Based on John’s Highbrow course on Journaling:
Category Archives: Uncategorized
The difference between a draft and a revision
In last month’s newsletter, I mentioned my road map to finishing Blood Dawn. I spent last week unpacking more of what was behind how I have focused my week into themed days (read that here), so I thought this week … Continue reading
Posted in Blood Dawn, John's blog, Uncategorized, Writing Tips
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Language, Culture and Prose in Mysts of Mythos
Today, Sean Gallagher, author of Mysts of Mythos, returns to the blog to offer his perspective on language and culture in fantasy. For more from Sean, click here. When one sets out to write a story within a historical setting, very critical … Continue reading
Our Friend – The Prologue
Today, Byron Gillan is back on the blog to discuss prologues. Interested in learning more? Read on. Click here for more posts by Byron. A raven-haired woman flees through the night, pursued by a band of villains… A terrible calamity befalls a … Continue reading
Posted in Byron Gillan post, Epic fantasy writer group, Uncategorized, Writing Tips
Tagged A Song of Ice and Fire, Advice, Byron Gillan, Fantasy world building, Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin, Inkshares, Pillars of the Earth, prologue, The Children of the Forest, The Wheel of Time, world builders, world building, world building methods, world building tips
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My writing routine — creating a focus for days of the weeks
This month in my newsletter, I talked about how I have returned to the themed week strategy I used while writing Blood Dawn and it inspired me to write more about it for today’s blog post. In last week’s blog … Continue reading
Posted in Blood Dawn, John's blog, Uncategorized, Writing Tips
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Atmosphere of Culture – by Melissa Berg
Today, author Melissa Berg returns to talk about creating an atmosphere for your fantasy novel that is real and immersive. Want to know why real experiences are essential? Read on to find out how just one past experience gave her … Continue reading
Making sacrifices: the 80/20 rule and getting Blood Dawn back on track
This week, I made a radical shift in how I work to reclaim the weekend writing time that I’d maintained for 15 months, every week, while I was writing the draft for Blood Dawn. Ever since 2016 began, I’ve been … Continue reading
The 5 things I learned about writing characters ‘playing God’ (by watching Jurassic park) — by Yicheng Liu
Hello readers, This week we are going to talk about the overall theme of fictional characters in your stories playing God, or YOU playing God as a writer. This complex topic doesn’t appear a lot and I generally don’t get … Continue reading
Posted in Off-Topic, Uncategorized, Yicheng Liu post
Tagged Character Building, When Characters Play God, Yicheng Liu
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The Last World Builder 2.0 — John Robin
Did you actually think yesterday’s post was mine? Did you forget that yesterday was April 1st? (If you didn’t see it, you can read it here.) To those of you who were scratching your heads: APRIL FOOLS! That said, I … Continue reading
Posted in John's blog, Uncategorized, World Builders
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The Last World Builders 2.0 — John Robin
At long last, World Builder 2.0, which has run for the last 2 months, comes to an end. To cap it all off, I thought I’d take my own medicine. What follows is a short piece about the world of … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized, World Builders
Tagged Blood Dawn, epic fantasy, Fantasy World, John Robin, world building
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When weather, is a weary waste of time, we weathered through with wet feet.
“It was a dark and stormy night” (by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in the novel Paul Clifford), has been mocked poked fun at for as long as I can remember. I think this is a great opening sentence. I was inspired so much, I used the … Continue reading