From A Writer's Perspective: Recent Episodes
E.D. Leonard, Khyrian Storms
With every new episode, writers E.D. Leonard and Khyrian Storms embark on a new journey throughout the world of fantasy and sci-fi. Join them as they dissect the stories that influenced us, analyse how they’re created and explore more about the writers behind them.
After discussing the exploits of Aldous Huxley in "The Doors of Perception" and the war on drugs during the Reagan era, we dive deeper into the main inspiration for the upcoming four short stories by fantasy writer E.D. Leonard.
A spartan-inspired warrior empire, the Batharians first found their way into the Estis lore through "The Youth" - an unreleased story about two sons losing their father in an assassination. After stepping away from that story, Leonard travelled back in time to learn more about the history of the Cothonians and their Batharian history.
"The Trials of Thaxas" is out now: https://talesofestis.com/the-trial-of-thaxas/
In past episodes, we have focused on magical universes created by the likes of George R. R. Martin, Brandon Sanderson, George Lucas, Frank Herbert, J.R.R. Tolkien and Edgar Allan Poe. One common thread among all these episodes was how we linked these to our own experiences. With episode 7, we shift into a new phase of the podcast. This one will be about the world of Estis, home to unlikely characters like the hunter Argome, captain Heinricht and the ones where everything started: Brodor and Deirion.
J. R. R. Tolkien is undeniably the all-father of modern-day fantasy. But did you know that Stephen King and Lovecraft - or even the term Lovecraftian - would've never existed without Edgar Allan Poe? From a writer's perspective, the evolution of a genre is fascinating.
But how did these iconic writers become the vanguards of fantasy, horror and noir? And how can you create something truly unique? This episode will help you understand why only Tolkien could've written Lord Of The Rings. We will share our own processes and identify which moments have helped us to understand our genres even better. Welcome to episode 6.
From lore to concept: when we look back at some of the most anticipated releases, we sometimes see that the idea itself and the potential behind it failed in its execution. Think back at games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Destiny, the Star Wars sequel movies or the continuing disappointment that George R. R. Martin caused with his latest blog post. We often see this in prequels, or projects that have gone through a tedious, ambitious process. So how does this happen? And how, as a writer, can you identify these pitfalls?
Brandon Sanderson is notorious for writing in a different pace than other writers. With the pandemic, he might have hit his highest point and pushed out five extra novels in the last two years. The kickstarter campaign linked to this has already pushed tons of his fans to pre-order these extra novels – which at the time of recording this has hit 25 million in backing. With this episode, we will try to investigate how he did this and how we can adopt some ways to become more productive.
While Star Wars has influenced generations of storytelling, it’s also heavily borrowed from other stories like Dune and Hidden Fortress – up to a point where one could debate its originality. And that’s the hero's journey we’ll embark on in this episode: we’ll debate whether Star Wars is nothing but an unoriginal story or an ode to all the great things that came before.
Is winter still coming? During this episode, we're contemplating the decade-long anticipation for Winds of Winter - the new book in the Game of Thrones series. Is George R. R. Martin just a slow writer? Is he pre-occupied with other projects? Is he sitting on a 3000 page manuscript, stuck in editing?
Throughout this episode, Khyrian Storms and E.D. Leonard will attempt to discover what has caused this delay, possibly unraveling some pitfalls that could occur for any new and seasoned writer.
As tradition with the structure of storytelling, this very first episode will function as a “Foreword” of such; a brief introduction about the nature of this podcast and who we are.