My musings, however orderly or disorganized they happen to be, about all things fiction and fantasy related. Reading, writing, craft, you name it. And sometimes, the relevance might not be immediately obvious, but I assure you, it will always tie in somehow (and you’ll see how if you read the whole post) into how I write, what I write, or what and how I like to read. Or both, more likely.
I am currently taking an adventure in writing a story from a perspective type I haven't really done before. Most of my novels are written in what I think is called storytellers: something with elements of both omniscent/near-omniscient and a deep 3rd, common in many of the novels I've read from a couple decades ago. …
This one is likely to be a little short, since I have been busy lately preparing some books to be published (or re-published), and have not kept ahead of things. So, today I'm just going to talk a little about something that has been on my mind: how writing stories has broadened my appreciation of …
Continue reading Raina’s Fantastic Ramblings: Discovering Beauty Through World-building
I'm not quite sure how I'm going to go about writing on this topic, even though I've been wanting to for a long time. There's a reason I write – and read – fiction. I think – and articulate – much better in fiction, or at least using fiction. And that means it's much harder …
Continue reading Raina’s Fantastic Ramblings: A Different Approach to Right vrs. Wrong
I think The Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion – not so much The Hobbit – are pretty close to grimdark, or maybe dark. The way people use those two words sometimes gets me a bit confused. I don't think they're exceptionally gory or violent. But I do think they are definitely not about …
Yep. I'm going up against Sanderson. Or at least contesting his model. And why shouldn't I? Why should I have more respect for his opinions and what he likes in a book and magic than my own opinions and tastes? And, no, I'm not going to give you three laws of writing magic, or one, …
The subject of this post is why I sometimes don't edit what I wrote in the past, whether or not I would write it now. I'm not the biggest fan of Tolkein in all ways (why do I even feel the need to say this? I guess because some people are? And some people also …
Continue reading Raina’s Fantastic Ramblings: When Editing Would Be Arrogant
Time. I said I'd write about time. And what does that even mean? What does Time mean? Well, I was talking about Goodness being final and happiness being real, no matter the “ending,” and that I couldn't see a real distinction between that and the ultimate/final/primal I-NEED-A-WORD-THAT-DOES-NOT-HAVE-CONNOTATIONS-ABOUT-TIME-OR-BEGINNINGS-OR-ENDINGS, and I know that ETERNITY won't do at …
Continue reading Raina’s Fantastic Ramblings: What does Time mean?
Okay. This is probably going to be a rambling mess of a blog post since I can't seem to write any nonfiction that doesn't ramble these days. But oh well. Is it a happy ending? Is it a tragedy? Is it sad? Is it like real life? Oh, I like a good escapist story every …
Continue reading Raina’s Fantastic Ramblings: What Makes It a Happy Ending?
Enthralled By Love 