Philip Overby – Page 4 – Mythic Scribes Test Site

10 Easy Steps to Crush Creative ADD

You’re working on your current project when a beautiful faerie lands on your laptop and says, “Hey! Why are you writing this boring story? Look over here!”

Wow, a story about elven wyvern hunters in 18th Century Central America is much more interesting than my current Work in Progress (WIP) about mutant horse-thieves in a post-apocalyptic world ruled by centaurs.

The faerie grabs your hand, hovers it over a new Word document, and jumps up and down on your finger until you left-click it. Ah. Like sinking into a warm bath. The feeling of cleansing away your dirty, stinky WIP and starting a pristine, new document, that little blinking cursor sending shivers up your spine.

Writing Without Pants – Does Outlining Kill Creativity?

by Philip Overby

I’m not wearing pants. However, when writing novels, sometimes I like to sit in my jeans or maybe pajama bottoms. Wait a minute. I know what you’re thinking. “Is he really going to talk about the benefits of writing with or without pants?” Well, I was going to…

I think the more appropriate question might be, “How do you write?” Do you write with no pants (aka “seat of the pants writer” or “pantser”) or do you write with all your clothes laid out (aka “outline writer”)? This is an age old question that is often batted back and forth between writers of all types. When it comes to fantasy writing, boy, do you have a lot of work to do.

I’ll go point by point (with no pants), explaining why just making stuff up as you go along vs. outlining and world-building every minute detail can be both a pleasant and horrifying experience: like getting drowned by mermaids.

Sword & Sorcery Film Classics: Conan the Destroyer

by Philip Overby

So first you may be saying, “Film classic? Conan the Destroyer? Ha!”

Hear me out.

This isn’t going to be a glowing review of why Conan the Destroyer is the best movie ever made. Nor will it be a review trashing a movie that is maligned by most fans of fantasy cinema. It will be “balanced.” Meaning I will give both points and counterpoints to why I love/hate different aspects of this movie.

Come along with me on a journey. Not a journey to slay Dagoth, but a journey nonetheless.

Give Up: You’ll Never Be Published

by Philip Overby

With self-publishing on the rise, you can now bypass the traditional route, but there are still some of us out there that prefer the “submit, submit, submit” method.

So why won’t you get published either way?

Well, let me tell you, young grasshopper. It could simply be that you’re not finishing anything.

Here are five reasons why:

How to Obliterate Writer’s Block

by Philip Overby

“I’m stuck.” These two words ring in your ears.

That blank page. The blinking cursor. After three hours of hard-work, all you have is this:

The Knight of Moonberries
by John R. R. R. R. Johnson

The knight walked…

And that’s it.

That blank page is waiting for you to blow it up. Fill it full of holes. Slash it, burn it, run over it with a tank.

So here I am to tell you how to forever and ever, eliminate writer’s block from your vocabulary. These are 5 ways (maybe not the Top 5, but nevertheless 5 ways) to smash writer’s block in the face and send it spiraling out into the cosmos.

The Impatient Writer’s Guide to Getting Published

by Philip Overby

Tired of waiting months, weeks, or even days to hear back about your manuscript? Is that 500,000 word door-stopper just desperate to get immediate feedback? Do you like fast food, Twitter, and teleportation?

For those of you that want feedback from an editor yesterday, this is your guide to immediate success. Until recently, I’d never been published, but it wasn’t because of lack of talent. It was because I didn’t use these steps to woo the editors over. Now that I’ve done so, I finally got my short story collection, “Stories that Start in Inns,” published. Go buy it! Now!

You too can pursue your publishing dreams. Just follow these five easy steps and wait for the money to roll in!

Final Fantasy Reimagined: J-RPG+Western RPG=Awesome?

by Philip Overby

With some fans thinking the uber-popular Japanese RPG staple Final Fantasy (hereafter referred to as FF) to be on the decline, more players are turning to the tighter stories and open-ended worlds of games like Dragon Age and the Elder Scrolls series (Oblivion, Skyrim, etc.)

Some complain that these Western games all follow the same tired tropes of fantasy though. Generic monsters, a world that needs to be saved, variations of the same classes and skills.

I personally love both types of games, so I wonder what they’d be like if combined? Would they be like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup? Or more like a fried pickle sundae?

In regards to possible complaints from both sides of the pond, I’d like to propose a type of game that would appeal to both types of fantasy gamers.