The fantasy genre may be a vast, magical landscape, but there are always three core areas of any fantasy story that are key – worldbuilding, magic systems, and themes. If you’ve always wanted to try your hand at writing a fantasy story, these areas are a great place to begin your fantasy journey – check … More The Basics of a Fantasy Story
Wordcounts are a stable of any writer’s life. They’re an excellent way to measure progress through a draft, and a good way of working out how your pacing is working through a story. But they’re not everything, and here are my three reasons why: You can pick other goals I’ve spoken before about writing goals, … More Wordcounts aren’t everything
‘Sticks and stones my break my bones, but words will never hurt me’. It’s an old adage, one which is rattled out again and again to try and say how words are only mere words and therefore are 100% less efficient at ruining someone’s good day than throwing a few stones at them. However, here … More Choosing the Right Words
Where can you find inspiration? Well, I’ve got some top tips on how you can find inspiration when you can’t find any – you can check out my guest blog on Inspired Lines Editing right here! Photo Credit: Shelby Miller on Unsplash
Get a hobby, people say. Normally roughly around the time when you’ve sighed about work and not having much to do at the weekend. But then, finding a hobby is easier said than done. Especially when you’re in the middle of a slump and staring down the barrels of existence wondering how on earth life … More Why writing is a good hobby
To say I cannot write would be an understatement. To say I was a perfectionist would be a truth. To say I was a dreamer would be realistic. There are words locked within my mind, this I know. It’s the same feeling when you know that someone is standing behind you, but just out of sight. They … More Why I Write
My other lockdown hobby, aside from trawling through Netflix and trying to make my chilli plants grow, is baking sourdough. As someone whose never really baked consistently before (apart from the odd cake), I hopped onto the good old baking bandwagon back in April last year like many other Brits. In doing so, I had … More Writing Lessons from Soughdough
The other day I finally got around to watching Hannah Gadsby’s most excellent one hour Netflix special Nanette. I’d already watched her following show, Douglas, (which if you haven’t watched it by the way, is a masterclass in technical comedy), but I’d never had the space to sit down and engage with her first special. … More Stories (and your stories) are important
What if there were dragons? What if there weren’t dragons? I was having a rather in depth conversation the other day regarding worldbuilding. In the short space of one hour, an entire world had been created, backstories for the character filled out, and a small movie adaptation was already being brainstormed. One reason I am … More The World of “What If”
Back in 2019, I spoke about what I learnt from travelling around Asia, and then what I learnt around travelling to the south of France. I love traveling and experiencing new places. This love is a relatively new endeavour, but it is one I will cherish for the rest of my life. Ever since I … More Learnings from my (Not) travels
Alex.J.Cobalt 