As part of the ongoing "Flashback Friday" series, I am reposting content from this blog's archives. An article on this subject was originally posted in May 2014. It seems that, in general, the stories that get read the most are those that manage to get a number of people talking about a book, or those … Continue reading Flashback Friday: What Stories Should We Read?
Category: Art
People have been telling a form of fantasy stories for as long storytelling has existed. Even when the hearers or readers believed them, tales of the gods, of floods and warriors with superhuman powers still had strong fantastic elements. Yet not every fantasy has lasting power, where it gets passed down from one generation to the next. … Continue reading The Three Elements of a Memorable Fantasy Story
I watch "The Nutcracker Ballet" every year around Christmastime, usually via film, and over the years, I've easily seen a dozen different versions, so I thought it might be fun to share the top five versions of this classic story (and later this week, we'll discuss why this story has had such staying power as … Continue reading The Best Versions of “The Nutcracker Ballet”
I wanted to spend some time looking at Christian engagement in culture and the arts, and naturally, I turned to C. S. Lewis to see what he might have to say on the matter. In his article, "Christianity and Culture," he explores whether Christians ought to be involved in producing culture in the first place. In response … Continue reading C. S. Lewis in Defense of Culture and His Vocation
Recently, I've been dealing with...well, we won't call it writer's block. I wasn't out of things to write, merely stumped on how to get from Point A to Point B without creating major plot holes. And it was very tempting to just skip the problematic bit and go ahead to the next chapter or section, … Continue reading Do You Write Chronologically?
I've been dealing with writing romance lately. Not the genre but the plot component, the seemingly inescapable phenomenon that crops up when writing fantasy, science-fiction, historical fiction, and just about any other genre, provided you have a few single characters floating around. And I've written about how authors can woefully get a romance wrong before, and … Continue reading The Art of Making a Good Match
I've been busy working on revising and rewriting the first few novels in my science-fiction/fantasy series, and while it's been going very well, I've been feeling a bit disconnected lately from you, my readers and fellow bloggers. So I propose a blogging potluck. Everyone brings a dish to share (in this case, a link of … Continue reading Calling all bloggers, within the sound of my voice…er, reach of my words?
As Patrick from patrick's thoughts reminded me in his comments on my initial post on writing as a Christian, Christian authors have a standard to uphold. We cannot approach novel writing just as non-Christian novelists do. 1 John 1:6 says, "If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and … Continue reading Should Christian Novels Should Be Different?
In writing, there is generally a push to be original, as there is with most art. To do something new, exciting, and fresh. To break out of the old molds and create a masterpiece. But I think most of us write a more "collective" version of fiction, where we share a theme, an archetype, a trope, or … Continue reading Archetypes and Variation Fiction
I recently discovered a whole new (to me, at least) kind of fiction, where you don't have to focus on the story. You don't have to figure out your main question and answer it. You don't even have to wrap up all the loose threads for it to be complete. This is the sensational novel. In … Continue reading Writing a Novel for the Senses
Andrea Lundgren 