Special guest Craig Hanks (host of The Legendarium Podcast) joins me today as our first official guest here on Fantasy Writing for Barbarians to talk all about hooking readers with your first scene.
We critique the first 240 words of a dark fantasy excerpt, which focuses on the concept of possession (you can find the original prompt here). Craig and I also tackle how to infuse your first scene with vivid detail and prose, properly implementing the old “show don’t tell” guideline, and balancing character interiority with exposition. Plus we dig into a few examples from well-known fantasy novels and explain why they work so well.
Email your show feedback and/or advice prompts to fantasywritingforbarbarians@gmail.com or join our Discord. Fantasy Writing for Barbarians‘ host is Jon Negroni, author of The Pixar Theory, Killerjoy, and more. Our producers are Natalia Emmons and Bridget Serdock. You can find all our episodes and various podcast app options here.
Jon is one of the co-founders of InBetweenDrafts. He hosts the podcasts Thank God for Movies, Mad Men Men, Rookie Pirate Radio, and Fantasy Writing for Barbarians. He doesn’t sleep, essentially.
