L.G. Estrella's Blog, page 59

An Amusing Observation About My Hand and Signature

I haven’t been able to completely reproduce the original version of my own signature for years now, ever since I broke my right hand (I’m right handed). The one I use now is similar, but not quite the same. I just can’t get the writing to look exactly the same since the geometry of my hand is different, something that becomes obvious when you compare my right and left hands to each other.

It could be worse.

The knuckle of my little finger on my right hand isn’t quite in the position it should...

Gaming and Time Availability

What makes a video game good? There are a lot of different things that go into making a game good, but today I’d like to focus on something that often goes unnoticed: time availability.

We often think of the best games as being those that we can sit down and play for hours on end. Such games are engaging, immersive, and often highly detailed. However, there are contexts in which those qualities can be disadvantages rather than advantages.

Consider a situation in which you’re riding a bus and...

The Gunslinger and the Train to Hell is now Available on Amazon

The Gunslinger and the Train to Hell is now available on Amazon! It is the sequel to The Gunslinger and the Necromancer, making it the second part in the Lizzy Stanton series. If you like Westerns with a healthy dose of the supernatural and plenty of atmosphere and action, give it a try! You can get it from Amazon here. And here is the blurb:

Lizzy is a bounty hunter, and hunting down demons for the Church is something she knows like the back of her hand. So when her brother, Matt, asks her t...

The Cutting Room Floor

One of the most fascinating things about writing original fiction is the drafting process. During that process, one that typically involves some combination of planning, revision, and improvisation, it’s almost inevitable that not everything makes it into the final version of the story. There are all sorts of reasons for that.

Perhaps the most common reason is that some aspect of the story changes in a way that makes part of the story obsolete. Imagine that you’re writing a story in which the...

Cake (The Unconventional Heroes Series)

This is an excerpt from a scene that didn’t make it into the final version ofTwo Necromancers, an Army of Golems, and a Demon Lord. It features Gerald the bureaucrat, a protoplasmic horror named Sam, and a young necromancer named Katie. If you’re interested in reading more, you should start withTwo Necromancer, a Bureaucrat, and an Elf.

Gerald was halfway through the slice of cake he’d snuck out of the kitchen when he felt something tap him on the shoulder. He turned very, very slowly and fo...

Writing Short Stories Is Not The Same As Writing Novels

One of the most common misconceptions I’ve heard is that short stories are easier to write than novels because they are shorter. I don’t agree. In fact, I think short stories can be as difficult to write as novels, sometimes even more difficult.

A novel’s length is certainly imposing. Putting together upward of 60,000 words of coherent prose is not easy. But that length is also a powerful advantage. A writer that has tens of thousands of words to develop the plot, characters, and setting of a...

The Wood of Endless Night is now Available on Amazon

The Wood of Endless Night is now available on Amazon! It’s set in the same world (albeit far in the past) asThe Burning Mountains. If you like fantasy with rich prose, terrifyingdragons, and ancient evils, give it a try. You can getThe Wood of Endless Night from Amazon here. And below is the blurb:

Far to the west, beyond the Burning Mountains where only dragons live, there is a place where the sun is always warm and the winds are always kind. It is called the Pleasant Wood, and it was there...

My First Story

I can only vaguely remember the first proper story that I ever wrote. I was either in kindergarten or first grade, and the story itself was rather more violent than was probably appropriate for a child of that age. I believe it involved space pirates, grenades, and a great deal of poorly described violence and explosions.

Regardless of whether or not that story was good (and I suspect it was, even for a child, not particularly well written), what I remember most clearly is how my parents reac...

A Conversation

“I have often wondered why so many endorse plain speech in writing,” said the first writer.“Should writers not aspire to greater things than mere colloquialism? Should they not seek prose that overflows with both eloquence and sophistication?”

The second writer laughed.“Are you an idiot? What’s the point of writing something if nobody can understand what you’re saying?”

Yet the first writer was not amused, saying with a stern expression,“Why should a writer mollycoddle the reader? If the read...

Some Thoughts On Character Development

Characters are one of the most important parts of a good story. Having interesting and engaging characters can go a long way toward capturing the attention of readers. Indeed, readers may even ignore a story’s flaws if they like the characters enough.

One way to create better characters is through proper character development, which occurs when characters change as a result of their experiences in the story.

Perhaps the best examples of this occur in coming-of-age stories in which a child gro...