Aidan Cureton - Writer

Choose your fighter! 🗡️ 🥊 🪄

Qotd: Who is your Smash main?

Aotd: Chrom, I’m a sword fiend

Book Recommendations:

- The Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin
- Tress of the Emerald Sea - Brandon Sanderson
- Empire of the Vampire - Jay Kristoff
- Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
- The Fifth Season - N.K Jemisin
- The Cruel Prince - Holly Black

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Let’s talk about magic systems! 🧙🏼‍♂️ They’re all the rage right now, but when is the right time to use them?

QOTD: what’s your favourite magic system.

AOTD: For soft magic, I enjoyed how the Black Tongue Thief handled ‘magick’ and for hard magic I think it’s hard to beat Name of the Wind’s ‘Sympathy’

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Working on a journey story? 🗺️ Here’s a breakdown of what happens when the hero reaches their initial goal.

Qotd: What’s your favourite journey story?

Aotd: everything listed In this post is a personal fave, but The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is another great story. The Black Tongue Thief is my fave journey novel.

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With great power comes something about not being an arse. Anyways, here’s a re—upload of one of my first posts that is now in the shadow realm!

QOTD: Who is your favourite super-powered character?
AOTD: Cole McGrath from inFamous or Spider-Man

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How do you make-up fantasy character names without them feeling, well made-up? ⚔️

QOTD: Whats the name of your protagonist?
AOTD: My protagonists are brothers Dramon and Sable Falk. Dramon is a made-up name and a Sable is a small cute, ferret thing that bears no resemblance to the character.

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Struggling to create fantasy place names that feel real? Let’s take inspiration from the world around us! 🌍

QOTD: What’s the most memorable place you’ve seen in fiction?

AOTD: I love the detail used in LOTR places, but my fave fantasy location is Destiny Islands from Kingdom Hearts.

Note: the YouTuber Hello Future Me was a huge inspiration for this post, so check out his video on this for a more comprehensive study!

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We’ve covered redemption, but what about the other end of the spectrum? 😈 Today let’s dive into corruption arcs and what’s makes them oh so juicy, yum yum yum!

QOTD: what’s your favourite corruption arc?
AOTD: Anakin Skywalker or Light Yagami are my fave corruption arcs!

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By following these tips, you can create a compelling character redemption arc that adds depth and complexity to your story. 📚 Remember that redemption is a gradual process, and it should not be rushed or oversimplified. With careful planning and ex*****on, a character redemption arc can be a powerful tool for storytelling.

QOTD: What's your favourite redemption arc?
AOTD: I don't want to be cliche and say Zuko even though I do love his story. So, I'm going to say Johnny Lawrence!

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Struggling to describe your characters? Let’s solve that. 🥸

Qotd: What character introduction had the strongest influence on you?
Aotd: Brandon Sanderson did a great job at introducing Dalinar Kholin in Way of Kings. I got such a clear vision of him from his intro battle with a chasm fiend!

If the sea calls for you, you best call her the right name. 🌊

Here are some words to flesh out your coastal scene.

Qotd: Coast or forest?
Aotd: Coast

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I’m back after a very long hiatus to talk to you about Fae! 🧚‍♂️Perhaps my absence was because I was trapped in the Fairy realm and had to barter with my name to return, or maybe I got too into Warhammer and writing my new WIP. Who’s to say? 🧌

Anyways, here is Naming Fae, part 2 of my naming creatures series. If you missed part 1, search for Naming Dragons 🐉 on my page.

Qotd: What’s your favourite Fae creature?
Aotd: I like the Greek version of fae, which encompassed nymphs and satyrs!

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When’s the right time to reveal your villain? Let’s find out. 👹

Qotd: Who is your favourite villain?

Aotd: I think my fave villains are the Chandrian from Name of the Wind. Though there’s a lot of mystery surrounding them still. Either that or (SPOILERS) Eren Jaeger from AOT.

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When’s the right time to reveal your villain? Let’s find out. 👹

Qotd: Who is your favourite villain?

Aotd: I think my fave villains are the Chandrian from Name of the Wind. Though there’s a lot of mystery surrounding them still. Either that or (SPOILERS) Eren Jaeger from AOT.

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Let’s learn about character growth! 📈

Qotd: Do you prefer simple or realistic character growth?

Aotd: I think the characters that are the most memorable have relatively simple growth arcs. I feel like every character who has had realistic growth goes through a stage when they’re really annoying 😂

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🐉 Sick of the word-mash dragon names that fantasy name generator spits out?

I looked into how dragon’s were named historically and talk about some trends. So if you’ve been stumped on how to name the dragons in your story, hopefully this will help.

Qotd: What’s your favourite fictional dragon? 🐲

Note: legends of dragons exist in serveral cultures, but because this is a trend analysis my main focus was Asian and European dragons since they’re the most popular. Still my findings seem to apply to other mythologies too, so you can take these notes and apply it to those languages.

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Here are some things I like that have no relevance to the plot.

Qotd: What’s your favourite World Building thing that doesn’t matter to the plot?

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How do you make your readers want to live in your fantasy world? Let’s look at some of the most common world building strategies in modern fiction.

If you don’t know what Sandboxing is, check out my last post, it goes into things in more detail.

Qotd: what’s your favourite story that uses clans?
Aotd: I think the four elements in Avatar are some of the most influential ‘clans’ in pop culture. It also combines clans and powers together.

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Is it easier to insert yourself into some fictional worlds than others? There may be a reason why that is.

QOTD: What fictional world would you want to live in?
AOTD: I’ve been reading the Stormlight Archives and wouldn’t mind visiting that world, but I think it’s too crazy to live in 😂.

Stay tuned for a part 2. I went into methods that a lot of Sandboxes use, e.g. tribes, magic systems and so on, but ran out of room. So that will be a new post in the next few days.

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Struggling to balance multiple villains? Try these systems.

Qotd: what’s better, one main bad guy, or several?

Aotd: I think when done well, stories with several baddies are more memorable

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A Sisyphus character is made to fail, but failure doesn’t mean suffering.

QOTD: What’s your favourite Greek legend?

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I’ve finally started to work on my second novel. After discovering the plot of the first as I went, I decided to do more planning for this one. Here’s the systems that worked best for me!

I found some further tips from Brandon Sanderson, but will upload that as a separate post, so stay tuned.

QOTD: are you a pantser or a plotter?

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Think of the last bookshop you visited. What jumped out from the shelves at you?

QOTD: What’s your favourite book spine?

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Want a few new words to make your battle scene sound different? Here are some handy unique terms.

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I researched a bit about horse archery and wanted to share it!

QOTD: Would you rather become instantly good at archery or horse riding?

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It’s the countdown to Christmas, and thus ends my holiday countdown calendar. Hope you enjoyed and at least got some ideas 😄

QOTD: What are you getting up to these holidays?

AOTD: I’ve gone back to my family home to celebrate Christmas with my family.

A simple stain can say a lot about a crime, wouldn't you agree?

Writing engaging powers or magic can be hard. Here are some tips used in popular media to help balance superhuman characters.

When you design characters do you create an in-depth profile as if they were a visual character or do you prefer to keep things flexible from the get-go?

Comparing himself to the North Star, Julius Caesar shows he is unwavering in his views, but also a point of guidance. This quote from Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’ perfectly summaries the character’s self-perception and his biggest flaw. It’s that unwillingness that eventually spells his end.

Fittingly, the North Star is a big plot point in my novel, as are themes of stubbornness and reluctance to change. Like all good adventure stories, there’s of course a treasure in mine. A big question I wanted to explore was how far can stubbornness last when setting out to make change.

Get to know me a little. 👋