Alexis D. Smolensk
Bio
For more content, see The Tao of D&D: http://tao-dnd.blogspot.ca/ and my game wiki at https://wiki.alexissmolensk.com/index.php/Introduction. Please support my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=3015466
Stories (19)
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The Empty Consequences of Glamorous Writing
For shorthand, let's call the moment, "car-off-a-cliff"... the split-second, disastrous consequence when every plan, every hope, every possible reward, is now plummeting to an irretrievable death. Writers dream of such moments, for it gives us a chance to turn a story on its head, to surprise and shock the reader — and to invest the remaining characters with an opportunity to be devastated, resilient — all those great things that seem to make a story meaningful. But while the moment is a great twist... is it a good idea?
By Alexis D. Smolensk9 months ago in BookClub
Writing Without Looking
Where writing is concerned, we can easily spend years discussing specific situations, how they might be introduced and managed, the importance they bear regarding a larger narrative, mistakes made, poor judgment, assumptions, writing strategies... and so on. The number of directions we might take in introducing two characters to each other would allow us to write not one article on their meeting, not two, but really as many as we might choose to write. Writing is fractal. Any narrative moment can be woven into a world of intention, technique and consequence. Writing itself is a dynamic and inexhaustible field... limited only by our willingness to look the beast in the eye before flinching.
By Alexis D. Smolensk9 months ago in BookClub
Solve It Through Writing
When teaching others how to write, giving an example of our own work is the third rail. Doing so invites distraction. Instead of demonstrating the desired principle, the presentation of work itself is questioned, picked apart and criticised. The broader lesson is forgotten. This is made worse in that a sentence or even a paragraph of writing rarely stands sufficiently on its own to impress — especially if we're discussing fiction, as opposed to academic or scientific writing. It is for these reasons that creative writing teachers avoid demonstrating their work in any way, shape or form. The counter to this is that many such teachers are published authors... and that if the student wants a demonstration, the teacher's book can be purchased.
By Alexis D. Smolensk9 months ago in BookClub
Stop Pitting Your Characters Against Each Other
We have postulated that it's best to start a work with two main characters. We ought really to have six to ten, like most casts in books, plays and films, but let's not dig ourselves in deep too soon. Let's keep with two for now and add later. I'd like to talk about directions our work might take, but before we rush into that, we have two pits to avoid — that almost no one avoids, because it's so easy for writers to go there.
By Alexis D. Smolensk9 months ago in BookClub
More Than a Character
To give a character depth, writers imagine that the best strategy is to give them a deep, abiding trauma. We use this approach to vitalise them; to enrich and make them memorable. And we suppose, because they've experienced an awful, often staggering event in their lives, we use it to explain the character's motivations. This, we say, is the burden they're carrying; this is the reason they act as they do. We've seen this writing strategy used in hundreds of stories, so we believe in it. We think it works. But it doesn't. Not really.
By Alexis D. Smolensk9 months ago in BookClub
Brick by Brick: the Architecture of Storytelling
In discussing writing, it's of necessity that we investigate the process of writing at a level beneath grand, sweeping gestures. I have alluded to words as "bricks," which must be laid out and mortared carefully, on a scale so fine that it can be difficult to see where this or that sentence properly lays a foundation that enables the building to stand well. So let's get our hands dirty and attend to this process.
By Alexis D. Smolensk10 months ago in BookClub
The Story Writes Itself. Top Story - March 2025.
I think it might do some good to discuss structure at this point, or at least the concept of structure, where it pertains to writing. What the story is, where it's going, how it's relevant... and what our motivations are from moment to moment. Let's take a plain, ordinary piece of writing as a stepping-off place:
By Alexis D. Smolensk10 months ago in BookClub
Dialogue and the Writer's Dilemma
Dialogue, regardless of the medium, embodies the meeting, exploration and conflict that exists between two or more human minds, expressed from a place where each knows their own thoughts perfectly — but while guessing the thoughts of another through sounds, physical cues and familiarity of time spent. It is messy. It is full of misreadings and mistakes. It is often clumsy and frustrating... and for the most part, we should expect that it's made worse through the prejudices, assumptions and plain stubbornness of the participants.
By Alexis D. Smolensk10 months ago in Writers
Stop Pitting Your Characters Against Each Other
We have postulated that it's best to start a work with two main characters. We ought really to have six to ten, like most casts in books, plays and films, but let's not dig ourselves in deep too soon. Let's keep with two for now and add later. I'd like to talk about directions our work might take, but before we rush into that, we have two pits to avoid — that almost no one avoids, because it's so easy for writers to go there.
By Alexis D. Smolensk10 months ago in Writers
Starting the Character Conflict
Many writers, finding themselves alone, let themselves think that it's natural to begin there: a writer, sitting in a room, alone, puzzling out a series of thoughts. Only, it's not a writer. It's a bartender looking at patrons. It's a teacher watching children file out from a room. It's an ice cream vendor watching others in a park. Somebody by themselves, with the power to observe, who can express a set of thoughts that revolve around feeling superior to others.
By Alexis D. Smolensk10 months ago in Writers
The Empty Page
It's no secret that most writers who wish to get into the field find themselves stymied by the initial "blank page," that daunting, seemingly impossible hurdle to overcome. So difficult is it that even writing coaches fail to properly address the subject, urging writers to investigate adjacent precepts like inventing a plot first, or looking over characterisations in deconstructed point form... and as ever the mainstay, "worldbuilding." These have their uses, and there will always be those who carry banners that reproach others for not taking these tactics, but in all truth, these things do not address those first unimagined words that must be applied to the intimidating, empty void.
By Alexis D. Smolensk10 months ago in BookClub
The Irrelevance of Birdman
I watched the film Birdman last night. Two years late and after two previous attempts to get past the first ten, very pretentious minutes. I would never have watched it at all, except that in the last two weeks I have seen Michael Keaton, an actor who might as well have been dead to me, turn up in two good films: Spiderman: Homecoming and The Founder. And so, I felt I should give Birdman another chance.
By Alexis D. Smolensk8 years ago in Geeks
