Ever wondered what Avatar: The Last Airbender has in common with 90s D&D arcade games? It’s how they raid the global spice rack to create fantasies we never knew we wanted. In my latest 4theWriters piece, I spelunk into the art of cultural fusion and give you my “Cultural Catalyst Framework”—a three-step guide for writers and GMs to build unique worlds for their novels or TTRPG campaigns. I even show how I used this exact system in my own books to justify werewolves that know kung fu. It’s a toolkit for remixing reality. Read More …

LitRPG is a genre where game mechanics and storytelling hold hands. The trick is making sure it doesn’t turn into a hostage situation. Writing LitRPG can be fun. You essentially get to play-act as a developer (either of tabletop or computer games) without having to put in years of work in another profession. You also get to create immersive worlds, craft intricate levelling systems, and finally give your meticulously built setting the starring role it deserves. What’s not to like? But there’s a trap: get too wrapped up in mechanics and you forget to tell a story, or put characters in it. If you’re afraid your book reads more like patch notes than a novel, you’ve got yourself a problem. If your protagonist spends more time explaining their inventory than actually using it, you might be entering the new genre Read More …

Some of the most compelling stories ever told don’t involve capes, laser eyes, or spandex that never rips. But they do borrow the superhero blueprint to make them unforgettable. From fantasy epics to space operas, from gritty urban crime tales to historical dramas, the core themes that make superhero stories powerful (reinvention, the mask, and the cost of becoming something more) can give any genre a much-needed punch in the narrative gut. I’m about to unleash some storytelling hacks that will elevate your heroes from oddly-boring-despite-the-great-hair to I-must-analyse-their-backstory-in-a-3,000-word-Reddit-post level. Whether you’re writing romantasy (love triangles, but with swords!) or epic space opera (and yes, using an ion cannon on a capital ship is questionable diplomacy), these tricks will make your heroes more relatable, believable, and most importantly, the kind of protagonist who forces readers to sacrifice sleep just to see what happens next. Before Read More …