Half an idea is better than no idea. About 6 months ago, I had a vague story idea pop into my head. This would be a return to fantasy after working on a lot of sci-fi the past few years. The idea had to do with a world featuring humans and another sentient race (based…
Tag: imagination
Can You See the Same Magic That I See in Books and the Arts?
Books and the arts are amazing sources of practical magic. I have no idea how old I was when I learned to read. I’d guess I was probably 3 or 4 – since I believe that I was able to read the famous text crawl at the start of Star Wars (Episode IV: A New…
How Do Authors Make Their Stories Come Alive?
Let’s explore three primary ways to make fiction come alive and feel real. I have done a lot of reading over the years. Books are one of my greatest loves. It doesn’t matter what form they take. Paperback, hardcover, Kindle, audiobook, or other – I love books and stories about fantastic worlds and unique characters….
How Many Worlds Do You Think That You Have in Your Head?
I can’t tell you just how many worlds are in mine. And this includes the “real” world, too. I’ve been in love with sci-fi and fantasy since I was a child. Star Wars, Star Trek, the original and reimagined Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, The Belgariad series, the Dragonriders of…
Why Won’t the Annoying Brain Weasels in My Head Shut Up?
Do you have chittering brain weasels messing with you? Confession time. While I can put on an excellent façade of confidence and self-assurance – I am in an ongoing war with self-doubt, my self-worth, and the like. This is a war I’ve been fighting all my life. Though I win many of the battles of…
Do You Like to Reread Books You’ve Already Read Before?
I only reread a very small selection of books. I own a lot of books. Most, if not all of them, I’ve read at some time or other. And most of them I will never read again. This is why, a few years ago, I donated several large boxes of books to my local library….
Why and How Do I Think Sci-Fi and Fantasy Appeal to Us?
Why does anything appeal to us? I’m sharing my thoughts on the appeal of sci-fi and fantasy. I was not quite five years old. My mom and dad took me to see a movie. The opening music blared, the words crawled up the screen, and then a starship soared in – being fired on by…
Life is All About Stories
Stories come in many variables – true, false, and everywhere in-between. Everyone has a story to tell. Everyone. Some people tell stories quite matter-of-factly. Thing ‘A’ happened with person ‘B’ at time ‘C’ and the outcome was ‘D’. It may not seem like much of a story – but it still is. Many people don’t…
Breaking Down Sci-fi and Sci-fantasy
Sci-fi and sci-fantasy share many things – but differ in key ways. At nearly 5 years old, in May of 1977, my parents took me to see a movie that would shape my life in a lot of different ways. The opening theme boomed, the famous text crawl scrolled up, and then a ship came…
Don’t Fear Sharing Your Imagination
Never fear – but embrace your imagination. Even the most fictional notion of the imagination can change the world. All the modern technology that we take for granted was not-so-long-ago naught but the product of someone’s imagination. And I mean all the tech – because for about 500 years the progress of humankind was relatively…