Explicit references are a key way we continue to communicate complex ideas.
Dispelling Myths about Mythology
Myth is a way of interacting with the world via story, and is as dynamic as the people who tell the stories, whether oral, written, or in any other form. Stories are not themselves the myth – the myth arises from the conversation between stories set within its ecosystem.
A Bias of Good Deeds
Better to be a moral individual, in whatever sphere, than to refrain from doing good for fear that you may not do enough good.
Emergent Space-Time?
Like the properties of fluids, they are asserting that the properties of what we perceive as space-time emerge from some more basic components – the atoms of space-time. Easy enough to say, but what does it really mean?
Types of Stories
Storytelling theory has potential as another tool in the writer’s toolbox, and it was with that mindset that I became intrigued by a 2016 paper purporting to identify six basic emotional arcs which all stories share.
The Physicist’s Rabbit Hole
A good storyteller, like a good engineer, needs to know what assumptions to make, and be aware of the assumptions which could undermine a project.
Unsympathetic Characters
The simplest advice for writing unsympathetic characters is to think of the traits that make it hard for you to sympathize with real people.
Languages in Fiction
Language is a funny thing, and for all authors should be preoccupied with it, we sometimes seem to forget to reflect linguistic variety in our fiction.
Plot Timing
If you want to tell the story of, say, the rise and fall of a civilization, or even an institution, in a way to fully capture it, you are often left to tell the story of a snapshot of that institution and use it as a lens by which to examine the rest.
Aligning Climaxes
Is there a market for stories that break the expected structure, where the climaxes don’t quite align, and are instead more reflective of the timing we might expect in the “real world?” Perhaps.
