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#23: The Red Queen Hypothesis It was only a matter of time before I'd cover

September 18, 2026

It was only a matter of time before I'd cover this topic.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Red Queen Hypothesis, the name comes from the 1973 paper published by Leigh Van Valen, in which he took inspiration from Alice and Wonderland (more specifically, Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass), "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place."

What does this mean?

In evolutionary biology, in order to survive, a species must constantly run and...

September 11, 2026

#22: Travelogue Stories

Traditional travelogue stories are based on the prospect of recalling personal experiences, having traveled to specific locations. While I could talk about many places I've visited throughout the US and how different Moab is from Saint Augustine, or Maui to Washington D.C., there is a sense of embellishment to note with travelogue stories. In fact, during the 2nd century in the Roman Empire, there were two common pieces of literature that were often published. Travelogues were one of them...

September 4, 2026

#21: Kollaa Kestää!

Whenever I'm feeling down, outnumbered, or that I'm in a situation that seems hopeless, I remember the term 'Kollaa Kestää'.

In 1939, tensions in Europe were at an all-time high. The German Reich invaded Poland, and just over two weeks later, the ever-looming Soviet Union jointly invaded from the east. By October, Germany and the Soviet Union had fully conquered Poland, which worried many countries in eastern and central Europe about their independence. While in the west the phoney war was...

August 28, 2026

#20: Determining the Personalities

Personalities are not arbitrary when considering psychology; and what this means is that the personalities and cognitive functions of real people are determined by their genetics and, mostly, their past. A lot of it is determined based on who you grow up around, and this can vary widely. Like in real life, if you subtract a parental figure or a steady friendship from a character, that will show in their personality.

Depending on the tools you use (in this post I'll be using MBTI/16...

August 21, 2026

#19: The Logistics of Self-Publishing a Book

Of all the topics I've mentioned, this one has been the biggest reason my debut novel hasn't been completed sooner. To give you some scope, I started writing my first book on 2024, November 24 and finished the first draft on 2025, February 26th. In total, I spent roughly 109 hours from these two dates just writing the first draft of the book. The reason I know this is that I wrote down how much time I wrote every single day (a practice I still do today). I tried to write every single day (and...

August 14, 2026

#18: Historical Echoes

From every moment since the Big Bang, every event leading up to our existence mattered. Even if something simple, like the physics of the universe, had been just a little bit different? You and I wouldn't be here right now. So, history matters. Its echoes, no matter how small, permeate everyday life. There's a reason the alternate history genre is so popular.

Though popular, we constantly have to reflect on how historians wrote history. There's the objective truth of history, and there are...

August 7, 2026

#17: Character Deaths; Necessary, or Not?

Happy August! I should preface this blog post with the fact that I’m talking specifically about my thoughts on this. As a disclaimer, if you're writing something, always do what makes sense for the story. Usually, that's the best rule of thumb to follow, no matter what type of genre you're writing in.

So, death. That's a fun topic! (/sarcasm) Interestingly, there's a reason we have such a large culture surrounding our dead in the West (and historically, worshipping our ancestors). In writing,...

July 31, 2026

#16: Second Chances, Resolutions, and Self-Awareness

We seldom get a second chance; such is true in life. It's easy to take the privileges given to us and not even pay them an ounce of attention. Only if we're lucky do we truly get a second chance to change the way we initially set things for the better, but often, it's not about the second chances that make our philosophies so strong. Many of us have made irreversible mistakes; mistakes that have defined us as people, that have everlasting impacts on our minds. Like I said earlier, it's not...

July 24, 2026

#15: Physical Character Designs

I'd like to preface this post with one simple disclaimer: I'm not a fashion designer. This post is also interesting to me because fashion is not something I particularly pay much attention to in writing, but I will give you my thoughts on it. Anyway, now that we've established that, I think that character designs are among the most important subtle details in a narrative. Even if it's as simple as the color they're wearing (black to show authority, blue to show loyalty, purple for opulence,...

July 17, 2026

#14: Writing for Fun/'Writing Recycling'

When you think of recycling, you might think of taking particular sustainable materials and donating them via a nice blue tub to the recycling man. When I use the word 'recycling', it's more of a mental recycle and how that can be achieved by writing. There are multiple ways to achieve a 'writing recycle', and it's one of my favorite ways to write if I feel like I've hit writer's block and I need to recalibrate.

The very first method that is easiest for many to try is by writing out...

July 10, 2026

#13: Fantasy as a Genre (Analysis)

Fantasy as a genre seems to be among the most popular worldwide. What is it about fantasy that is so appealing? Why is that even when there's so much imagination put into fantasy worlds, fantasy alone seems like it's not enough to stand out anymore?

While these questions seem overarching, they are legitimate questions to ask when creating a fantasy book. People can spend many years creating a fantasy world before they even write the first page of their book (as is true with other genres, but...

July 3, 2026

#12: Independence Day, Topographical Study, Fictional Locations

Tomorrow's the 250th anniversary of Independence Day in the United States, so happy July 4 to all who celebrate! Our Founding Fathers established themselves as pioneers of a brand new constitution, and as anyone who's taken an 8th grade history class will say, 'Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness'. It's amazing to think they attempted to establish a system where all men were created equal. There's so much to the story that it'd be irrational to oversimplify, so let us be thankful...

June 26, 2026

#11: Scientific Realism

Less than 4 months to go until my debut novel releases! To celebrate, I'll be talking about some processes that led me to land on the term 'scientific realism' and what that actually means. Full disclosure that I am not a scientist or a doctor, but anyone can research extensively into any topic that they find intriguing. For many of us, science is a fascinating topic because it's not just the study of our world, it's the study of what can be of our world.

Most writers will know that there's a...

June 19, 2026

#10: Writer's Block & Inspiration: Valleys & Peaks

My writing process inspired this post immediately succeeding the six-year anniversary. As I'm writing this, I've started novelizing my original story, and it all started back on the 14th. I went back into my history of this world, what notes I originally had for the environment, the characters, etc. I attempted to novelize the original story as my first book in February 2024. However, for a multitude of reasons (at the time I thought it was because it didn't feel fresh; later I realized it...

June 14, 2026

#9 (Special Post!): 6 Years! Happy Anniversary!

June 14 is the day that will forever sit with me as my most important as far as creativity goes. It was on this day in 2020 at 19:03:33 MDT that I embarked on the most ambitious hour of my creative life. Between using rudimentary maps of what I thought Alaska would look like in the year 2000 as well as my first map of the Underworld. I created original history, lore, and everything else. As a precursor to creating the world, I listened to Pendulum's 'The Other Side' on their In Silico album,...

June 12, 2026

#8: Cultural Inspirations

(Image credit to Fredrik Persson)

It should be no surprise that exposure to other cultures is beneficial in life, whether it be to learn more about the human condition, behavior, a new language, history, and many, many other reasons. In particular, if we realize it, we draw inspiration from different cultures worldwide on any given day. Originating early in human consciousness, culture stemmed when we had both excess amounts of time and brainpower to create. Early humans who made cave...

June 5, 2026

#7: Evolution of the Character

No matter what your story is with human characters (or even characters that mimic humans) your characters will constantly evolve as the story progresses. Much like life for many of us, we're much different from 1 year ago, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, etc. Does this mean we're necessarily better than we were before? Not always, but in many cases, yes. When people think of evolution, they usually think of how a species becomes a different one over time. Everything on Earth evolved from the same...

May 29, 2026

#6: Writing Times

This sounds trivial at first, but I remember being the most stuck on this step when I first started writing. While it's different for everyone and what their body responds to for inspiration, my 'writing time' usually happens just after I wake up. While this isn't to say that I can't be inspired in the evening, the mind is generally more creative in the morning after we wake up, since we've just come out of a dream state and aren't fatigued by the decisions of the last day. For me, it all...

May 22, 2026

#5: Villians

This is one of my favorite topics, unironically, and I think most villains don't pack the highest potential punch that they could for a story. When you think of a standard villain, you might think of a man who's evil just to be evil, that there might be no reason behind the madness. Take it from history and from some of the greatest fiction ever written: the best and most evil villains are far more layered than simple evil.

As a writer who makes devils and demons a primary part of my story,...

May 15, 2026

#4: Victories, Failures, & Stakes in a Story

It's worth prefacing this blog post with the fact that I am a huge perfectionist when it comes to my work. Despite this, I understand that there's not one person on this planet who's perfect at anything, but we can get pretty close. Like good characters in a book, nobody is infallible, no matter how fictional or powerful their abilities or mind might be. I think that every well-written character hiccups more than once in the story; perhaps many times. Not because they're deliberately trying...