Thoughts of a Mad Man

#856911

August 9, 2015 at 9:48am

Whether writing, reading, or living, emotions affect us far more than one might imagine or wish. The difference between two essentially same emotional states can have tremendous impact. Some peoples use one word for sadness, anger, rage and depression: all the sense that a desire is being thwarted, I suppose. Yet, who can deny the tremendous difference between rage and determination - both urgent drives to action? Rage tends to destroy things and cause pain and suffering even when under rest... [Read more]

#847401

April 19, 2015 at 4:03pm

One of the people I was reviewing had a scene that had all kinds of latent conflict, falsely resolved conflict, and foreshadowed conflict, (Maybe that's one thing, but she did have a LOT of it) but NOTHING in the present moment. Just some people having a great therapy session. So I came up with a way to brainstorm things for a dull scene. Imagine that the character is reflecting on how well things went, let her rant about how things should go. Let her go on. Fill in the blan... [Read more]

#835421

December 5, 2014 at 11:32am

Hexmasters, magisters, witches and sorcerers? Oh, my. Some questions a writer must answer about a mage: How did he come into power? What does he feel about his power? How well does he want to understand his power? How does he use his power? How does his power affect him socially? World-building: How did he get the power? There are two classical kinds of magic: the native and the educated. In your world, you must decide if magic is something that a common person could l... [Read more]

#835321

March 15, 2015 at 12:40pm

Precept One: Our universe started out the same as my fantasy universe, and somebody had to work to change the rule. Precept two: The new rule stays the same until forced to change. Precept three: Changing natural laws requires great effort. The greater the change, the greater the effort. Therefore, greater changes require deeper motives. Now- Why use these precepts? They help us to select ideas that make sense, and suggest which ideas naturally fit with our favorites. Then they can be used to... [Read more]