Devil in the Details: Emergency Medical Services
As authors, we put our characters through a variety of dangerous situations and often end up with some injured or ill. When we do this in a modern world, that character may encounter Emergency Medical Services (EMS) teams in their community. These highly trained medical professionals are seldom noticed by anyone until they’re needed. Then […]
Medical Mixups: What Common Mistakes Authors Make When Writing Medical Details
People get sick or injured all the time and seek medical care in a doctor’s office or hospital emergency room setting. When story characters encounter these situations, realism will lend believability to the story, even in contemporary fantasy settings. Getting the details right keeps the reader engaged with the story and turning the page. You […]
The Balance of Magic
Using Feng Shui to Frame Your Magic System Sine Mairi MacDougall Magic systems can be one of the most fun parts of world building. Readers also obsess over this part of fantasy. They are looking for clearly laid-out rules, so many authors base their fantasies off known systems. This gives readers something familiar, allowing them […]
The Biggest Snowy Snafus You Might Be Making In Your Novel
For those in the Northern Hemisphere, Jack Frost has settled in once again. And just like many uninvited holiday visitors tend to do this time of year, he’s probably going to overstay his welcome. Thankfully, winter weather can be the perfect excuse to put the kettle on, cozy up by the fire, and immerse yourself […]
Hold your horses
How and why to put equine misconceptions out to pasture Few things transcend genres quite like horses. Historical novels incorporate them to set scenes or develop characters. They can be favorite modes of transportation on quests. Even their alien or hybrid cousins appear in Sci-Fi stories. Horses can be a driving force—both figuratively and literally—in […]
All Fired Up: Firearm Basics for Fiction Writers
Our characters often need weapons to carry out plot lines, but how does an author accurately portray the use or description of a gun when their experience may be limited? To help avoid the pitfalls of starting from zero with firearms knowledge, this article will tackle some basics. Types of Firearms First on the menu […]
Maintaining Historical Accuracy Without Slowing the Narrative
You’ve written a rollicking good story set in eighteenth-century France, and now you want to add some killer details. It’s time to immerse yourself in research. Turn back time All historical novels begin with the promise that the author will subtly connect the “Then” to the “Now” so the reader can suspend disbelief throughout. To […]
Are we there yet?
A guide to determining travel time in your stories An old scene ends. A new scene begins. And if the characters now find themselves in a different place, readers will usually just assume that time has passed and distances have been traversed. But how far apart are places in the story? How long does it […]
Representation of Disability in Fiction
When a movie adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Witches was released in October 2020, viewers weren’t just upset by a change to the story; they were offended. In the film, the Grand High Witch, whose fingernails resembled cat claws in the book, had hands with only two fingers and a thumb, or split hands, a […]
Kill or Cure?
Alfred Hitchcock famously said, “I think everyone enjoys a nice murder, provided he is not the victim.” In reality, there is no such thing as a nice murder or a perfect murder but, in writing, there can be the “right” murder. The death that best suits the victim’s or killer’s character, situation, motives, and place […]