Characters
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Clair Obscur: To be accountable to those that come after
CROSSPOST FROM COMRADERY. Part of a three part series: Disability (part 1), Right to Exist (part 2), and Accountability and Healing (part 3). In my prior essays, I related themes woven through Clair Obscur to show how it can parallel real world complexities and oppression. For the character of Alicia and Gustave (and even Lune Continue reading
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Clair Obscur Expedition 33 – That which hides hope with scars
CROSSPOST FROM MY COMADERY. Part of a three part series: Disability (part 1), Right to Exist (part 2), and Accountability and Healing (part 3). It may come as a surprise for some players to call Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 a Disabled narrative, and yet that is essential to the core of the story. Several of Continue reading
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The Endings of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — The Game Who Masks Truth And Lies With Beauty
Let’s explore the endings of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by examining the ways the game deliberately misleads the player. We’ll also examine the character of Maelle/Alicia in particular to see what evidence we have concerning her Painter ability and of her morals and personality. NOTE THIS IS A CROSSPOST FROM MY COMRADERY. For those that Continue reading
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Review of The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisen
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin My rating: 5 of 5 stars When I first started this book, the use of second-person as a narrative surprised me, but as the story wove its way through the characters’ lives, I found a fascinating use of third person and second person that gave the narrative a gorgeous Continue reading
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Characterization: The Template
I have a fairly robust character template that I keep regularly updated as I progress through my novels. Character aren’t static, and they do change over time, so I have a section in my template that covers character growth. I try to dig deeply into the psyche of my characters as well as their past Continue reading
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A Primer on Writing Trans Characters
Introduction A question I’m commonly asked is: how does one write a trans character? I also get asked this question in regards to writing gay, lesbian, or bisexual characters, and/or how to write a person of color. There is a lot of overlap in these questions since a person can have a variety of skin Continue reading
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Not Breaking Viewpoint
I listened to this podcast from Writing Excuses the other day, and found it fascinating: World building without breaking viewpoint. I often think about how I can explain bits about my world without breaking the viewpoint of my characters. First, if I’m writing in first person or very close third, it’s a lot harder to Continue reading
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Snow White and Cinderella
One of the reasons I found myself diving into the reinvention of fairy tales is simply because the modern takes on them are too stale. They don’t dig into a lot of the more disturbing thematic elements of the original fairy tales. Now, my purpose isn’t to dig into the more violent aspects that riddle Continue reading
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National Novel Writing Month: Begins Tomorrow at Midnight
Pens ready to go fellow writers? One would hope for tomorrow at midnight, NaNoWriMo begins. I’ll be attending the regional kick-off to see if that helps inspire me to tackle as many words as possible for the first few hours of November. I tend to write in sprints rather than daily word counts, but to Continue reading
Reshaping Reality 