Unsticking a Stuck Manuscript
Reading Time: 5 minutesFacing a stuck manuscript and unsure how you’re going to unstick the story and finish?
Nonfiction
Nosferatu Is an Homage to Classic Horror Movies, Not Just to F. W. Murnau’s Version
Reading Time: 3 minutesRobert Eggers directed the most recent adaptation of Nosferatu, which is a frankly cynically plagiarized version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. But that’s a story for another day (and a really fun one). In terms of plot, not much differs from F. W. Murnau’s 1922 version: a centuries-old vampire living in a remote castle somewhere in
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Jan. 17, 2025
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes apocalypses, witches, and romantasy from a USA Today bestselling author.
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Generate Story Ideas with Tarot (Here’s How)
Reading Time: 6 minutesTarot cards offer powerful ways for creative people to generate story ideas and work through storytelling issues, including character development and problem-solving challenges.
Best Speculative Fiction Books Read in 2024
Reading Time: 3 minutesAnother year has come and gone, and I thankfully never had reader’s block. I even surprised myself by out-reading my own reading challenge. From yours truly, here are the best speculative fiction books I read in 2024 in no particular order. Disclaimer: Most of these were not published in 2024. Ansibles, perfiladores y otras máquinas
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Jan. 10, 2025
Reading Time: 11 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a magical hairless cat, a serial killer on the loose in a steampunk London, a telepathic monkey on a distant planet, and a girl who is admitted to a magic academy despite the fact that she has no obvious magic.
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Add a Writing Ritual to Your Routine
Reading Time: 5 minutesRecognizing opportunities to introduce rituals and modify our routines for the better can help us create writing habits that stick.
Our Share of Night Review: Horror, Legacy, and Everything in Between
Reading Time: 3 minutesMariana Enriquez is mostly known for her short narrative. We included her in a little list to keep spreading the Halloween cheer last year. Our Share of Night, for its part, is a big, chunky girl. It is also Enriquez’s most ambitious novel to date that keeps her style intact and introduces more horrors and
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Jan. 3, 2025
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a human discovering a long-lost Earth, elves and vampires, time-travel romance, and a solar flare that could destroy humanity.
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Winter Is For Writing
Reading Time: 6 minutesIf during this time of year you’re thinking, “I need something to do,” January is the perfect time to stop wandering, set goals, and adopt new writing habits.
Snow White and the Huntsman: The Power of Gesture
Reading Time: 2 minutesA look at the power of gesture in establishing resonance and character evoked through the interplay of acting, scriptwriting and direction with brilliantly woven callback scenes as the heroine Snow White shows maternal grace to her nemesis Ravenna. Snow White protects herself, heart and kingdom, while holding on to the grace of who she truly is, relating with love and innocence even at the end of a tough battle with a selfish antagonist.
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Dec. 27, 2024
Reading Time: 13 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list is all romantasy with two USA Today bestselling authors.
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Writing Fiction Scenes that Work
Reading Time: 5 minutesWorried about lackluster scenes? Something feeling broken in your story? Return to basics and think through what a scene is and what it can and should do for your story.
The Werecleaner Review: Werewolves Against Capitalism
Reading Time: 2 minutesOne of this year’s surprises is The Werecleaner. You play as Kyle, a janitor at a corporate company. But — you’re actually a werewolf!
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Dec. 20, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list has dinosaurs, warlocks and vampires, and a time travel romance by a New York Times bestselling author.
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4 Magical Must-Haves for Fantasy Stories
Reading Time: 6 minutesInclude these four elements in your story to fit it within the fantasy genre and reach your intended fantasy readers.
After Yang: The Case for Slow-Moving Sci-Fi in a Superhero-Dominated World
Reading Time: 3 minutesSuperhero movies are no doubt the largest science fiction movies that are being released at this time, but I long for films that give the audience to sit, think and reflect. Kogonada’s After Yang gives viewers that opportunity. It’s a gem of slow moving science fiction that we desperately need more of in today’s short form dominated world.
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Dec. 13, 2024
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes epic fantasy, cozy fantasy, dark fantasy — and an EMP attack against Ohio.
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When Characters Do the Unexpected
Reading Time: 6 minutesYour character has done or revealed the unexpected. Now, you must figure out how to navigate your story when the path no longer adheres to your writing plan.
High Vaultage Review: Lovable Detectives in the Big Chaotic City
Reading Time: 3 minutesHigh Vaultage comes fresh off the heels of the Victoriocity podcast, also written by Chris and Jen Sugden. As a disclaimer, I hadn’t listened to the podcast before reading the book, so I was pleasantly surprised the more I read. The book centers on Archibald Fleet and Clara Entwhistle’s efforts and misadventures trying to solve
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Dec. 6, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes two romantic fantasies by best selling authors, dragons battling it out over Detroit, and a space opera box set.
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Plot Turning Points and Story Development
Reading Time: 5 minutesYour story’s plot must include key turning points, which move your characters through the story milestone by milestone.
A Love Letter to Dredge
Reading Time: 3 minutesI cracked my brain trying to come up with a review for Dredge, but what always came out was a lot of gushing over the game itself. So, I decided to change gears a little: This is not a review, it’s a love letter.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Nov. 29, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes an adventure in the multiverse, mysterious artifacts, and a dangerous academy of magic.
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Writing the Self as a Character
Reading Time: 6 minutesHow can we show our readers aspects of our truest selves while giving ourselves enough narrative distance and processing space to write ourselves well?
When Shadows Grow Tall Review: Sometimes the Road Is the Destination
Reading Time: 3 minutesMaressa Voss’s novel introduces an order of wizards that are able to control the four elements and gain insights from them. These wizards live separate from normal people because they’ve been labeled as charlatans and scammers. However, the order—called dactyli—have to interact with the world surrounding them and multiple people to collect varied points of
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Nov. 22, 2024
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes an underground magical society, a plot to move the Earth’s orbit, and an epic historical prophecy.
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Clear Pronouns Mean Clear Writing
Reading Time: 4 minutesAmbiguous pronoun-antecedent pairs hiding in your story may make the difference between reader immersion and reader confusion.
Schroeder Review: Gore for a Reason
Reading Time: 2 minutesNeal Cassidy’s Schroeder presents a man’s one-day killing spree. Although at first the book doesn’t quite explain what is happening, it never slows down or goes easy on the violence. The novel begins with Schroeder starting his daily routine, but it is quickly established this is no ordinary day. Schroeder leaves his house, cruises through
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Nov. 15, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a creepy cult, a trucker dealing with an EMP aftermath, and a space freighter headed off to a mysterious black site. Oh, there’s also dragons and a sexy and magical Christmas mystery.
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3 Items To Jumpstart Your Story
Reading Time: 5 minutesOnce you understand what story you want to tell and what you want to say about it, your task is to get the story on paper. Here are three items to jumpstart your story.
5 Short Horror Books to Extend the Halloween Cheer
Reading Time: 3 minutesIf you feel like Halloween didn’t last enough, here are five books to continue spreading the scares.
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Nov. 8, 2024
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes sexy gay vampires, sexy blue aliens, magical gryphons, and an EMP attack that involves the Statue of Liberty.
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Common Writing Challenges (& How to Overcome)
Reading Time: 6 minutesIf you wanted to write a story to submit but didn’t, what held you back from becoming the writerly unicorn you know you can be?
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Nov. 1, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a sexy druid, a sexy necromancer, a sexy werewolf, and a space marine who’s seen too much.
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13 scariest stories to get you through Halloween
Reading Time: 5 minutesThirteen haunting tales from MetaStellar’s archives that remind us why we should fear the dark — and why sometimes the most terrifying monsters are the ones we create ourselves.
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Show, Don’t Tell, Your Story (Here’s How)
Reading Time: 6 minutesThrough showing, not telling, you provide a more immersive experience for your readers. Here’s how.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Oct. 25, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes space battles, magical mysteries, and a sexy orc.
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Pocket-Sized Stories: Less Text, More Punch
Reading Time: 8 minutesLimited word counts in flash stories require you to make careful and judicious choices of what to keep and what to revise away because in flash fiction, there’s little room for coyness or ambiguity.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Oct. 18, 2024
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes pirates — both the space and the ocean kind — as well as mages and mediums.
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Writing the Other: Fictions and Culture
Reading Time: 6 minutesFiction is unique to human communication, which is fascinating on its own. But why do we still look to fictions? What do they do for us in the modern age? Why does fiction matter? And what considerations must go into crafting culturally honest fictions?
Friendship Is at the Forefront of Shaun Hamill’s The Dissonance
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe book is dynamic and fast paced, with flashbacks and cliffhangers to keep you reading along. It is hard to put down, and I never say this lightly.
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Oct. 11, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a shifter romance by a New York Times bestselling author, a book about a space pirate, and a thriller about climate change.
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7 Story Structures to Know (and Disregard)
Reading Time: 5 minutesStory structure is the framework around your literary jigsaw puzzle, the order into which you organize the events in your story to create a beginning, a middle, and an end. So let’s talk about some common story structures you may encounter while researching storytelling techniques.
Best space operas with kick-ass women
Reading Time: 10 minutesNine favorite space opera series with kick-ass female leads.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Oct. 4, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes dark magic, ancient evils, and serial killers — just in time for the spooky season.
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Deep Black Has Everything You Need: Action, Aliens, and Conspiracies
Reading Time: 2 minutesDeep Black goes deeper into human-alien relationships and what it means to explore the vastness of space. It also questions whether AI should be trusted or not.
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Three Craft Reads For Revising Your Story
Reading Time: 4 minutesMastering story edits isn’t easy, but there are a few books I’ve recommended to my clients repeatedly to assist them during edits, and these are also books I use myself when editing my work. The good news: Once you’ve absorbed the material covered in these books, you’ll be able to apply the lessons over and over without really thinking about them. They’ll become second-nature to your writerly process.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for September 27, 2024
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a romantasy by a USA Today bestselling author, a space opera box set, time travel, and a gaslamp mystery.
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Story Is Goal, Motivation, and Conflict
Reading Time: 6 minutesWhether you are looking for a new story idea, developing an existing story, or beta reading a story for another author, identifying the protagonist’s goal, motivations, and conflicts is important to understand the story’s message to readers.