He can be a warrior and a healer. He can be a leader, and step aside with humble grace when he knows there’s someone better. He can be soft, and strong.

Your male character can be vulnerable *and* competent. He can sing at his coronation under rose petals and also behead Uruk-hai in a single blow. He can cry over the death of his comrade and then venture on a non-stop revenge quest to save his kidnapped wards.

He doesn’t lead the fellowship because he wants to be the leader, they need one after Gandalf and he’s the next best thing. He doesn’t rally the troops before the black gate for ego, he knows there’s a high likelihood of them all dying, but it’s worth it for Frodo’s mission.

While dismissive of the whole ‘second breakfast’ bit, he still makes sure that Pippin gets his extra apple. While he knows they have to keep moving after Moria, he still gives them a moment to grieve.

He’s not afraid to show when he’s afraid so that those around him aren’t shamed into bottling up their emotions. He’s sweet on his horse and a magical healer not with fancy spells, but with soft words and gentle hands.

He comforts the Hobbits when they’re distressed, he listens to Eowyn talk through her fears and nightmares. He knows exactly how to motivate his terrified and exhausted troops that doesn’t boil down to ‘get over it we have a war to fight’.

Recalling from the films off the top of my head, I believe he cries exactly once: After Boromir dies. His softness doesn’t come from his own lack of backbone or self-reliance, it comes from his ability to show his own emotions, and allow others to be vulnerable around him.

They can be more than Mr. Tall Dark and Hansome mysterious love interests. They can be more than bloodthirsty monsters. They can be more than a warning of excess and hedonism. So I wrote it.

I want more stories where the immortality of a vampire is a good thing. They’re an ageless guardian of their descendants, a wealth of knowledge of lived experience erased by the victors in history books, a body that can take dangerous risks in the name of science, exploration, and discovery.

Some of my favorite vampires serve as a critique on what it means to be human, with good people and bad people, and good vampires and bad vampires (see BBC’s ‘Being Human’). Or, it’s not what you are, but what you do that defines you.

In my world, one of my characters sums up the thesis of the perpetual vampire-mortal conflict in this little snippet here:

Vampires often serve as a monster allegory for sinners and the damned, a funhouse reflection of the ‘moral’ and ‘good’ people they prey on who only consume and destroy and never give back. I like flipping that on its head.

If you’re not an evil genius, then write a character who only *thinks* they’re an evil genius while coincidences and shenanigans abound in the background. Write what you know, and with that confidence, you can write something fun and unique. (5)
#amwriting #writingadvice #writersofbluesky

If you don’t know a thing about how to rig a Spanish Galleon and get frustrated researching it, put your heroes on a different ship, or make your hero as unknowledgeable and confused by the process as you are. (4)

Example: I write fantasy, but I hate writing battle scenes, and I’m not a battle tactician. So I just don’t write battle scenes with two giant armies clashing. I write what is easier to conceptualize: chaotic guerilla combat by inexperienced actors. (3)

Just because a trope or an archetype is a genre standard, you don’t have to include it because everyone else is doing it, nor do you have to do it the same way that everyone else is doing it. (2)