Category: Meandering Musings

Creating a Magic System for Your Fantasy World

It’s a forgone conclusion that if you’re going to create your own Fantasy world, you are going to have some form of magic. Like Samwise Gamgee, we long to see the beautiful and strange; it’s a huge lure that draws us to these fantastic worlds. But you must also...
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Tying Everything Up in a Bow:
The Challenge of a Good Denouement

The denouement is the second most challenging part of the plot to write – occasionally maybe even surpassing what is typically the most challenging part: a well-earned climax. Basically, you have two seemingly conflicting goals. You must: A) Wrap up the remaining storylines in an engaging and satisfying manner....
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Live – Then Write

Does Art imitate Life or does Life imitate Art? Like Yin and Yang or Twin Serpents eating each other’s tails, literature and life share an ambiguous push/pull relationship. But, interestingly, society seems to have this idea that all writers are recluses who shun the world. A mystical figure that...
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Namárië, Ada

I guess it’s about time I talk about my Dad. Tonight marks one month since I went to the hospital and saw my old world was gone forever. I still can’t spend too long on this now, but I have reached a point I can talk about what my...
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Fairy Tales vs The Cynics

Have you ever had the following conversation? You: “Well, my favorite story is [favorite epic where the ending is either happy or bitter sweet].” Other person: “You can’t be serious.” You: “What? It’s a great story. The characters are amazing, there are great plot twists, and it was inspiring.”...
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Does HISHE Have a Point Concerning Lord of the Rings?

First off, I realize that the HISHE (How It Should Have Ended) YouTube channel deals in movies, not books, and that the Lord of the Rings movies took quite a few liberties with the source material (for those who have not seen the HISHE vid, you can watch it...
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Lessons from Writing my First Manuscript

I knew I wanted to start my own Fantasy series after I began my Junior year at college. I was pursuing my English degree and thought, “I can do this. I don’t know how well I can do compared to my heroes, but I can write, and I’m fairly...
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Returning to Our Reality with Treasure from Another

A Reflection on the Power of Subcreation in Sci-Fi & Fantasy After Watching 1st Time Viewers See/Hear the Most Famous Line in Star Wars. (“No; I am your father.”) A little backstory. I was wasting my time watching YouTube videos – specifically, “The Nostalgia Critic” and his “Top 11...
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