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10 Writing Prompts from Hans Christian Andersen
I’ve had my fancy leather-bound collection of Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales for ages now and been trying to find the time to read some of them. Then it dawned on me. I have a link for you but I did not use the stories from the site to write this article. There may be discrepancies in the title or details. The site does list all the stories in chronological order with the date of original publication, which I have included here. The book that I am using says this about the translation: “The stories in this edition are taken from Heinrich Oskar Sommer’s translation Stories & Fairy Tales by…
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Things Worth Reading: The Apothecary’s Curse
I was fortunate enough to meet Barbara Barnett at Capricorn 39 this past February. She was on a panel called Indistinguishable from Magic where they discussed the blurred line between some science fiction and fantasy stories. As part of the discussion she described her book and I knew I had to read it. She said she couldn’t firmly put it into any one category and she’s never even dreamed of trying. It has magic, science, history, and a touch of horror. How could I resist? I must say, it didn’t disappoint. While I have no problem firmly placing this book under fantasy, I can see where she was coming from.…
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The Flight
I wrote this short one all in one sitting. I sometimes start writing with a line and see where it takes me. I rarely make it a whole story with no planning, but this is one of those. I am planning two more to make a kind of a series. More of a triptych for flash fiction. Get some different perspectives on the story. I hope you enjoy it! Let me know in the comments what you thought. The blue glow of her hands told me she knew she’d found me at last. The others dining at the inn had all stopped eating and drinking and laughing to look at…
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Inspiration for Magic Stories
You have done your brainstorming and are well on your way to setting up the rules for a magic system. Now what? If you want to share it with others you’ll need a story that showcases it. I have come up with 10 prompts to guide you through thinking about different aspects of your world and your magic and how you could craft a story out of it. For more tips on turning your idea into a story, see my article here. 1) Lack of Magic I have only read one book that I can recall where it was commonplace for everyone to have magic and the kid who doesn’t…
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12 Prompts to Create a Magic System
One of the most fun things a fantasy writer can do is invent a magic system. Pure creativity, no boundaries honed into a coherent system that does have rules unique to a world you created. There are few things more satisfying. As part of my series on Creating Magic Systems, I have come up with a list of prompts for starting the process. I am sure that every conceivable magic system has already been tested by some writer somewhere. I am not claiming that the following prompts are never-seen-before ideas but they are good starting points. Prompts to get you thinking about your system and how you can make it…
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20 Tips for Writing Magic Systems
So, you know you want to write a story with magic in it, but you want to come up with something new. Where do you start? The possibilities are practically endless. Below I have compiled a list of questions you can ask yourself to get started and then a few ideas for the basis of a magic system. You can also check out my other articles on this topic in the section Creating Magic Systems. Some general questions: 1) The most important thing for you to decide about your magic system is what the cost is for the users. (I wish I could take credit for this but I got…
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Bequest
This story is long overdue. The inspiration for this one came from the article on the discovery of the Ottoman tomb. My original plan proved …inadequate and I had to start over. Not completely, I still used the elements I set out in that article, but the plot I had in mind needed some major tweaking. So here is the story I promised all those weeks ago. Hopefully, my next one won’t be so long in coming. Enjoy! Bequest Silvaria flew into the tent, her amethyst and gold robes fluttering around her. The room was tinted by the sun filtering though the orange fabric. The table full of gleaming instruments…
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10 Writing Prompts from Irish Mythology
This week’s prompts come from Irish mythology. This was quite a challenge for me than the post on Greek Myths as I knew basically nothing about it before I started. (Now also have a list based on Norse Myths and Bulgarian Folklore!) I used Wikipedia a lot and a helpful website called Bardmythologies.com. I encourage you to check this site out and read all of the myths, they are truly fascinating. Two books also came in handy during my research that I would like to highly recommend. One is The Book of Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland compiled by W. B. Yeats and the other is Heroic Landscapes: Irish…
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A Lost Tomb Makes Magical Writing Inspiration
Welcome to another writing inspiration post. I hope you enjoyed last week’s inspiration and story. That may have been the hardest story I’ve ever written. And I’ll be honest, there are still things about it I would like to change. This is why I started this blog, to make sure that I keep deadlines and get the work done. Then do more work! I’ll get better with practice. Maybe I’ll get inspired to make another horror-ish story at some point, but probably not too soon. In any case, I am excited about the writing inspiration and story for this week. I got some fun ideas while reading and can’t wait…
