Inking Neon: Light Up Your Stories

In 2006 Peter Watts published Blindsight, a darkly creative and hugely popular sci-fi novel about first contact. We’re reacting to this classic, appreciating its themes, and trying to extract lessons for ourselves as writers. How do you challenge your readers with really creative ideas without losing them? Watts managed it, and we think we know how. Edited by Cullen McHael Produced by Cullen McHae...

Matt Dinniman’s breakout best seller is certainly popular, but is it good? We explore 7 reasons for its runaway success and try to extract some lessons to apply to our own writing. Jump on the ride and let us know what you think we missed!   The book itself: https://mattdinniman.com/books/dungeon-crawler-carl/   00:00 Introduction to Lit RPG and Its Appeal 04:38 Reason #1: The Vibe of Carl 11:15 R...

In episode 7 of Inking Neon we sit down with author J.A. Merkel to discuss sustaining energy in a long running series, and techniques for building emotional realism. J.A. Merkel is the author of The Fall Gauntlet, a gladiatorial science-fantasy series.    Pick up your copy of Bear by J.A. Merkel here: https://store.jamerkel.com/products/the-fall-gauntlet-book-1-bear-ebook   00:00 Introduction to J...

Author Sill Bihagia reads from her book Red Demon and shares insights about how to find your family in science fantasy, what’s next in the world of mushroom brain science, and loads more. Join us and explore the craft of storytelling (and mycelia social networks)!   Pick up your copy of Red Demon by Sil Bihagia here: https://www.sillauthor.com/book-for-sale     00:00 Introduction 03:01 Reading fro...

Swashbuckling adventure author Nicholas Atwater joins us to share hard-earned insights learned from writing his book, Echoes of the Imperium. We discuss how to make your protagonist interesting in more than one way, and also how most great things come from spite. Well… most of our great things. You be the judge?    00:00 Introductions 02:32 Reading from Echoes of the Imperium, Chapter 1 09:02 Why...

Stuart says you’ve got to plot your stories. Cullen isn’t so sure! Maybe you can just fly by the seat of your pants? We lay out our arguments in the (timeless?) Pants vs Plot debate. Also featured: Joseph Cambell was a moron; is Save the Cat worthless?; the creativity of David Lynch; and examples of stirring scenes from Dune Part II and The Fellowship of the Ring. 00:00 The Plotter vs. Pantser Deb...

Stuart J. Tanner and Cullen McHael trade examples of compelling antagonists in speculative fiction from Sci-Fi to Fantasy, deconstruct the role of the antagonist, and offer advice from hard earned lessons about how and when to consider your antagonist in your writing process. Cullen lists nine kinds of antagonist, which one are you?     0:00 Intro 5:28 The Role of the Antagonist 8:40 Antagonist Ex...

Stuart J. Tanner and Cullen McHael share hard-earned lessons about getting your fight scenes right. 0:00 Intro 1:34 What are Fight Scenes For? 10:00 The Fun Element 11:00 Problem Solving 14:39 Scaffolding, Worldbuilding, and Playing With Rules 24:22 The Great Challenge: Clarity 28:25 Examples of Compelling Fight Scenes 32:52 4 Things a Fight Scene Can Do 34:56 Establishing Stakes: Costs, Risks, an...

On this first episode of Inking Neon, journalist, author, and teacher Stuart J. Tanner is sent to Baghdad at the height of the Iraq occupation and discovers that and other strange worlds. We discuss what makes for compelling characters, the process of investigation in writing, and read from Stuart's book Devas: A Sci-Fi adventure in which a serial murder case spirals out of control when a detectiv...