“Celeste And Jesse’s script… is shapeless and witless, aiming for an offhandedness in the interactions that instead comes off as contrived, or sometimes just bland” – AV Club review of […]
Read moreCategory: writing
Villains with Clear Motives
This weekend I watched last year’s premaquel* of The Thing. It was… fine. That’s really all I can say about it. It achieved its goals, given that its goal was […]
Read moreEvolving from a Fandom of One
Back at the ArmadilloCon Workshop, the fantastic Mark Finn talked a bit about that moment that many writers dread: when someone approaches you with “the idea”. Now, in this case, […]
Read moreFuture Worldbuilding: Aliens, Form follows Function
Alien life can take all sorts of shapes and sizes. When it comes to the various flora and fauna of other worlds, there’s no limit to where your imagination can […]
Read moreFuture Worldbuilding: How I Love Spreadsheets and Map Tools
All right, so I’ve talked about mapping things out and alien civilizations, but when dealing with things on an interstellar scale, when you’re talking about 4660 stars within a 100 […]
Read moreFurther Smaller Steps For Man
Yesterday was a pretty amazing day, one that gives me a lot of hope for the future of the human race. For one, Curiosity landed on Mars, and even though […]
Read moreArmadilloCon After Report
So now, it’s all over. I’m still not recovered yet, so some of this may be incoherent. Friday we first had the Writers’ Workshop, which went very well. From the […]
Read morePreliminary ArmadilloCon Schedule
I have my schedule, which is, of course, subject to change. As with any large, live event with a lot of moving parts, things are subject to change. A rule […]
Read moreRecognizing our Blind Spots
Every writer has their blind spots. Weak points in their writing born from their style, their biases, their personal preferences. For me, I know exactly what my big one is: […]
Read moreSitting at the Grown-up Table
Two weeks from tomorrow ArmadilloCon kicks off*, starting with the Writers’ Workshop. I’m really excited. This is my second year on the teachers’ side of things for the Workshop, and […]
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