The Writer's Block

Full Blog

John Stevenson
1–2 minutes

  • Empathy and Stories

    So recently the internet freaked right the fuck out when the promotional trailer for upcoming Tomb Raider game featured Lara Croft escaping an attempted rape. Luckily, the more sensible people on the internet have pointed out that the scene was incredibly powerful.  Susan Arendt, editor and writer at the Escapist, wrote a great piece about… Read more

  • Voyager: In-Depth

    Last week I got so caught up in how Voyager’s first episode failed to ease new viewers into the situation, I forgot to actually cover anything else. Also, taken by itself, last week’s post might give you all the impression that I didn’t like Voyager. Truth is though, I do like Voyager. Sure, in a… Read more

  • Characters and Plot

    When you break creative writing down to its most basic form, there are two kinds of story: plot driven and character driven. They both provide the framework to tell unique and compelling stories, and I wouldn’t say plot driven stories are inferior, but character driven stories do offer the reader a chance to connect personally… Read more

  • Be Nice to the New Guy

    I’m a huge fan of Star Trek. I don’t speak Klingon and I can’t name all the founding member states of the Federation, but I love all things Star Trek. So when someone asked me to review the recent Star Trek series, I took the request to heart like the mature, professional writer that I am. Thanks… Read more

  • How I Wrestled the 4th Dimension into Submission

    You know what an average day looked like for me a year ago? 18 hours of absolutely nothing to do, followed by six hours of sleep. I’m sure that sounds good to some people, but personally, I felt like I was in that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where the crew keeps repeating… Read more

  • KISS in Stories

    Keep it simple, stupid. This simple rule can be applied successfully to a lot of things, especially instructions. Anything with instructions too complicated usually results in my blowing something up. It’s not pretty. More to the point, though, it applies to stories as well. We’ve all seen a story that, had it not clogged itself… Read more