Category Archives: transmedia

AND THEN IT BELONGS TO THE AGES

Posted on February 22, 2022 by Philip Athans

First you get an idea. Then you suffer over whether or not it’s a good idea until you come to grips with what I’ve called Schrödinger’s Idea, then you start writing it anyway. Then you revise it, you suffer over it. At … Continue reading →

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THE WORLDS THAT OUTGREW THEIR STORIES

Posted on October 6, 2020 by Philip Athans

This, I promise, will be the last of the posts reprinted from Grasping for the Wind from 2010. This one is a bit more personally maudlin for me, but I didn’t wallow in that then, why wallow in it now? Still, imagine … Continue reading →

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CONTENT IS KING

Posted on July 21, 2020 by Philip Athans

I had an opportunity to chat with Joanna Penn on her Creative Penn Podcast and the concept of writers as “content providers” came up. This is something I’ve been preaching for at least nine years now, as this former Grasping … Continue reading →

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KEEP READING!

Posted on December 31, 2019 by Philip Athans

I’ve been seeing this weird thing again lately: I stop reading when I’m writing because I don’t want to be influenced by another author’s writing, and don’t want to accidentally plagiarize them. This, like “all prologues are bad, no one … Continue reading →

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I SEE YOUR POST-APOCALYPSE AND RAISE YOU ONE DYSTOPIA

Posted on September 24, 2019 by Philip Athans

I have to admit I’ve never been a huge fan of post-apocalyptic fiction. I liked the movies Road Warrior and Mad Max: Fury Road. I liked the first few seasons of The Walking Dead. But beyond that? I was forced … Continue reading →

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A CHANGELING SOUL: EXPLORING WEIRD TALES Vol. 5, No. 1—PART 22

Posted on September 17, 2019 by Philip Athans

Our next story from the January 1925 issue of Weird Tales is “A Changeling Soul” by Victor Lauriston—another name that didn’t ring a bell for me. I find it fascinating how this issue of Weird Tales features such a range of … Continue reading →

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WHEN CHARACTERS MEET TECHNOLOGY

Posted on August 6, 2019 by Philip Athans

I like to define science fiction as stories in which the impossible is made possible by the use of some imaginary technology or scientific discovery. In other words, if the hero gets to a distant planet via a starship it’s … Continue reading →

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FOG: EXPLORING WEIRD TALES Vol. 5, No. 1—PART 18

Posted on July 9, 2019 by Philip Athans

Diving once more into the January 1925 issue of Weird Tales we come to: Um… That’s supposed to be C. Franklin Miller… And there’s an interesting typo in the first paragraph, too: …a certain emotion, a certain tensity, that his … Continue reading →

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ANSIBLES, BLASTERS, AND CREDITS, OH MY!

Posted on July 2, 2019 by Philip Athans

I tackled the complex subject of genre clichés, archetypes, and originality in The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction: Certain key components, like dragons in fantasy or robots in science fiction, are free for the taking. No one, even … Continue reading →

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PLAY!

Posted on May 21, 2019 by Philip Athans

When I was in seventh grade and extremely into Legos I made a starship—really just the floorplan—and populated it with a crew of the newly-released mini figures. I then devised a monster with a tail that ended in the twirling … Continue reading →

Posted in authors helping authors, authors to writers, best fantasy blogs, best genre fiction blogs, best horror blogs, best science fiction blogs, best websites for authors, best websites for writers, Books, characters, Dungeons & Dragons, fiction writing blog, fiction writing websites, help for writers, helping writers become authors, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, monsters, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, Story Structure, transmedia, Traveller, websites for authors, websites for writers, writers to authors, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments