Rationally Writing

Dive into the challenges and impacts of using time skips in storytelling, exploring character development, relationships, and plot progression. Discover the balance needed for seamless incorporation of skipped periods, and the significance of showcasing character improvement through failure. Explore the complexities of relationships in fiction and the transition to new generations of characters with long time skips.

Exploring modern fae society in World of Darkness and Fate systems like Dresden Files for immersive gameplay. Blend historical accuracy with creative storytelling in a D&D campaign set in 1713 post-War of Spanish Succession. Dive into the Temeraire series, a historical fantasy world with dragons as key military assets during the Napoleonic Wars.

Authors discuss the importance of research in fiction writing. They cover inspirational and spot research, utilizing expert feedback, and exploring realism in world-building and combat scenes.

Professional game writer Kuiper joins Daystar and Alexander to discuss writing as a skill and ways to improve. They cover topics such as not getting attached to ideas, focusing on specific writing skills, crafting engaging plots, and exploring unconventional methods to enhance writing abilities.

Guest Erratic Errata discusses world building in A Practical Guide to Evil, covering topics like societal axioms, reconstructing tropes, free will and deities, video game inspiration, and differences in worldbuilding approaches.

Exploring reader feedback, the podcast covers topics like Paretto's Principle, typos vs style, continuity, deep criticism, and spoiler feedback. They discuss analyzing trends, actionable feedback, and debating time constraints in novel writing.

Special guest CthulhuRaeJepsen discusses pseudonyms and his story Worth the Candle. Topics include writing under a pseudonym, world-building in a unique game setting, exploring character dynamics and romance in a party setting, narrative significance of quest names and achievements, magic systems and game mechanics in storytelling, and the world of magic items and Forge Frenzy.

Discover the importance of considering second-order effects in worldbuilding for rational plots. Topics include Battle School concept, Inadequate Equilibria as Story Elements, Shadows of the Limelight, Consequence of the Consequence, Aesop Exacerbation, and Confronting Civilizational Inadequacy.

An in-depth analysis of the movie 'The Prestige' covering psychological motivations, plot twists, character complexities, and integration of fantastical elements in storytelling. The discussion explores foreshadowing, clashing ideologies, magic, and storytelling, highlighting the movie's well-constructed and rational aspects. Repeat viewings and the intricacies of the cloning machine as a technological marvel are also discussed.

Daystar and Alexander discuss the portrayal of children in fiction, exploring the challenges of keeping them realistic. They touch on the advantages of child protagonists, the struggle with creating smart/mature children characters, and the impact of predictive processing on stories like 'Wonder'. In Pokemon, they discuss the concept of 'The One of a Species'.