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- ONLINE TUTORIAL: A Rough Draft is Better Than No Draft At All tutorials.writersdigest.com/p-427-your-nov… Get out of your own way and start #writing 1 hour ago
- There is both an art and a craft to #writing fiction and people like me can help you with the latter. The former yo… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 3 hours ago
- The best editor is a good teacher who helps that book be better, and helps you be a better writer from then on. A… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 hours ago
!NEW!
- Morbid Dread of the Dawn Read my story in The Pulp Horror Book of Phobias!
- The Yellow Ants of Kanduru: Tai of the Ebony Jungle #1
- The Fanitarium Podcast: Interviews Philip Athans
Buy My Books
- KINDLE SUBSCRIPTION Subscribe to Fantasy Author’s Handbook for your Kindle!
- Six Guns & Spaceships Featuring my space opera western story “Rendezes”
- Devils of the Endless Deep My trip into the Fathomless Abyss
- Write to the Cover Featuring my story “Bella Lucky and the Titan of Tarvos”
- Australians, Buy Here! Order from Boomerang Books in Australia.
- Google eBookstore Buy ebooks for various readers.
- UK Readers Buy Here! For our friends in the United Kingdom, via WHSmith
- The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction The book at the heart of all this!
- Writing Monsters Advice for SF, fantasy, and horror authors
- Tales from the Fathomless Abyss The anthology that started it all!
- The Haunting of Dragon's Cliff with Mel Odom, a new sword & sorcery barbarian is born!
- Completely Broken A novel of contemporary horror
- Annihilation My entry in the Forgotten Realms series R.A. Salvatore’s War of the Spider Queen
- A Reader's Guide to R.A. Salvatore's the Legend of Drizzt An essential companion to the greatest hero of the Forgotten Realms world
- I Made a Friend An alternate history/dieselpunk story for your Kindle!
- The Dogs Are In the Alley Again: A new horror story in Jitter #7
Communicate With Me
- Twitter @PhilAthans Admit it, you need to keep up with me at least a couple times a day.
- LinkedIn Here’s my public profile on LinkedIn, for what it’s worth
- Athans & Associates Creative Consulting Creative consulting services from an IP development pro.
- Story Coaching One-on-one time on your project, via Writer’s Digest
- GoodReads Join me at Facebook-for-readers
Grasping for the Wind
- SEPTEMBER 7: NATIONAL BUY A BOOK DAY Go to Grasping for the Wind, read my column, then buy a book on September 7!
- Content is King: My Grasping for the Wind swan song. Be a CONTENT PROVIDER!
- ROBOT IS THE NEW VAMPIRE Read my first column on Grasping for the Wind!
- THE WORLDS THAT OUTGREW THEIR STORIES September Column: Two Roads to Intellectual Property Success
- THROW YOUR BOOK A PARTY Advice for Authors on Signings and In-store Events
- Five Things Every Aspiring Author Should Know Don’t say I never warned you!
- Is Science Fiction Bad for Us? My December 2010 column on the desensitizing effect of SF.
- Convention Etiquette for Professionals and Panelists Tips for conventioneers with help from Jack Emmert, Richard Garfield, James Minz, Matthew Stover, and Kristine Katheryn Rusch
- Pile on the Huge: In which I discuss scale in SF books and movies.
- The Knee-jerk Reductionism of our Ill-considered Bloggers I jump in on the debate: Is fantasy morally bankrupt?
- Why I Read Five Books at Once The method to my (reading) madness.
- Been There, Survived That: Notes from the “bookpocalypse” as seen from the “recordmaggedon.”
- SFFWRCHT: The transcript of a wild-and-wooly Twitter chat session.
Interviews & Guest Posts
- CLARKESWORLD INTERVIEW 1: I took part in a roundtable interview with other speculative fiction editors.
- MAKE-BELIEVE MONDAYS INTERVIEW: Debra Parmley’s Make-Believe Mondays is a must-read blog for SF/Fantasy fans, and she’s interviewed lil’ ol’ me!
- Celebrity Game Table: A detailed look at my Tegel Manor Campaign from 2003.
- Publisher's Weekly “Is the Universe Expanding or Contracting?”
- Bolthole Interview: I talk Warhammer, writing, and more with a great Games Workshop fan site.
- 10 Questions with…ME! I get grilled by Ryan Schneider.
- How to Write Horror: Reading, Breathing and the Long Sentence (at Writer’s Digest)
- SF Signal Mind Meld: Aliens I join other SF/F authors and editors on the subject of what makes a good alien.
- Writer's Digest Interview: On Writing F&SF.
- Porter Anderson vs. Movie Examples: With some nice things to say about my Living Dialogue seminar at the Writer’s Digest conference.
- Horror Authors: How to Scare the Heck Out of Your Readers A guest post at The Write Life with practical tips for scaring the crap out of your readers.
- Writer's Digest Guest Blog: How to Make a Vampire Not Suck
- Ask the (Book) Editors: Panel video from 2013 Emerald City Comicon!
- The Creative Penn added me to their list of editors!
- Kindlepreneur added me to their list of editors!
- Roleplaying Tips: Interviews me!
- How to Create a Magic System: M.S. Farzan and Storyteller’s Handbook features The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction
Writer's Digest Online Tutorials
- ACT OF VILLAINY: Breathing Life Into Your Antagonist…up now at Writer’s Digest University!
- Five Things Every Horror Author Needs to Know: A Writer’s Digest Tutorial
- The First 10 Pages: How to make the best first impression with your writing.
- Engaging Your Readers Through Emotion and Description: Show, don’t tell!
- Writing Scary: The full 69-minute online tutorial on scaring the crap out of your readers, via Writer’s Digest University.
- Keeping Pace, Part 1: The Big Picture, via Writer’s Digest
- Keeping Pace, Part 2: Pacing an Action Scene, via Writer’s Digest
- Worldbuilding Basics for Fantasy & Science Fiction Looking for a good place to start? This is it!
- Six Strategies for Breaking Through Writer's Block Get back to writing!
- Navigating the Author-Editor Relationship Insight into publishing’s most crucial give-and-take.
- LIVING DIALOG: Bring Your Characters’ Words to Life
- Rarefied Atmosphere: Crafting a Unique Sense of Place
- Point of View: Whose Story is This, Anyway?
Writer's Digest University Courses
- Horror Writing Intensive: Analyzing the Work of Genre Master Stephen King
- Worldbuilding: Revised 4-week course for SF & fantasy worldbuilders.
- Pulp Fiction Workshop Starting again soon–register now!
- Advanced Horror Workshop: NEW 4-week course for the serious horror author.
Past Posts
Tag Archives: Dungeons & Dragons
PLAY!
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 author, authors, best fantasy novels, best sellers, Books, creative process, Dungeons & Dragons, Fantasy, Fiction, Forgotten Realms, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises, writing process
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FANTASY WORLDBUILDING, MONEY, MONSTERS, AND FOOD
Recently I’ve been sort of absentmindedly thinking about a Dungeons & Dragons world—and not for the first time, either. I have notebooks full of D&D worlds, a few of which even saw some play time. But what inspired this post … Continue reading
Posted in 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, intellectual property development, monsters, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, science fiction technology, transmedia, websites for authors, websites for writers, writers to authors, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best fantasy novels, Books, creative process, Dungeons & Dragons, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, Forgotten Realms, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Wizards of the Coast, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice
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SOME THOUGHTS ON RESEARCH
This is another subject too big to cover completely in a single blog post, but let’s look, at least, at a few basic ideas around the subject of research. I think authors of fiction can be easily separated into two … 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, horror novels, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, intellectual property development, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, science fiction technology, SF and Fantasy Authors, technology, transmedia, websites for authors, websites for writers, writers to authors, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best fantasy novels, Books, creative process, Dungeons & Dragons, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, Forgotten Realms, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice, writing process
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RED AND BLACK: EXPLORING WEIRD TALES Vol. 5, No. 1—PART 11
If you haven’t been following along with this series of posts looking in detail at a single issue of Weird Tales, a classic pulp fiction magazine from 1925 that’s available for all of us to read online, go back to … 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, Game of Thrones, help for writers, helping writers become authors, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, intellectual property development, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, SF and Fantasy Authors, Story Structure, transmedia, websites for authors, websites for writers, writers to authors, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best fantasy novels, Books, creative process, Dungeons & Dragons, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, Forgotten Realms, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, R.A. Salvatore, Science Fiction, Weird Tales, Writing, writing advice, writing dialog
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DON’T QUIT YOUR DAY JOB (MAYBE, EVER)
I read a report on Publishing Perspectives regarding a report from the Author’s Guild, that the average income authors derived exclusively from writing has fallen by 42% since 2009. That’s a huge number, actually, and really terrifying—at least on the … 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, fiction writing blog, fiction writing websites, freelance editing, freelance writing, freelancing, help for writers, helping writers become authors, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, indie publishing, Publishing Business, SF and Fantasy Authors, websites for authors, websites for writers, writers to authors, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, creative process, Dungeons & Dragons, e-books, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Wizards of the Coast, Writing, writing advice, writing process
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WORLDBUILDING SESSION FOUR: GEOGRAPHY
This week, how about a preview of the revised fourth session of my online course Worldbuilding in Fantasy and Science Fiction Writing, which starts up again day after tomorrow… I might go so far as to say that fantasy … 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, Game of Thrones, help for writers, helping writers become authors, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, intellectual property development, monsters, Publishing Business, science fiction technology, SF and Fantasy Authors, transmedia, websites for authors, websites for writers, writers to authors, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best fantasy novels, Books, creative process, Dungeons & Dragons, Fantasy, Fiction, Forgotten Realms, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, R.A. Salvatore, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Wizards of the Coast, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises
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STAN LEE (1922-2018)
I owe the lion’s share of my own creative education to three men, all of whom, as of yesterday, are no longer with us. In reverse chronological order, those men are Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons and role-playing … 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, comic books, conventions, creative team, 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, intellectual property development, Publishing Business, RPG, SF and Fantasy Authors, transmedia, websites for authors, websites for writers, writers to authors, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, comic books, Dungeons & Dragons, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Stan Lee, worldbuilding, Writing
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