Rant Rave Review: Throne of Glass

2019 Poetry

In honor of National Poetry Month, allow me to share with you a few of the poems I wrote last year. The shorter ones don’t have titles, so I’ve separated each poem by asterisks:

* * *

Look at me:

what you see

is a star

burning bright

and about to implode.

* * *

Lost my grip on Reality,

let go of its leash.

Now, I'm lost in the woods,

hounded by growling,

untamed Delusions

hot on my heels.

* * *

For the Record

Do you ever just feel like a broken record?

Do you ever just—

Do you ever just—

just—

just feel like a broken?

Spinnin’ around,

scratches on your heart,

on your vinyl,

on your—

Do you ever just feel like a broken record?

Skip—

Skipping ahead

or back

several tracks,

several rings,

spiraling

on your vinyl,

on your—

Do you ever just—

just—

just—

just—

...

pull the needle up and come to a stop?

Heroes and Villains are Not the Same

That's right, I hold the controversial opinion that heroes and villains are, in fact, not the same thing. Crazy, I know, but I stand by it. Let's step back a bit. Recently, I've come across a few writers and commentators saying something along the lines of "who the hero or villain is depends on who's telling the story". This sounds provocative, I guess, but it disregards a lot of standard terminology surrounding storytelling

Let’s talk about four types of character.

First, you have your protagonist and antagonist. The protagonist, obviously, is the main character. The antagonist is the character who works against the main character. Wikipedia puts it rather eloquently: "The protagonist is at the center of the story, makes the key decisions, and experiences the consequences of those decisions. The protagonist is the primary agent propelling the story forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles," while "an antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the chief foe of the protagonist".

Worldbuilding Worksheet

Back when I was a Writer-in-Residence for my local library, one of the workshops I ran was about Worldbuilding. I made a whole worksheet packet about it, including a chart where people can fill in facts about their own fictional worlds.

That being said, this isn't my own worldbuilding process. I'm good at letting my mind wander and make connections where it will, but I tried to break down that process and represent it on paper for other people to use. It might be helpful to some of you out there who may be struggling with worldbuilding, or who just want to beef-up the details of your world. Feel free to share it with any other writers you know.

You can download the worksheet by clicking on this link (it's a Word file instead of a PDF, for reasons relating to my cheapness and not wanting to pay for the ability to do both landscape and portrait mode in Canva).

That's all I have this week, as I'm working on a Love & Chaos related project and need to devote my time to that. Stay tuned!

Something Salty, Something Sweet: Feminism in Fiction

To make up for not posting last week, I offer two video essays:

Something Salty: Faux Feminism in Fiction

Something Sweet: Pro Feminism in Fiction