creature feature: unicorns

Unicorns are the universal mythical creature. You'll find them in nearly every fantasy world for a reason: unicorns are awesome.

The traditional unicorn is a horse-like creature with a horn protruding from its head, and it has the tail of a lion, a billy-goat's beard, and cloven hooves.

Medieval unicorns are the ones we are most familiar with. They have been romanticized and sadly overused. The most interesting thing I find about unicorns is that they are not native to Europe as would be believed. The first accounts of unicorns are from travelers' accounts while in India, though the Indian unicorn was probably more of rhinoceros type creature than the pristine horse-creature we think of today.

review: griffin rising

Griffin Rising by Darby Karchut

The only creature who can harm an angel is another angel.


Armed with the power to control the ancient elements of Earth and Fire, sixteen-year-old Griffin is determined to complete his apprenticeship and rise to the rank of Terrae Angeli.


But first, he must overcome a brutal past if he is to survive in this world. Will the perseverance of his mentor and the love of a mortal girl give Griffin the courage he needs to face the monster still haunting him?

world-building with harry potter

by SP Sipal over at Harry Potter for Writers

The Wide-Angle View of World Building

Most readers cite JKR's world-building as the lure that drew them into the Harry Potter series to begin with. JKR riddled the text with so much fabulously imaginative, fun, and complete detail that readers fully believed, for the few hours they were engrossed in the books, that they were indeed living in a world among wizards and witches, goblins and house-elves, giants and ghosts, and basilisks and hippogriffs.

JKR uses many layers to create her world. Her rich details come into focus through both a wide-angle and zoom lens. The reader experiences these angles simultaneously, but in this post, we'll look at the wide.... >> read more

Zooming in on Your World

In the last post, The Wide-Angle View of World Building, we looked at how JKR used a wide-angle lens to provide the feel of a fully bustling world for her reader. Now let's look closer at the rich texture she provides through a zoom lens.

JKR filled her world with such minute details, and loads of them, that her critics claimed it was over done. But consider her primary market--kids eat this stuff up, quite literally.... >> read more

That Extra Zing

When studying the phenomenal world-building of JK Rowling, I like to break her craft apart into three sets: The Wide Angle Lens, the Zoom Lens, and That Extra Zing.

In building your set, not only do you want your reader to experience a fully alive, intriguing world in wideness and detail, but you want some of those details to sizzle with extra zing.... >> read more

writing YOUR way

Over the past few days, I've been reading several "Writer How To" posts on various blogs. They give lists of "do this" and "don't do that." For a while, I believed these posts. I believed I wasn't really a writer unless I was doing these things and avoiding those things. I can tell you right now...

There is no right or wrong way to be a writer.

point of view

Several of the books I have read lately have had interesting point-of-view choices. Leviathan has two third person limited POVs that switch every two chapters. Griffin Rising has a mixture of third person limited, omniscient, and first person over three or more characters. The Time Traveler’s Wife has two first person POVs with no alternating pattern. There is nothing wrong with any of these choices. The author effectively conveys the story with the chosen point-of-view.

When I write, I use third-person limited. I have dabbled in first person a few times, trying to branch out, but I just can’t do it. For some reason, I can’t get into a story when I write from a first person POV. I can get into second person before first person.

How do you choose which point-of-view to write with? Do you know the difference?