Now, if you’ve been following me for a while, you know I take working out the geography pretty seriously. I’ve built out a 150 light-year radius from Earth, and while […]
Read moreCategory: sci-fi
A Deep Bench of Tertiary Characters
I have to confess, there’s a small part of me that cringes whenever I realize I need another character. Or characters. Especially a character with a name. Because I know, […]
Read moreSpace Opera Worldbuilding: Building the Non-Humanocentric Universe
You are probably familiar with the Bechdel Test*- while not a test of quality or even feminist credential, it is at least an interesting gauge to be aware of as […]
Read moreWorldbuilding: Space Opera and the Future of Food
I take the food aspect of worldbuilding pretty seriously, as you can tell. This is just as true in Sci-fi and Space Opera as it is in Fantasy. On some […]
Read moreWorldbuilding: Alien Perspectives and Communication
I’ve been thinking of late about how aliens, upon first meeting, would establish communication, as well as how communication continues once those baselines of communication have been laid down. As […]
Read moreWide Sprawling Epic Casts
It’s the nature of sci-fi and fantasy to go big, and big means a cast of “main” characters in the dozens, and hundreds of minor characters. And, as much as […]
Read moreThe Dark Side of Outlining
So, I was reading back through what I had written for Way of the Shield, trying to figure out what wasn’t working, and why it wasn’t. I am still most […]
Read moreAnalyzing Flawed Arc Structure, Part 5
Parts one, two, three and four of looking at Star Trek: Enterprise‘s third season Xindi Arc. “Home”, the third episode* of the fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise served as […]
Read moreAnalyzing Flawed Arc Structure, Part 4
Parts one, two and three. The third act of the Xindi Arc is pretty action packed. On some level, it does make up for the heel-dragging and aimlessness of the […]
Read moreAnalyzing Flawed Arc Structure, Part 3
A continuation of my analysis of the Xindi-arc of Star Trek: Enterprise. Parts one and two. The argument could be made that the first third was a “slow build”, putting […]
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