Getting Dressed Getting Dressed By Megan Cutler | October 16, 2015 | Comments 1 comment This is what it looks like when a princess rebels. Every dress I own was strewn across my bed, a tangle of silk and sequence. The high-necked navy and turquoise dress with the peacock feather train. The form-fitting emerald dress with silver ivy brocade. There were splashes of ruby silk and velvet black dotted with … Read More Read More
Getting Inside a Character’s Head – Part 2: Answers with Domerin Getting Inside a Character’s Head – Part 2: Answers with Domerin By Megan Cutler | October 12, 2015 | Comments 2 comments When I wrote a few weeks ago about exercises for getting into a character’s head, I flashed back to my old Livejournal days. There, I answered many a questionnaire about my characters. I thought it might be fun to do it again. So I’ve used my own exercises (in brief) with one of my favourite … Read More Read More
That’s Gonna Leave a Mark That’s Gonna Leave a Mark By Megan Cutler | October 9, 2015 | Comments 1 comment The trick to leaving your mark is to start early, her father’s words rang in her ears as she stood just outside the testing chamber. Start the moment you walk through the first door. Grab their attention. She didn’t know how she was going to manage that. Her father’s method had most likely involved vast … Read More Read More
We have Something in Common We have Something in Common By Megan Cutler | October 2, 2015 | Comments 1 comment Despite the incessant ding of the open elevator doors indicating he had reached his destination, Domerin Lorcasf lingered in the small metallic chamber with his arms crossed over his chest. “Good morning, Argus,” he called to the empty air. “How are you?” “Greetings, Commander Lorcasf,” the monotone voice sounded all around him. Somehow, it always … Read More Read More
Letting Go Letting Go By Megan Cutler | September 28, 2015 | Comments 0 Comment I often have strange, vivid dreams. I’ve long made practice of journaling my dreams, which encourages you to remember dreams more frequently. I have always used this to farm story ideas. Sometimes, my brain provides other nuggets of wisdom. I have a reoccurring dream that I get angry. I don’t mean normal, every day angry … Read More Read More
Committing a Crime Committing a Crime By Megan Cutler | September 25, 2015 | Comments 1 comment He had always been light on his feet. It was how he got the name; Silkfoot. He often boasted he could prance across a cloud. If he was wrong, no one would ever be able to prove it. A quick glance across the room confirmed his lumbering partner moving with the same silence, if not … Read More Read More
Getting Inside a Character’s Head – Part 1: Questions Getting Inside a Character’s Head – Part 1: Questions By Megan Cutler | September 21, 2015 | Comments 1 comment Characters are central to any story. If your characters aren’t interesting, no one’s going to spend 100+ pages reading about them. Interesting characters are three-dimensional; there’s more to them than their appearance and motivation. Just as your world should have pieces that move unseen in the background while your characters are elsewhere, every character should … Read More Read More
Obsession Obsession By Megan Cutler | September 18, 2015 | Comments 3 comments How do I make a man like the archmage love me? He is surrounded every day by beauty and power. He is inundated with it, steeped in it. And I am so ordinary. A skilled warrior, yes, but in an army of the elite. If it were simply a matter of skill, of proving my … Read More Read More
How They Relate to Their Race How They Relate to Their Race By Megan Cutler | September 11, 2015 | Comments 3 comments He had climbed to the top of the highest mountain to kneel at her feet. It had not been an easy journey. She had made it difficult. From the moment she felt him seeking her location, she had resigned him to misery if he wished to see the task completed. She could have traveled instantly, … Read More Read More
Killing Your Darlings Killing Your Darlings By Megan Cutler | September 7, 2015 | Comments 1 comment I’ve never enjoyed editing my work (though I have come to love the end result). Don’t get me wrong; editing is a necessary evil. No writer can form perfect prose the first time around. But editing takes much more effort for me than writing. It inevitably ends up a slog. And for a long time, … Read More Read More