Nils Ödlund

Nils Ödlund is a writing and fantasy enthusiast. He's currently chipping away at a couple of shorter stories while waiting for a novel to mature enough to get started on a second draft. Ödlund lives in Cork, Ireland. When not writing, he enjoys exploring the countryside on foot, and when the weather gets too bad he'll stay home and play games on the computer (or write some more). You can follow Ödlund on his blog [s v r t n s s e ? Making stuff up. Drinking beer and coffee. Walking around.] where he mostly posts pictures of coffee, beer, and the Irish countryside.

How Walking Sparks the Imagination

by Nils Ödlund

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings In this article, I want to tell you about one of my favourite pastimes. It’s a … Read more

Kishōtenketsu for Beginners – An Introduction to Four Act Story Structure

by Nils Ödlund

Recently we presented a series of articles on three-act structure here on Mythic Scribes. This inspired me to try and write an article about a kind of four act structure known as Kishōtenketsu. It’s used in classical Chinese, Korean, and Japanese narratives, and is often mentioned as an example of a story structure without conflict. … Read more

Speaking Without Words – Writing Body Language

by Nils Ödlund

When you’re watching a movie, you can see the actors as they deliver their lines. You can see the expressions they make, and you can hear their tone of voice. Seeing them talk tells you a lot more about what they’re saying than just the words they’re using.

When you’re reading a text, you only have the words the writer gives you. The rest you have to make up yourself. As a writer, you have to take that into account.

In theory you could write down exactly everything that the character speaking does – every single motion, conscious or not. In practice, that would be nigh impossible, and it would almost certainly be incredibly dull.

Don’t Let Quality Stop You Now

by Nils Ödlund

It’s November.

That means the NaNo is on. National Novel Writing Month. Write a novel in a month.

In the case of the NaNo this means 50,000 words in thirty days. That’s a lot of words – unless you’re a full time writer, or very productive, or for some other reason you’re just used to it and don’t feel it’s a big deal.

For me, 50,000 words is an enormous amount. I won’t be taking part in the NaNo, but that doesn’t mean I’m opposed to it, and I won’t try and convince you not to do it. It’s just not my thing.

What I will try and do is encourage you to keep going if you’ve started.

Small Sparks of Life – Making Your World Feel Alive

by Nils Ödlund

As a fantasy writer, you’re likely to create new and fascinating worlds for your stories to take place in. You have entirely new races, and their cultures and histories date back thousands of years.

You have gods and religions, dragons and monsters, heroes and villains. You have magic.

In short, you have a world.

Now it’s time to bring it to life.

Sure, the story is the important bit, but having your story take place in a living, breathing world just adds to the magic – and isn’t that part of the allure of reading and writing fantasy?

Writing In a Foreign Language – Like English

by Nils Ödlund

I have a confession to make. It’s probably not a big deal to anyone, except to me – specifically to me as a writer. So, here goes: I’m not a native English speaker.

I was born, and grew up, in Sweden. I learned Swedish first and didn’t start learning English in school until I was ten years old. Still, I choose to write in English, even though it’s not my native language and even though my grasp of it is weaker than my grasp of Swedish.

You might wonder why.

How to Plan and Write a Conversation

by Nils Ödlund

A while back, I came across the following question:

How do you write so much dialogue without it getting boring?

Conversations and dialogue are perhaps the biggest parts of my stories. It’s where things happen – in the interaction between the characters. I write a lot of conversations, and I’ve put a fair bit of thought into how I do it and how to make them work.

This article is split into three parts. First, I’ll mention some general advice that I’ve found to be helpful. Next, I’ll explain the method I’m using. Finally, I’ll go through an example of a conversation I created using this method.

A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Descriptions – Part 2

by Nils Ödlund

This is the second part of my Beginner’s Guide to Writing Descriptions. The first part can be found here.

In this part of the guide I’m relying heavily on the belief that the best images and the strongest impressions we get from stories are those we create in our own minds.

I’m sure there are exceptions to this – as with all rules – but for the purpose of this guide, I’ve chosen not to dwell on that. If you have a good example of an exception though, please share it in the comments.

The guide is divided into three parts: