Writing
Everything on Writing
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GENRE 101 – Folklore
“Scylla was not born for death: she is a thing of terror, intractable, ferocious and impossible to fight.” Homer’s Odyssey Folklore is this wonderful monster that lurks in all the well lit corners of your entire world. It is like the Matrix – everywhere, you see it but you do not recognize it. It is in your clothes, in your food, in your house, in your songs, in your books and under your Christmas tree. It has been there forever and it is there to stay. Rarely questioned but constantly compelling generation after generation to observe it, it is a show-off, it needs to be seen to survive. You honour…
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GENRE 101 – Children’s Books
“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” A. A. Milne, The Adventures of Winnie The Pooh Many writers and writing experts put children’s books and juvenile literature into the same category, arguing that the only difference between the genres is the recommended age. I respectfully disagree with this view. In my opinion, there are some significant differences between the genres and the age recommendations are simply the result of that. For that reason I will handle these two genres separately as far as possible. We are still far from telling stories when we buy the first book for a child. These books are likely…
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GENRE 101 – Adventures
“Never fear quarrels, but seek hazardous adventures.” Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers Setting The term adventure originates from Latin and means in a broader sense, that something is happening, something has come up. Even if the adventure was initiated by choice, the events that follow are always uncommon and unexpected and they bring everyday life to a halt. The whole point is to create a digression that keeps the protagonist and the reader from anything that is regulated and normal. An adventure is what you seek, when you are fed up with the daily grind, which can be anything at this point, as long as the adventure is a completely…
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Genre 101 Series – Introduction
Established writers often find it hard to change their genre or even to do something different from the universe that brought them popularity. There is the famous love-hate relationship of authors like Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with their protagonists. Karl May will always be Winnetou‘s dad and J. K. Rowling will always be known for the Harry Potter series no matter how many unrelated novels she may produce. Stephen King will likely never write anything that will make you feel safe at night, even if he wanted to. Alea iacta est. Of course there are others who manage several genres for different reasons. Oscar Wilde never wrote…
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Adventure Workshop
The Adventure Workshop is the collection of my essays and ideas about the topic of and the issues with Creative Writing. Since I’ve been working on MIRATHATON mostly, I have been adding to this section irregularly but you might find something interesting here after all, if you are an avid reader or an aspiring writer. There are certain topics and views that I attach a lot of importance to: Character development and cast analysis, logic and structure as well as the importance of research, regular practice and the understanding of concepts and definitions. I am an advocate of the notion that writing is a craft and that becoming a decent…