason has been the massive forest fire in my back yard. Fortunately, we had an unseasonable snowstorm that helped the hotshot crews to get critical fire-breaks in place. Temperatures are on the rise again, so our break might be … Continue reading DIY MFA: The Importance of Reading
Sam left the lean-to at dawn. “Stay here,” he said. “I’m gonna check me snares and see what I can find fer yer feet. By th’ look of ’em, they ain’t seen dirt for a while. I’ll try ta be back a’fore high sun.” Katra blushed. She knew he was right. The only times she … Continue reading Chapter 4: Reunion
As a fantasy writer, how do you unfold your world in a way that is interesting and makes sense to the reader? Some writers fold elements of their worldbuilding into the action and setting as the protagonist moves through their environment. Others describe the surroundings, then launch the action, not always explaining how some elements … Continue reading DIY MFA: Imagining a Magical World
Katra clawed her way to consciousness one painful realization at a time. Her last clear memory was entering a cave looking for her cousins, Elayna and Eliam, and climbing down a rope to a cavern filled with crystals. She vaguely recollected approaching and reaching out to the formations … then, she was here. Shivering, nude, … Continue reading Chapter 2: Confusion
“I think people respond to dystopian stories because they're ways of acting out anxieties that we have and fears that we have about the future. So much media's coming at you over the Internet, your brain gets overloaded. You don't know what to do with it. And one thing you can do with it is … Continue reading Random Quote for August 10, 2020
“There is no winning or losing, but rather the value is in the experience of imagining yourself as a character in whatever genre you're involved in, whether it's a fantasy game, the Wild West, secret agents or whatever else. You get to sort of vicariously experience those things.”~Gary Gygax American game designer Gary Gygax was … Continue reading Random Quote for July 27, 2020
(C) 2020, JJ Shaun Looking back on my blog, I realize that my Sunday posts frequently regurgitate what I wrote earlier in the week. First Reader has pointed this out to me on more than one occasion. This observation has given me plenty of food for thought. As I ruminated on the issue, I made … Continue reading Watch This Space
(C) 2020, JJ Shaun I started writing my fiction right after I returned from a deployment filled with underway watch rotations and Dungeons & Dragons when not on duty. If you have ever played tabletop (pen-and-paper) D&D, you know that progress can be glacial. Six months of playing doesn’t always amount to much character development. … Continue reading DIY MFA: Plotting for the Pantser
(C) 2020, JJ Shaun Most of my ideas are set in some fantasy world or another. One notable exception is a story I wrote in college. The script I had penned for a class stayed with me over the decades. After reading It Can’t Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis, a story idea began to percolate. … Continue reading When Characters Have More to Say
(C) 2020, JJ Shaun I spend quite a bit of time trying to keep from getting bored, so I play video games. I find that they satisfy my desire to be part of a story. Television is okay, but it’s passive entertainment, as are books, to a degree. Video games let me not just follow … Continue reading Stepping Out of the Box
There is comedic gold behind every painful experience. Here are mine.
Tabletop roleplaying thoughts by a London geek
Tavern Tales
Tavern Tales
Putting ideas into words.
