A Change of Direction

            For the past several years, since I started this blog, I have been working on my Masters on and off, working as a teaching assistant on and off, and working on other personal projects on and off. In that time I have neglected this whole blogging thing in large part to the uncertainty of what it is going to be properly, many vague ideas swirled around in my head and I was torn between differing projects and articles with no clear direction in mind.  But the past year has also seen me become involved in small ways with the Youtube field, I have live streamed discussions with several groups of people on topics relating to particular pieces of fiction, namely the works of Robert Jordan and J.R.R Tolkien, I suspect my involvement in these streams will continue in a somewhat sporadic way and they fulfill that goal one goal of mine to discuss particular works of fiction. This type of format works quite well and as such I have been slowly learning video editing and will migrate that type of discourse to a YouTube channel.
            This leaves the question of what I do with this blog.  I still think this has a good potential to it and so I will keep it.  The goal now here will be to look at those things that create fiction, the setting, the plot and the characters, and examine how and author may create compelling realistic stories.  Stories that truly reflect humanity in all its glory and ignominy.  Why I feel I have the authority to speak to such things comes from my educational background. My two undergrad degrees, Honours Classical Studies, and Honours Medieval Studies, gives me a near three thousand year look at human history across a varied cultural range, religious range, geographical range, etc. etc. And it is blindingly obvious after making such a study, that stories, fictional and non-fictional, are the most fundamental way to get at the heart of humanity itself. Particularly good stories. Good stories last an eternity and impact more than just the culture and time they were conceived in. The Iliad and the Odyssey, the Aeneid, Beowulf, Journey to the West, La Morte d’Artur, Don Quixote, King Lear, Pride and Prejudice and yes even The Lord of the Rings, these stories have lasted decades, centuries and even millennia, and in another millennia they will still be told. Why? Because it matters not the time or place in which they are being read, it only matters that they are real enough in the minds of the readers. The authors made their stories and worlds to reflect human nature at its best and at its worst by making the world they wrote a believable place.
            So, in this blog I will write articles about how to create realistic histories, languages, cultures etc. with the intent that those who desire to write Sci-fi and/or fantasy can then make their own works as believable as possible to the reader.

            Anyways, that’s all for now. All the best and God bless.