Why is This (slightly embarrassed) Fantasy Author Reviewing Golden Age...
I can’t help it. I don’t care about genre conventions. If there’s a book that grabs you by the throat, turns you upside down, shakes you a few times, and then has the gall to quote Edmund Spenser at...
View ArticleCome and Navigate the Sea of Story with Me!
Have you ever had the surreal experience of realizing you’re inside someone else’s breakthrough moment? When you’re seeing the lightbulb go off, or someone come to terms with their past, all right in...
View ArticleYour Quarantine Reading List
Well, it’s official. There’s at least another month of lockdown/quarantine/social distancing going on in the US. Rather than lose yourself in the quagmire of “news” (I mean, the models and predictions...
View ArticleHow to Finish a Novel in Ten Days
What a crazy time to live in. Suddenly, the consumptive author shutting himself in his attic to suffer the pangs of creation in front of the blank page… well, that’s pretty much everyone! (except maybe...
View ArticleWhat the Kingfisher Can Teach Us About Living Well in Crisis
Is there anything more perfect than this photo of a kingfisher? It won an audience award a few years ago. For obvious reasons. I was mesmerized by it at the time, because it was such an unlikely...
View ArticleHow to Achieve Artistic Perfection
People are drawn to beauty. There’s no denying it. The Greeks believed in perfection of form, a kind of harmony that had the power to objectively draw the eye and inspire people toward virtue. And yet…...
View ArticleForming the Moral Imagination with Fairy Tales
This post originally appeared on September 29, 2020, on A Light So Lovely. I recently received a wonderful question from one of the listeners of my new podcast. I include it here, because it gets at...
View ArticleHow to Build a World in Both History and Fiction
This post originally appeared on November 14, 2019, on A Light So Lovely. I’ve been thinking, lately, about the question of worldbuilding. For those who don’t know, it’s a technical term for what...
View ArticleThe Consolation of Fantasy
Storytelling and enjoying fairy tales is not a childish or simple-minded pursuit. It’s a noble calling, in some ways, especially in times of chaos. Famed fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien makes this...
View ArticleThe Craftsman’s Workshop: Slow Productivity and Better Stories
1. Do fewer things; 2. Work at a natural pace; and 3. Obsess over quality The post The Craftsman’s Workshop: Slow Productivity and Better Stories appeared first on Nicholas Kotar.
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