Author Archives: Van Ghalta

We interrupt the Second Pillar of a Great Writer to give you this important news: It’s…complicated. If you want to know how this episode went, it was overall pretty good (with minor complaints I’ll get into in a second), but, as is my wont, I have to give a critique on the whole of theContinue reading “The Last of Us, Episode 9 Review: Thanks, I’m Out Before Season 2”

Wait, hold on: where’s my The Last of Us review? Ah, eagle-eyed reader, you’ve caught me in the act. Daylight savings cut me to the quick last night, and I promise it didn’t have anything to do Octopath Traveler 2. But if I’m honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to watching it, as I don’tContinue reading “The First Pillar of a Great Writer: Fortitude”

Screw it, let’s do something generic. If you haven’t seen something like this before, you’ve been living under a rock since the conception of the human race. We’ve always had programs, plans, roadmaps, step-by-step instructions, manuals, and guiding mentors. The clickbaity “10 Simple Tips to do X” or “You’ve Been Doing Fat Burning All Wrong,Continue reading “The Four Pillars of the Great Writer”

More often than not, vision fuels writing. But the two don’t always coincide: after all, an idea is only ever as good as its execution. If it was as easy to write books as it was to fantasize about great ideas, then 99% percent of the population would be authors (the last 1% would beContinue reading “Writing VS Vision”

Okay, okay, yeah I get it: I talk a little too much about video games for my own good. But have you seen my nightstand? It’s full of books! Full of really, really expensive books ($25 for The Lost Metal in book form is worth every penny, but it’s less cost effective than Guild WarsContinue reading “What You Can Learn By (Video) Gamifying Your Story”

Listen…this show lost my interest two or three episodes ago (I really don’t care to check or remember at this point), but I continue to watch it for the sake of content. I wasn’t really holding on to hope that the show would get better, but every time there seems to be a redeeming quality,Continue reading “The Last of Us, Episode 8: Maybe If The Writers Understood How Setup Works”

That’s all. Really. Be sure to check out my latest novel, Book 1 in the Praetors of Lost Magic Series, and our Publications page. Plus, I mean, it wouldn’t hurt to check out the Resources tab. It’s full of super helpful material and I promise it will help you out. Until then, writers!

Poncho top hats and steam-powered revolvers in a pseudo-fantasy setting? Unique, certainly, but is it better than the tried-and-true tropes of traditional sword n’ sorcery fiction? Both have been tried and to great effect, and the two of them have had certain weaknesses or strengths revealed. But as the Critical Drinker says, “An idea isContinue reading “Generic Worldbuilding VS Unique Worldbuilding”

That’s all. Really. Be sure to check out my latest novel, Book 1 in the Praetors of Lost Magic Series, and our Publications page. Plus, I mean, it wouldn’t hurt to check out the Resources tab. It’s full of super helpful material and I promise it will help you out. Until then, writers!

I’m surprised more people don’t see it yet. How can people still think that this is the new best thing on TV since Game of Thrones or Stranger Things? Watching this show for a review is like treading through a minefield: there’s a 50-50 chance I could step a lovingly-crafted, carefully-adapted scene from the videoContinue reading “The Last of Us, Episode 7 Review: Pure Boredom”