You have probably heard the common phrase “don’t talk about religion or politics with a stranger.” Often, the only defense given if you question this idea is “people get touchy.” But is that really that great of a reason? If people get touchy when talking about these issues, I don't think the solution is to [...]
Book Etiquette: Reading the Right Way
How does one read a book the right way? Are there certain practices and behaviors that are often disrespectful of a book or the author? I would say yes. This is all in a half-joking manner, but there are truly some things that I think we should remember when reading a book. Judge Every Book [...]
Creating a Main Character for Your Novel
As a writer and weaver of stories, one of my favorite things to do is create characters. I love writing characters more than writing their dialogue, explaining a world, or even creating a plot. Building a character makes you feel like you're making a whole new person. Often, when you've finished, it's hard to believe [...]
An Update on My Novel
I am publishing a novel. It's called The Fantastical Journey of Gavryn Wickert, and it's about a boy who finds himself in another world and must take part in a battle against a cruel Queen's dictatorship. As adventurous as that sounds, it's really more about his internal battle and the relationships he builds. I finished it at 2:02 [...]
Think Outside of Your Universe
I am a dreamer. I don't mean that I sit for hours, hoping to have something in the future, or even that I have a lot of dreams. I mean that I think about a lot of things most people don't care to give thought to. Most of us are burdened down with our wants [...]
Summer
I can feel Summer coming. I love Winter. I really like all the seasons, except Spring, but I don't really believe in Spring. I think that, as soon as I can smell Summer in the air, it's Summer. And, as much as I love Winter... when I smell Summer, my thoughts will be for no [...]
Magic Theory
As a writer of fantasy, one must learn to understand how magic works and the different theories of its use. If you let the characters in your book or short story run around inventing magic out of thin air, their power will be completely boundless and it will become incredibly unrealistic, because, as we all [...]
How to Write Your First Novel (Continued!)
Note: It took me about a month to realize I wrote two blog posts with the same name and (pretty much) the same content. They even begin with the same sentence! So, I'm adding "continued" to this title because it came second, and I'm leaving them both up because they do say a few unique [...]
Tiredness Culture: What it is and How You Can Fight It
You probably heard someone say that they were tired today. Or maybe you told someone you were tired today. The reason this is so easy to predict is because people are constantly letting everyone know how tired they are. This is what I call Tiredness Culture. And (not to blame teens for everything) young people are even more prone [...]
How to Win the Writing Contest
This year, I decided to create a writing contest. I feel it's important to give growing writers a chance to submit their pieces to safe critique. Instead of keeping their writing to themselves so as to avoid harsh criticism, something like this can give them a chance to share their work and see how it [...]
