Fantasy
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We need to understand there’s a difference between not making an FMC “one of the boys,” and allowing characters to explore gender expression without limit. No, we shouldn’t be implying that following traditional (and often also toxic) standards of masculinity is better than following anything attached to traditional femininity. But many discussions nowadays don’t understand…
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Every week since Christmas, someone disappeared from the village. They always came back—a bit dazed, not really scuffed, and with no memory whatsoever of where they’d been. They were gone for two or three days at a time—just long enough for their friends and family to start fearing the worst. In a way, the returning…
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On the edge of the cliff, she had only a second to decide. In only a moment, the other initiates would be upon her. Sabrie didn’t exactly want an audience if this failed; but the fear still curdled in her stomach whenever she thought about attempting the jump anyway. Voices shouted through the trees. Each…
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Harry Potter may be a series in the technical term; but I’d like to argue it wasn’t initially meant to be one coherent saga, and the transition hindered the story more than helped it. How could that be, you ask? The series is clearly the journey of the chosen one to defeat the feared Dark…
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It’s impossible to live without bias. Merely by existing, we’re exposed to other people, other media, and other ideas. We have experiences that shape what we think and how we behave. We spend our entire lives forming, sharing, and breaking our opinions. As such, no written work (or any creative work, really) can ever be…
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The plants liked her the most, she knew. And she wasn’t really angry at them. As she knelt, her knees sinking into the dirt, she reached for the ground; the browned vines wreathing across the ground, preparing to fall dormant for the winter. Even when they weren’t growing, they needed nourishment—one last send-off before Abigail…
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It’s your destiny, he told himself, pacing before the narrow window. The few armor plates he’d managed to affix thus far weighed heavy on his limbs. The rest scattered over the table in the dim stone room. He was supposed to be tying them on and parading out to the noblemen awaiting him in the…
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They told him not to go out on the rocks, even when the sea was soft. The waters were still deep, and it only took a moment to lose your footing, with the shock to drag you down whenever the waves weren’t around to do so. Nonetheless, Quinn defied the warnings of his elders and…
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She pushed into her chair, arching her back until her muscles rippled with a satisfying burn. Then she glanced out the window. Her stomach folded into a knot. The sky had never been that color before—flat, inky, and impenetrable. She fought down a flare of anxiety as she sent her final file, entered her time…
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Normally, she liked the cool touch of the stone beneath her bare feet; but tonight, it only felt stiff and icy—like a foreshadowing of the mood that awaited her. She fidgeted with the skirt of her dress as she waited for the council to settle into their seats. She knew she wasn’t going to lie…she…
