Writing Archives - Robin Catling

Hero-Saviour-Monster-Villain

At the center of my series is an antagonist who is all things to all men: Hero-Saviour-Monster-Villain. My challenge? To […]

With the latest accidental project I need to understand the conventions of the Urban-Fantasy Genre. As if I don’t have

Unplanned, unintended, unhinged; the finished novel is full of not-so-accidental tropes. Welcome to genre fiction.

When one vignette comes to life, a hack actor goes from bit-player to leading light. And a short story spawns

In a re-interpretation of the hero’s journey, the true hero is the fool who longs for home. It’s about the

According to writing coach Eva Langston, any novel has to complete five tasks on page one. We can agree those

As the protagonist resists engaging with the external plot. the First Quarter Debate powers the first act of a novel.

Sequels, re-boots, and ‘reimaginings:’ are there no new stories only new twists? What happened to originality?

This is a problem with the fantasy genre: magic conjures a plot hole. Usually an entire Swiss cheese of plot

What are the six essential action-genre story beats? The lack of which strips the novel of both genre and story?