On the 7th of every month over on my Patreon page, patrons can expect to find a new short story that’s around 3,000 words in length. These stories are centered around a character they voted on during the previous month. Writing these (alongside Book 4) has been a very educational experience, and after having five of them under my belt I felt it was a good time to write a blog post about what...

If you thought I was done talking about outlining, than you thought wrong! In my previous post, Power of the Premise Line, we learned how a single, giant sentence with four clauses made up the foundation of story structure: Character -> Constriction, Desire -> Relationship, Resistance -> Adventure, Adventure -> Change. That structure is a sturdy core that will keep you upright through any creative storm. But what if we want to go further?...

You knew this day was coming eventually. Today I’ve joined the legion of content creators out there thumbing their fingers for whatever spare change their dear fanbases have in their pockets. I’m now milking the juicy lifeblood of my devoted fans like a fattened, capitalist leech. Have I no shame?! Sorry about the imagery! In all seriousness, Patreon is a great platform for fans to give their support and for creators to offer them...

Perfectionism is one of the greatest flaws a person can have, yet many of us don’t realize its negative impact on our lives. Some of us are even proud of it, and wear it like of badge of honor. In reality it’s something to be ashamed of, and can hold us back in just about every area of our lives. I’m no authority on the subject but I am an ex-perfectionist myself. So whether...

Every book you’ve ever read in a store and every film you’ve ever watched on a screen follows a timeless structure. It’s invisible; you can’t see it but it resonates with us on a subconscious level. It’s what makes a story a story, and without it, everything collapses. Your fleshed-out characters and detailed world must work within this structure, so do yourself a favor and build the foundation before working on the windows! This...

The third book of the Samurai of Hyuga series presented a ton of challenges for readers. Aside from the usual memory tests, Book 3 introduced deduction puzzles and text-input observations. It also introduced another challenge: scenes with large amounts of characters in them. But keeping track of the cast shouldn’t be a challenge—it’s the job of the author to make it clear who’s in the room and who isn’t. Interactive fiction writers aren’t playwrights,...