Ring Realms Exploration

On Writing

The Craft and The Writer

© Will Greenway 2000–2025

Writing Inspiration Library

One craft library: merged Ring Realms classics (2000–2007) and expanded Auth-mentors essays (2020–2025). When a topic exists in both, the merged classic page is the canonical version—no duplicate entries.

Spring Valley Writers Workshop: see Online Workshops or email sandwriters@gmail.com.

Featured

Mapping GenreHere is a visual map of genres with around 150 domains. The map was done in super high res (each block is 1024 x 1024) in the source file.3,108 words

Beyond Villains -- Addressing Antagonists in Detail'Villain' is a dated term. It brings to mind a particular kind of bad guy that has become kind of a toothless foil in both the minds of writers and their audiences.4,077 words

Great DialogueGreat dialogue does most of these things, good dialogue does some of them.344 words

Dynamic Beginnings (1 of 2)Writing: Dynamic Beginnings (1 of 2) The opening of your novel or short story is crucial.1,890 words

Tightening ProseEverything about writing is subjective. What isn't subjective are submission requirements.1,779 words

General Word Count Estimates

Looking for Writer Prospects - 2025…

The Hero’s Journey

Tightening Prose

Writing Tips AI Edition

Effective Story

Story Development - Step-by-Step

General Word Count EstimatesThe "official" specs and classification vary by publishing house and editor.376 words

Looking for Writer Prospects - 20250823Two seats available going into August of 2025. My writing group, Spring Valley Writers Workshop is looking for new members serious about writing. Everything is conducted by...733 words

Mapping GenreHere is a visual map of genres with around 150 domains. The map was done in super high res (each block is 1024 x 1024) in the source file.3,108 words

The Hero’s JourneyHere's the Hero's Journey for reference with summary run-downs of how the stages apply to story.725 words

Tightening ProseEverything about writing is subjective. What isn't subjective are submission requirements.1,779 words

Writing Tips AI EditionAnyone who follows my posts knows that I am against publishing AI material as self-authored content.267 words

Effective StoryDon't "tell" stories, present narrative with immersion. Understand that "story" is a narrative with structure- the energy within that structure comes from the adversarial elements (the struggle).446 words

Story Development - Step-by-StepStep 0 - Decide if you are going to invest a bunch of time into writing a story.711 words

Beyond Villains -- Addressing Antag…

Description, The Core Essence

Developing Story Concepts

Dialogue Formatting

Dynamic Beginnings (1 of 2)

Dynamic Beginnings (2 of 2)

More On Dialogue

The Five ‘V’s of Strong Narrative

Writing the “Feels” - Physical / Em…

Beyond Villains -- Addressing Antagonists in Detail'Villain' is a dated term. It brings to mind a particular kind of bad guy that has become kind of a toothless foil in both the minds of writers and their audiences.4,077 words

Description, The Core EssenceA Practicum On Effective Description Describing the world of your story is one of the most important tasks a writer has before him or her when they sit down to compose their narrative.1,675 words

Developing Story ConceptsLet's have a discussion about the nature of people, writing, and creativity.549 words

Dialogue FormattingRULES: 1. New speaker, new paragraph. Every time someone speaks, give its own paragraph. Yes, even if it's only one word, new paragraph. 2. Each paragraph is indented. The only...223 words

Dynamic Beginnings (1 of 2)Writing: Dynamic Beginnings (1 of 2) The opening of your novel or short story is crucial.1,890 words

Dynamic Beginnings (2 of 2)Writing: Dynamic Beginnings (2 of 2) If you read the material on Dynamic Beginnings and the 8 rules for starting a novel or short story, this article contains additional...1,624 words

Great DialogueGreat dialogue does most of these things, good dialogue does some of them.344 words

More On DialogueDialogue punctuation is the same as expositive narrative. The difference is you are marking when a person is SPEAKING, versus thinking or merely observing.279 words

The Five ‘V’s of Strong NarrativeVantage - Viewpoint - Visual - Vivid - Visceral Vantage - Think like a director ...307 words

Writing the “Feels” - Physical / Emotional RegistersGetting a reader hooked into a story is a combination of things- an evocative world, interesting characters, and problems that force those characters into physical and mental extremis.1,548 words

Archetypes in Detail

Briefly on character description

Character Archetypes Relationship R…

Developing Characters -- Milieu + C…

Making Characters Stand Out

Simplistic Character Psychology

Archetypes in DetailNot everyone is familiar with the Jungian archetypes that I have in this wheel.968 words

Briefly on character descriptionCharacter descriptions are turning something like this: Into something like this : Stacy, a petite brunette with dark eyes and hair swished into the office.179 words

Character Archetypes Relationship Roles and DynamicsI made a post that explained the Jungian archetypes. Look at that here: Archetypes in Detail Now let's get in casting those types into relationship roles as shown in this wheel.563 words

Developing Characters -- Milieu + Character synthesisSome people struggle when it comes to characters. A lot of time is because they try to develop the character BEFORE the actual milieu and idea.994 words

Making Characters Stand OutAll characters are "distinct" unless they have the same name and appearance, but how do we make them MORE distinct.552 words

Simplistic Character PsychologyAs part of an answer about triptychs (3 fold elements) in literature I offered a triplet of my own as a model of character behavior.274 words

Scene Choreography (1 of 3)

Scene Choreography (2 of 3)

Scene Choreography (3 of 3)

Handling a Cast of Thousands (1 of …

Handling a Cast of Thousands (2 of …

Handling a Cast of Thousands (3 of …

Screentime for Large Casts

Scene Choreography (1 of 3)In the post on scene construction we talked about the transferring of a basic scene idea onto the page.3,560 words

Scene Choreography (2 of 3)Writing: Scene Choreography (2 of 3) In Choreography Part I, we spent a considerable amount of time getting across the idea of parallelism, and how the serial (sequential)...4,638 words

Scene Choreography (3 of 3)Welcome to the third installment of choreography in scene construction.3,733 words

Handling a Cast of Thousands (1 of 3)Few writing challenges are greater than doing justice to a large cast of characters in a novel or story.2,413 words

Handling a Cast of Thousands (2 of 3)n the first section of this discussion Handling a Cast of Thousands (1 of 3), we covered the concept of cast members and the importance of correctly selecting the viewpoints for telling your story.1,894 words

Handling a Cast of Thousands (3 of 3)Congratulations: you qualify as a legitimate glutton for punishment!1,262 words

Screentime for Large CastsMake sure you really need as many main characters as you are proposing.381 words

The POINT of Point of View

Viewpoint - Taking Another Look

Viewpoint -- Scene depicted in vari…

Viewpoint, Perspective and Time

The POINT of Point of ViewOpinions, viewpoints, perspectives, insights and revelations- all of them are different things, but they have one thing in common; they relate to an individual's understanding...2,654 words

Viewpoint - Taking Another LookIt's clear from all the questions that viewpoint and narrative remain this murky fog that writers hear about but continue on with their exposition.1,866 words

Viewpoint -- Scene depicted in various viewpointsPeople have problems de-tangling viewpoint and narrative. After all, the phrase narrative viewpoint is very common.924 words

Viewpoint, Perspective and Time"Time" is something that many writers don't think about while writing.1,584 words

Artificial Intelligence Replacing WritersThere's been recent talk about the GPT-3 algorithm being able to simulate human writing enough to pass basic evaluation.542 words

Benefitting from “Group Think” as an Aspiring AuthorWriting tends to be a solo thing because of its limited appeal, time requirements, and tough gratification cycle.621 words

Creative MentalityConfession time, want to trigger me in full on RANT? Make a statement like, "I want to learn X, how do I start?" It's rude, but SERIOUSLY, it is this hugely cringe-worthy facepalm kind of thing to me.446 words

Critique Groups and Writer CirclesPerhaps you got a taste of read-and-critique at a conference, or the idea just intrigues you.3,732 words

Fights in fiction, aesthetics versus pragmatismFiction frequently glorifies violence, the nobility and bravery of pitched battle.657 words

Friday HighlightMaking time to write. They say if you want something done, give the task to a busy person.577 words

Making Time To WriteMost people's lives are ruled by clocks and schedules. We have places to be, things to do, and specific hours of the day to do them in.3,372 words

Narrative Punch BackOw. Ever feel like your story is hitting back? I have. A little too much recently.1,999 words

Narrative Tasks (the shorter version)See full post here: Being a Literary Task-master * World / story definition * * World / Story definition is the setting within which the story takes place. It is the...3,838 words

On Power SystemsI frequently see questions related "powers" in fiction; what's good or bad, or how to develop sets or systems.1,790 words

Process - What’s RightShort and sweet, don't be coerced, work the way that objectively causes you the least stress for most productivity.224 words

Re-readability: The Unsung ParadigmA lot of writing guidance focuses on the quality of the elements: an immersive world, interesting and polarizing characters, and some involving contention that gives energy to the story.369 words

Revising the Definition of NarrativeLet's start by posing a simple question. What does the word 'narrative' mean to you?1,282 words

Revisiting the Hero’s JourneyThe hero's journey is this - it has 17 stages : This isn't a ROUTE in a physical sense or even traveling from one place to another.291 words

Scene Construction: Lights, Camera, ActionWriting is considered a creative endeavor, but the biggest part of the process is simply transferring the images in your head into words.2,557 words

Scene PlanningHow many scenes do you need? What's the strategy? My advice, don't worry about the numbers.531 words

Story and StorytellingIn the other post, Revising the Definiton of Narrative (Will Greenway's post in Auth-mentors) we reviewed the meaning of narrative and what a writer's interpretation of narrative should be.1,299 words

SubplotsWhat are sub-plots and how do you define them. First let's establish what plot REALLY is.1,092 words

The Author-isms GuideCredit to the 1990 original by Bruce Sterling Part One: Words and Sentences Brenda Starr dialogue Long sections of talk with no physical background or description of the characters.3,785 words

The Hero’s Journey and the Oral TraditionHomo-sapiens have wandered the surface of Earth for at least 150 millennia.1,022 words

Understanding the Plot TypesSome people reject the idea of there being only seven plot types.555 words

When To Use a HookNot enough writers know the answer to this question, or maybe just don't think about their audience enough.230 words

World Building is not Just for Genre WritersOverview When we see the term "world building", many writers tend to associate this concept with genre fiction, specifically science fiction, fantasy, and often horror as well.1,758 words

Writing: Scene business, style, and dialogueViewpoint is one the most important aspects of writing. It is the eye through which readers see your work.2,493 words

Essay and Article Introductions

Marrowshire Fiction Index

Shadow of the Avatar (Ch 01 - 10) -…

Short Fiction Index

The Voyages of the Solomon Grundy (…

Essay and Article IntroductionsWhat is the thinking process when creating an introduction paragraph?593 words

Marrowshire Fiction IndexPerformance Done Ring Realms Style Marrowshire Pilot Episode Marrowshire -- Flavor Anecdote -- A Bard's Travail Marrowshire: Precursor 1 Marrowshire: Precursor 3 Marrowshire:...40 words

Shadow of the Avatar (Ch 01 - 10) -- Post IndexShadow of the Avatar BOOK 1 -- Shadow of the Avatar -- Ch 0 Book 1 - Shadow of the Avatar - Ch 1 Book 1 -- Shadow of the Avatar -- CH 2 Book 1 - Shadow of the Avatar - CH3 Book...618 words

Short Fiction IndexSampling of Shorts By Will Greenway Thrill Stoic The Eyes Have It The Rod Naked Craze Vamptection The Golden Memories Sci-Fi Fiction -- Ebondawn Psychedelic_Electrons Short...31 words

The Voyages of the Solomon Grundy (Index)Voyages of the Solomon Grundy -- Sci Fi Flavor (The Setup) VOYAGES OF THE SOLOMON GRUNDY - CLIVE'S JOURNAL (PART 2 - SPACTASTROPHY) VOYAGES OF THE SOLOMON GRUNDY - CLIVE'S...114 words

Show Not Tell: The Story of Slog

Atomic Narrative

Being a Task Master

First Steps Toward Skillful Storyte…

What's in a Story?

Is That Plot Thickening?

Narrative storytelling the long and…

The Energy of Showing and the Gravi…

Talking the talk, writing the talk

Ticks, Quirks, and Flaws: Point of …

Reaching for the Golden Ring of Sto…

The Write Decision?

Having Not-So-Great Expectations

Writer's Tools: A Topic of A-muse-…

Are We There Yet: Finishing A Novel

Focus: Putting the 'Product' in Pro…

Advise Materials and Online Worksho…

Writing Conferences (Part 2 of 3)

The Pursuit of Publishing

Show Not Tell: The Story of SlogShow Not Tell: The Story of Slog

Atomic NarrativeAtomic Narrative

Being a Task MasterBeing a Task Master

First Steps Toward Skillful StorytellingFirst Steps Toward Skillful Storytelling

What's in a Story?What's in a Story?

Is That Plot Thickening?Is That Plot Thickening?

Narrative storytelling the long and short.Narrative storytelling the long and short.

The Energy of Showing and the Gravity of ExpositionThe Energy of Showing and the Gravity of Exposition

Talking the talk, writing the talkTalking the talk, writing the talk

Ticks, Quirks, and Flaws: Point of View and the Essence of CharacterTicks, Quirks, and Flaws: Point of View and the Essence of Character

Reaching for the Golden Ring of StoryReaching for the Golden Ring of Story

The Write Decision?The Write Decision?

Having Not-So-Great ExpectationsHaving Not-So-Great Expectations

Writer's Tools: A Topic of A-muse-mentWriter's Tools: A Topic of A-muse-ment

Are We There Yet: Finishing A NovelAre We There Yet: Finishing A Novel

Focus: Putting the 'Product' in ProductivityFocus: Putting the 'Product' in Productivity

Advise Materials and Online Workshops (Part 1 of 3)Advise Materials and Online Workshops (Part 1 of 3)

Writing Conferences (Part 2 of 3)Writing Conferences (Part 2 of 3)

The Pursuit of PublishingThe Pursuit of Publishing

Content Creation by Paradox Concepts

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