Humans continually modify much of the environment in order to make it more comfortable to live. Yet many places still exist on Earth and our Solar system that are dangerous and uninhabitable by humans, at least for the long term.
Water is the universal solvent, enabling life on Earth, and dissolving the hardest rock to soil over time. It can be the lightest mist, a cloud scudding across a sky so blue it hurts your heart. A mighty torrent of
Often the favourite part of a fantasy book is the map. A land of the imagination, full of cities with strange names, mountain passes guarded by trolls or otherworldly creatures, deserts of unending pain, oceans teeming with mermaids and sea
Designing a new world with its own creatures and plants is a lot of fun. There are so many resources available online that research can be a bottomless pit. However, this depth of knowledge will shine through in your writing.
Writing is quite a personal thing, with authors each having their own idiosyncrasies and quirks to help them imagine and get the words on the page. Books may start in a dream, but like anything worth doing, take days that
A book is a wonderful and amazing thing. You hold in your hands the key to another world, a world that previously only lived in the mind of another person. Inside the imagination of the author live the characters, fighting
Everyone always complains about the weather – do your characters? Or do they sail through the pages in blissful ignorance of the climate? Weather conditions can be a big part of a scene, adding impact in many different ways, from
Crafting descriptions that involve the senses is an important job for a writer. For a reader it helps them to fully immerse in a book, to feel like they have entered a new world – from the creak as a
Fantasy books are often set in a more primitive world where the chance of having a hot shower is minimal and toothbrushes possibly not invented. Likewise, in space, water is at a premium, needing to be recycled over and over.
Insects are all around us, from spiders living in your hard drive and the corners of the room, silverfish eating your precious books, beetles clicking, butterflies fluttering…you get the idea, I don’t have to get all poetic. Insects outweigh us