I talk a lot about elements of worldbuilding, but rarely about what it is. To me, it all boils down to this: Worldbuilding is the art of creating a...
Worldbuilding Philosophy
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J.S. Morin
Worldbuilding: Money in Your World
"Excuse me sir, I'd like to buy that sword, a shield, and I'll be needing salted meats and bread for a five-day journey." "That will be $343.49."...
Get the Earth Out of Your Fictional World
When you write secondary world fiction (anything set on a world you made up), people expect to it to be separated from Earth. To do this, you need...
Writing Update 4/4/14
Just a quick update on what I've been up to lately. Rebel Skyforce is still with my editor. I don't expect to have it back for revisions until...
Shut Up and Sell Me a Starship
Everyone has their hobbies, their vices, their ways to decompress. Mine is gaming. I don't devote anywhere near the time to it that I once did, but...
Outlining for Writers Who Don’t Outline
You're a pantser, a gardener, whatever you want to call it. You don't want to spend days/weeks/months spinning your wheels planning out your novel...
Writing Update, 3/21/14
Hi everyone! Just wanted to check in and let you all know what's been going on. I don't think I do that often enough. It's been a few weeks since...
The Author’s Self-Editing Checklist
Do you make stupid mistakes in your writing? I sure do! Like unfinished lumber, your manuscript is going to be full of knots and splinters, cracks,...
Xeno’s Finish Line
Have you ever been close to finished with something for so long that it feels like you'll never actually be finished with it? "Almost done," you...
Has it Been a Year Already?
It's actually been a year and a month since I published my first novel on Amazon. How time flies. I'd meant to do a first-year summary of my...
Worldbuilding: How Does Your World Tell Time?
Unless you write in a very strange setting, people are going to keep track of the passage of time. It's a fact of life that we take for granted, but...
2014 Reading Update (February)
Back at the end of 2013 I laid out a selection of books I intended to read in 2014. Having just finished the second of them, I thought it would be a...
How to Write a Character Who’s Wrong
One of the challenges of writing is that you have knowledge that your characters lack. When you write dialogue, you have to narrow your focus to...
Grey Characters: No Moral Absolutes
One of the comments I get about my books is that all the characters are grey. That means that you can't just plunk a black or white hat on them and...
7 Male Love Interests
(note: This is regarding male romantic interests for female characters. There are many potential relationship pairings, and to keep things simple,...
Steampunk: the Engineer in the Writer
As I wind my way through the final stages of getting The Mad Tinker's Daughter ready to publish, I thought it might be a good time to reflect on my...
7 Female Love Interests
Note: This is regarding female love interests for male characters. There are many potential relationship pairings, and to keep things simple,...
Worldbuilding: Creating Fictional Cultures
When you create a world, you need to create its inhabitants. If you are writing in a historically accurate version of Earth, you have established...
New Year, New Look
It's 2014 now, and to go along with the change in calendar, I've updated the covers for the Twinborn Trilogy. With the success of the series, I...
Writers are Readers Too
It's the retrospective time of year, when we engage in rampant ruing and reminiscing, considering the sum total of the year about to drift away...
Review of The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug
I'd heard the rumors, knew the casting of Orlando Bloom and Evangeline Lilly. I had watched the trailer and seen The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey....
What is a Reader?
A reader is a solitary creature by nature. When engaged in their eponymous activity, readers travel via unknown means to another place, time, or...
Fantasy Tropes: Love Them and Hate Them
Fantasy is a genre notorious for its tropes. For better or worse, they are what people who read/watch a lot of fantasy have seen a million times....
Amazon Power Tip: How to Give an eBook as a Gift
Have an avid reader of ebooks on your gift list this year? Despair not! Just because you know a voracious reader who has switched over to a Kindle...