Scribbled Fiction

I've already done  10 Underused Concepts in Sci-Fi  and  12 Underused Creatures in Fantasy (click the titles to go to the posts), now it's time for historical fiction to get the spotlight. I don't write a lot of historical fiction myself, but I know there are a lot of historical fiction writers out there! These settings can also be used in a historical sci-fi novel, in a steampunk novel, or even for a fantasy setting. So this is applicable to almost everyone! So on that note: Idea list: activate! The Great Depression. I know that writers like to stray away from talking about people who are broke, on hard financial times, or homeless. It makes people uncomfortable. Well, you know what I say? Good . If you want to make a change, you're gonna make some people uncomfortable. You could write an excellent sci-fi novel based on the next depression that hits the future, or a fantasy world that is hitting hard times. Mesoamerica. Me! Me! I've done this! Whet...

I did another video for the channel!! This time around, I really wanted to show off my character-drawing skills, so I did- and my ego was knocked back accordingly.  Rachel  and I teamed up to try to draw our characters at ten minutes apiece, so... I'll just let you figure out how well that went. Before we start, though, let me show you a picture, just to prove I actually can draw. Okay, just bear that in mind as you watch the video. You have to view in browser to see the video, or if that's not working click here . We definitely want to do a part two sometime! That's it for today! See you this Thursday with a post about why we need darkness in fiction. How do our drawing skills stack up against yours? Which was your favorite drawing? Let us know in the comments! My  Twitter My  Instagram

What is up, my people! I thought that today it would be really fun to write a list of more obscure subgenres for people to try. Bear in mind that this isn't an exhaustive list(a term that here means a list of all the things) of subgenres, that would have to be a completely different thing and would take, wow, a lot of time and energy. Today we're just going to go through some lesser known subgenres to help you find something new and fun to explore. Chances are, after this, I'm going to be writing some really weird short stories, but if I've done my job right, so will you! Fantasy Subgenres Photo by  Artem Sapegin  on  Unsplash Military Fantasy.  Important note: There's lots of fantasy that has military elements, but that's not what this is. Military fantasy is specifically fantasy that focuses on the lives of soldiers. Whether they have magic or they're fighting evil wizards, it focuses on the military and their lives within the world. Science...

Since Rachel already helpfully started me on this series with her post on  world building tropes , I must continue it! Y'all know how I love to talk about tropes and the like. Today's post is on sci-fi, admittedly a newer genre so there are fewer tropes, but there were some I wanted to talk about anyway. So, onward! 1. Questionable science        Ever watch Because Science's video on space battles ? Or. . . any  of his videos? Not only does he break down the actual science of what would and wouldn't really happen in popular stories, the way he does it gives you good ideas for how to write your own story! Now, I'm not saying I want realistic science in everything . I love my wormholes and lightspeed travel and the fact that Peter Quill totally didn't die within seconds of taking his mask off in space! I'm just saying it would be cool to see some more realistic elements involved in sci-fi novels because the ideas that come along with them are AWESOME....

I already did underused creatures in fantasy, and it seemed to be pretty popular (you can go see it  here ), so now I'm doing another one! Since the only creature consistent to sci-fi is, um, aliens, I'm doing concepts instead. So, allons-y! Off we go on our list of ten underused concepts in science fiction. Ever consider: Aliens that are seriously NOT humanoid. Question: Does a fish have arms and legs? No? And yet they function anyway? News flash!  Not all of God's creations are built the same way, so let's have some diversity! Make them something that can be more or less easily imagined, of course, like saying they were a cross between a squid and an albatross, but not all of them have to be humanoid. Humans getting the short end of the stick on everything. A lot of people use the thing where we're underdeveloped as opposed to the other races, but we could even take it a step further. Maybe our lack of unity in our own race is frowned upon by the others...

They're in space. Can I say duct tape? A real question I asked my sister a couple of months ago (to clarify, I was writing a sci-fi novel at the time). Because, I mean, this is a long time in the future. Would it even still be called duct tape? Her response: Of course my characters would have duct tape. After all, it's duct tape . Plus, if Drax suggested Scotch tape, which has only a quarter of the popularity duct tape has, they have duct tape in space. And I needed something for my characters to tape their ship back together with. But anyway. I saw a similar question in a Facebook group this week, and I keep thinking about it. I have a good bit to say on the subject, so I might as well dump everything here while it's still fresh in my mind. The question was posted in the Facebook group Your Write Dream (my favorite Facebook writing group, by the way). It was a pretty long question, so I've decided not to copy and paste, but the basic gist was: If you...

Prince of Persia. Power Rangers Super Charge. Ninjago Season 6. And from what I've heard, Flash (the series). All of these have gotten themselves into such a big mess by the end that they have to go back in time and undo it all just to fix their own mistakes. Time travel is nothing but trouble, and we can all thank our lucky stars no idiot has invented it yet in real life. While it sounds appealing to be able to visit people who lived long ago, or see what the future looks like, doing that would mess everything up. If we traveled to the past, our very presence there would change everything. If we traveled to the future, we would find out what happened in our own time, and our knowledge of that would still screw up time. Because whether we meant to or not, we would change our actions, therefore changing the future we just saw. And now that I'm thinking about it, since the future is constantly in flux, would it even be possible to travel there? But I'm getting off topic....