Fantastical Worlds Blog

      You probably have so many thoughts going through your head and probably are a person watcher. Both are wonderful problems to have if you want to write stories. Ideas can come from anywhere and at any time. This is where the "Idea Book" can come in handy. I carry a 5 1/2 inch by 4 inch, 180 sheet little notebook in my pocket with a pen. If I hear a weird turn of phrase or see a person with an interesting unique quality, I write it down in the book. If an idea comes to me, I write it in the notebook as a what if question. I leave it on my nightstand and if I wake from a dream and remember enough of it I will add what I can remember to the notebook.     This little notebook (and the dozen I have filled up) is a treasure trove of ideas, or partial ideas. If you read my previous post on writer's block you will remember my suggestion on using the "what if..." questions to help eliminate the block. Here we will dive deeper into doing this.     All stori...

         Storytelling is an art. Like music it must be pleasing to the ear while evoking emotion. Like a painting, it must create an image in the reader’s mind. Like other types of art, it will have its critics, but at the end of the process of storytelling there is a unique piece of art. But it is also work. Either a full-time job if you aspire to be a professional or a few hours a week as a hobby so that you can say “I created a story.” Most likely it will be somewhere in between.       Sitting back and watching someone else enjoy your story is a wonderful feeling but it does not come easily. You will spend hours frustrated that progress has been roadblocked, or that you have pages and pages of revisions to do. The process of taking an idea from your head and turning it into a polished finished story on paper is as hard as any job but with no satisfaction until the job is finished. Don't give up.

 I wrote this to help me deal with the suicide of one of the greatest modern voices in music, Chris Cornell, I mixed partial song lyrics of his within the poem. A Life Unsung Falling into a blackhole words strung out more emotion than ever heard. A life unsung and the notes unheard with you gone more music ever heard. Tomorrow never comes but yesterday will always be the sounds of your life unsung. Art that is a blueprint to a generation but just as personal as a name. Notes trickled down like raindrops and razorblades. Won’t you come and finish this life unsung?

      When writing fantasy with magic systems the first concern needs to be if it seen as just the author's way to lazily solve plot issues instead of doing so in a more satisfactory way. The type of magic systems used can force you to pay much attention to avoiding this. More so in a soft magic system than a hard one.     We need to define what each is as used in this discussion: Soft Magic System     A soft magic system is any, where the reader does not know the rules, and the writer did not set any. Truly, as far as the reader is concerned, anything could happen with the magic. Probably the most famous of soft magics is J.R.R. Tolkien's character, Gandalf. We the reader really has no clue what his magic is, what his limitations are, or what the cost of using it truly is. Hard Magic System     A hard magic system is where the reader has a complete understanding of the rules, limitations, and often the source of magic in a story. The charac...

  Writer’s Block? No more excuses! The ever-dreaded writer’s block may have you staring at a blank page but that is no excuse to not write. Our brains are like any other part of our body, they need exercise and repetitive use to hone into better tools. If you sat to write but nothing comes to you don’t give up; try one of these alternatives. You may not write anything directly toward the work you are currently working on you will find that you loosened up your brain enough so that beginning work the next day may come a little bit more easily. You should be keeping a notebook of ideas, observations, and questions, this is a good time to pull it out and maybe write a conversation around a line you overheard and found interesting or write a character description on why a person has a unique trait you observed and added to your notebook. In the same, above mentioned, notebook I write down what if... ideas as they come to me. If you do the same pick two at random and write a micro-story...

The following story was the first one I wrote for my BA in Creative Writing degree so I will most likely never publish it, so I am giving it away for free here.   An Abundance of Stars by John Woolard             Doctor Terra Wellright viewed the holo-porthole, subconsciously pushing her glasses back up her nose, undecided. The ship’s cameras on its hull could display anything she wanted to see via a screen in almost any spectrum. She preferred the natural light spectrum as the default for the cameras. She liked to see the universe the way she was born to see it. This was probably why she never had her eyesight corrected even though the procedure was so commonplace. Her mother once commented, in passing, how cute she was in glasses. Her eyes now looked upon the vastness of space. Was giving up her past life worth this newness?             The abundance of stars she cou...

       Just wrote a flash fiction piece for this contest at Globe Soup:  2025 Paranormal Flash Fiction Challenge — GLOBE SOUP . I drew the ticket for a flash fiction story for "Kraken."     I have never written a kraken into a story before, so I decided to go a little different and only mention a kraken once and the story takes place in the dessert on Route 66 in the western United States. If you have any stories in you join me, but I am not telling what ticket I chose to keep the competition fair. After the contest is over, I will post my entry here for you all to comment on.