The Thinking Man

The Thinking Man

Bradford Walker contrasts the thinking man's pulp hero with the more familiar Man of Action over at PulpRev.com. The Fighting-Man is the default protagonist, but there are other archetypes. They arose out of defining themselves against the Fighting-Man, often in the form of a tradeoff: he's really good at (X)…
September 12, 20175 Comments
DBZ Syndrome

DBZ Syndrome

Author JD Cowan warns writers against making the same mistake with superpowered heroes that Toriyama did with Dragon Ball Z. There's always been a problem getting superpowers across in fiction. For instance, Superman has almost no defined limits to his abilities, which is fine for a Superman tale but it…
September 7, 201711 Comments
Reader Mail: Writing Resources

Reader Mail: Writing Resources

A reader writes: I've been reading the exhortations of John C. Wright, Sarah Hoyt, you, and others for some time about the creation of better art; the coining of the term "Superversive" on L. Jagi Lamplighter's blog felt like a much-needed call to rise up from prison.  Indeed, Daddy Warpig's…
August 24, 20172 Comments
Sword and Sorcery

Sword and Sorcery

Today I had the pleasure of chatting with author Howie K. Bentley about sword and sorcery and sword and planet fiction, including his pulpy masterpiece Under a Dim Blue Sun. We also discussed the state of men's SFF and gave some practical writing tips. Hear all this and more on…
August 23, 2017
Clarity over Cleverness

Clarity over Cleverness

Over at the Castalia House blog, Daddy Warpig dispenses some sage and actionable advice for pleasing readers and thereby making a living as an author. Folks, books are a niche market right now. Novels are a niche of a niche, Fantasy & Science Fiction novels a niche of a niche…
August 22, 20176 Comments
Reader Mail: World Building

Reader Mail: World Building

A reader writes: I recently [read] Cole's article you linked to and I was wondering if you could help me with something. I mean I've been working on a world for awhile now, and I'm uncertain about the first steps I should take about it. Basically, I keep going between…
August 18, 20172 Comments
Get out of Your Way

Get out of Your Way

Best selling author Nick Cole shares some highly profitable productivity tips for authors. This is how you're getting in the way of You the Writer and preventing your success: attempting too much at once unrealistic time estimates procrastinating lack of specific priorities failure to listen well doing it myself--failure to…
August 17, 20171 Comment
Noob Author Mistakes

Noob Author Mistakes

Eighty percent of Americans want to be writers. Few will ever sit down to write a book, and fewer still will actually finish one. That's only half the battle, though, because the literary world is rife with pitfalls that are lying in wait for first-time authors. Publisher, editor, and author…
July 27, 2017

Postmodern Lit Is Cancer

Castalia House Lead Editor Vox Day has been making a strong case that postmodern literature isn't just bad writing, but non-writing, over at his blog. First, Vox relates a discussion he had with a CH author about a bad writing habit that's baffled him for years: What we were discussing…
July 26, 201712 Comments
The Mountain that Writes at Pulp Speed

The Mountain that Writes at Pulp Speed

In which Larry Correia indisputably proves himself not just to be The Mountain That Writes, but The Mountain That Writes at pulp speed: Original thread here. I'll save you the time of counting. Larry is outproducing George R. R. Martin thirteen books to one. The days of authors being picked…
July 13, 201710 Comments