Tag: Lord of the Rings
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Let’s Talk Tropes: Minions
No, we’re not talking today about the little corndog shaped creatures from Despicable Me. Or, more accurately perhaps, it’s not all that we’re talking about today. When it comes to combat, there are two options for making the protagonist struggle: conflict of wit or conflict of number. That is to say, outsmarted versus outmatched. Is…
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Let’s Talk Tropes: Happily Ever Afters
I’m not sure when happy endings fell out of fashion, but I do know that present-day narratives generally strive for a distorted concept of realism where the grittier and darker it is, the more “realistic” it is. At the very least, this is the case for fantasy novels, so much so that the concept of…
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Let’s Talk Tropes: The Quest
Our last tropes discussion talked about Chosen Ones–ironically, one of the biggest character tropes in the fantasy genre. Today, I decided to focus on one of the best-known plot tropes of the genre: the quest. A quest is a trip that one or more characters–quite often, a group–embarks on in order to accomplish some important…
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The Craft of Building Minor Characters
Most people on the internet will tell you how to create your protagonist and antagonist. You know, the ones who admittedly get the most page time. But most people are also hesitant to attempt explaining how one might go about creating the less important characters that will appear throughout your story. It’s a fair problem,…
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Let’s Talk Tropes: The Chosen One
Welcome to what I hope will be the first of a series of posts focused on tropes common in the fantasy genre. So if you enjoy the post, be sure to leave a like, and while you’re there, feel free to recommend what other tropes you think I should discuss. First, a definition is in…
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July Reading Reflections
Every once in a while, I like to go back to older stories. As the genres change with the passing of time, always in pursuit of originality while fleeing the cliche, it’s important to remember the history of the genre itself, whatever that genre might be. That is, in large part, why I returned to…
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April Reading Reflections
Fair warning: This week, we’re talking about Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone. I doubt there will be any spoiler-y stuff, but if you haven’t yet read it, proceed with caution. For some time now, I’ve been thinking about the incorporation of languages in fantasy novels. As I make my way through Children of…
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The Problem With Libraries
For as long as I’ve been writing, people have been telling me what reading strategies they think I should follow to make me a better writer. Well, it’s always fun when someone with little to no writing experience tries to tell you how to become a better writer, but the question they raised is still…
Katie Bachelder 