When I create a new world for an RPG campaign or fiction, I always spend most of my time with names, be it for characters, place or historical events. For me, it’s central to the process of world building, and depending on the rules of my world and its civilisations, it can help ground my fantasy enough for readers to find their way and grasp the basic concepts.
There isn’t really a big secret with naming, but I’m very particular about it. Continue reading Writing Guide – Naming
Over the past few weeks I’ve been thinking a lot about the work I do in The Mental Attic and other outlets, be it a geeky piece on GeekOut South-West, a preview on KickstartVentures or any of the other sites I write for on occasion.
One thing that I’ve thought of repeatedly is language, as in what kind of language is appropriate for articles? Is it right to use profanity or rude language in an article or does that diminish your arguments? Are abbreviations or common “text-speech” allowed? Can we use pure numbers or do we have to word the amounts out (30 or Thirty)? For today, I’ll focus on profanity. Continue reading The Proper Way – Language in Journalism
This is a different issue in the Novel Writing guide. I’ve gone over the process of writing one, how to handle editing and even how to work with action scenes. This time however I’m looking at an entire genre. Fantasy is by far my favourite, and in years of reading and writing it, there are things I’m tired of, things I hate, and I’ve spoken about them in length in a previous article. Now I’m focusing on how you should write fantasy, what things you need to consider. Continue reading Writing a Novel – Fantasy
Language is the most powerful tool at our disposal and I can prove that in just a few sentences. If I were to tell you that you were a “beautiful, wonderful person”, you’d feel good about yourself for it. For the record you are indeed a beautiful, wonderful person and don’t let others tell you otherwise. Continue reading Use of non-derogatory words in derogatory ways
