One of the most wonderful and terrifying things about becoming a novelist is there’s no one “right way” to do it. It’s wonderful because it means anybody with writing talent (and some without) can do it, and it’s terrifying because it can be daunting to choose how to begin, where to go and what to… Continue reading Book Review: Mogworld
Author: BlueInkAlchemist
Into The Nentir Vale, Part 1
The Nentir Vale is a campaign setting provided to new players of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. It’s present in the Red Box and most of the starting materials. For a party almost all completely new to D&D and a DM re-familiarizing himself with the latest edition, it’s a great place to start a campaign.… Continue reading Into The Nentir Vale, Part 1
Opening The Red Box
Last night was a little different. Normally on Sunday nights I stay at home with my feet up and possibly lacking a pair of pants, and every other week I twiddle my thumbs while I wait for Classholes time to come around. Not last night, though. About mid-afternoon I put on pants and sallied forth… Continue reading Opening The Red Box
The Blue Ink Bump
When Stephen Colbert mentions someone or something of import on his show, he’s giving it “the Colbert Bump.” Even his constant assault upon Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity draws attention to that event – which, by the way, I think I might be making time to attend. I’ll be bringing my indoor voice, as… Continue reading The Blue Ink Bump
Extra Credit
A quick one today: if you haven’t already, cruise over to the Escapist and check out a little feature called Extra Credits. So far they’ve proven to be brilliant, insightful and pretty funny at times. It’s a look at what games are made of, how they influence us, what they mean and how we can… Continue reading Extra Credit
IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Moon
[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/moon.mp3] Remember that stuff I said last week about science fiction? In that context, an animated space western was being discussed. On the Moh’s Scale of Science Fiction Hardness, I’d probably put Titan A.E. at between 0 and 1 out of 8. Duncan Jones’ Moon, on the other hand, comfortably sits between 6 and 7.… Continue reading IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Moon
Gamers, Fanboys, Behavior and Respect
Since I and others may get worked up over this, here’s a picture of our kitten. I try to keep the contents of this blog focused on storytelling and the best ways to do it in modern media. One of those forms of media is games. Video games, to be precise, and it’s a form… Continue reading Gamers, Fanboys, Behavior and Respect
Keep Yourself Out
Phillip Pullman has published an article expressing his dislike of stories in the present tense. He makes some good points about some of the limitations of present tense, which I feel extend to some of the limitations of first person perspective. But that’s a subject for another post. What came to mind even as I… Continue reading Keep Yourself Out
Story's End
Some of my favorite stories have been ruined because they’ve gone on too long. Even stories I’ve been lukewarm about have taken a turn for the abysmal when more story has been tacked on when it wasn’t needed. It’s so common that it’s been dubbed “Sequelitis” by the Tropers. It’s informed some of the decisions… Continue reading Story's End
Said Lives!
Let me take you back to elementary school. Junior high or middle school, maybe. Going back a ways for some of us, I know. Just when we were getting started in writing, putting words together in ways that made sense, our teachers told us something that was meant to help us. “Said is dead.” All… Continue reading Said Lives!
