London, October 8 1940
Writing Prompt – Feel like reading?
Category Archives: Writing
Writing Prompt – Get Creative
Writing prompt – A Dialog
I’ve always been fascinated by Virginia Frances Sterrett‘s art for the 1920s edition of the Arabian Nights.
Here’s a plate illustrating Alladin‘s story, in its original Chinese setting.
But don’t think about Alladin… the exercise is – what are these two gentlemen talking about?
Writing Prompt – a checklist
Considering I’ll be spending the next 36 hours editing a short story of mine, today’s prompt – courtesy of Thewritelife.com – is not a prompt.
Hope you gentlemen and ladies out there find it useful – or just fun.
Enjoy!
Riding the Leviathan
World-building.
So far I’ve had it easy – most of my fantasy is historical fantasy, after all, and the action takes place in historical settings or pretty close to them.
World-building means a good history reference book (or five) and a few pages of notes on what’s hiding in the cracks of what we consider historical.
I’ve worked like that on the Aculeo & Amunet stories (set in the Third Century AD), on my novel The Ministry of Thunder (set in 1936 China), and on my current Le Corsaire project (set in the Mediterranean area, in the 1950s).
And the Corsair stories are not even fantasy – they are action thrillers.
Yes, even on my science fiction novel, The Hunt for Tethys1, I did most of my worldbuilding on a handful of post-its. Continue reading
Writing Prompt – A man of distinction
Let’s continue with our character studies – this one is inspired by a chat i had with my friend Claire.
This fine gentleman is actor Conrad Veidt, photographed by legendary Edward Steichen.
What does his picture suggest us in terms of character?
Karavansara 