Make war, not peace! Ruffle the feathers of your characters. Stir the pot of emotions. Add a fistfight or two. Craft a clever and entertaining argument among your heroes. Not all conflict has to be bloody or increase the body count, but it does have to keep the reader turning the pages. Our panelists discuss the art of adding a dash of conflict to your pages.
Part of the master GM series: Veteran writer and GM, Dr. Rich Staats, steps you through the process of creating memorable NPCs. The system was originally published in Shadis magazine and was part of a for-credit course at MIT.
The philosophers say 'Know yourself.' The writing guides say 'Write what you know.' Even though writing about yourself may seem easy, your memoir still needs to have the essential elements of a story and should engage, enlighten, and entertain, all without making stuff up! Panelists will discuss making memoirs more effective, places to publish, and suggestions on how to deal with family members who don't remember the past the same way you do.
Dwarven vampires, space-faring elves, undead detectives, rap artists in King Arthur’s court. Are there lines and genres that shouldn’t be crossed in fiction? If you do cross lines, how many can you tackle? How many genres can you blend before your reader gets too confused and gives up? What combinations are natural? What combinations should be avoided? Are there rules to follow? And what rules should you break?
The modern West is awash in the paranormal, from ghost hunting to alien abductions. The paranormal, however, is hardly unique to us. Different cultures have had their own unique conceptions of the paranormal. If we widen our gaze from beliefs espoused by the Ghost Hunters and others, we see that paranormal ideas generally draw from cultural narratives and fill in perceived holes to help explain the anomalous or extraordinary.
There is a dark side to the “fairer sex.” In this hour, we’ll focus on female villains, hard-boiled heroines, and tough-as-nails supporting characters. How do you make a female character real without becoming a cliché or done-to-death stereotype?