Last week I took a drive up the motorway to the Duchy of Lancaster and to one of the smallest castles in England: Clitheroe. The purpose of this post is to give you some ideas for your world-building and writing. We’ll first look at the castle’s features before exploring what life would have been like in the castle back in ye day.
There’s been a hell of a lot of confusion over this rather significant change in the law, with people offering different advice based on their interpretations of the regulations. It’s fair to say a few people have panicked too, and who’s to blame them with threats of million pound fines for non-compliance.
The aim of this article is to quell those nerves and to offer some practical advice for writers on complying with the new laws.
A good story is grown. It takes weeks, months, of careful nurturing, uncovering the meanings hidden within, fixing characters so they leap from the page, refining plot and prose to make it gripping and immersive. Just like growing a plant, a story requires patience and dedication.
I see many people seeking guidance on how long their novels and stories should be. Having compiled lists of publishers of short and long fantasy fiction I’ve noticed a few trends.
This article looks at the lengths publishers seek for fiction in their various forms: micro, flash, short, novelettes, novellas, and novels. But it begins with a few words of caution.
Diseases ravaged the lives of millions of people throughout the Middle Ages. A combination of bad diet, poor hygiene, inadequate sanitation and an ill-informed understanding of medicine left many people vulnerable to fatal infections.
Given many fantasy stories have a medieval setting, similar circumstances would give rise to diseases in a secondary world. As we’ll see, this presents interesting opportunities for the fantasy writer.
