Part one of a two part episode

Most speculative fiction will involve traumatising your main character at some point but how do you make it clear to a reader or viewer that this is what is happening without ponderously 'telling' it? What narrative techniques can be employed to show this instead? How do you deliver the message with emotion without tilting over into melodrama? How do you make trauma believable? This week Jules and Madeleine delve into this tricky part of storytelling.

On the slab - Daredevil, Twilight, I Belong to the Earth and many more.

Title music: Ecstasy by Smiling Cynic

Part 2 of a 2 part episode

Following on from last week's over view episode, this week Jules and Madeleine get, appropriately, into the details of what to include or exclude when writing and worldbuilding. Speculative fiction can, by it's very nature, require extensive world building which in turn requires plenty of detail. But how do you know what to include or exclude? How much detail should you go for? Is there such a thing as too much detail?

On the slab this week - Harker & Blackthorn, The Sons of Thestian, Strange the Dreamer - Laini Taylor, Immortal Pleasures - V Castro and many more

Title music: Ecstasy by Smiling Cynic

Part 1 of a 2 part episode

The dragons are back and gearing up for spooky season. This week, Jules and Madeleine take a look at the thorny issue of 'details'. Speculative fiction can, by it's very nature, require extensive world building which in turn requires plenty of detail. But how do you know what to include or exclude? How much detail should you go for? Is there such a thing as too much detail?

On the slab this week - The Book of Strange New Things - Michel Faber, Fire & Hemlock and Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones, Lorna Doone - R D Blackmoore and many more.

Title music: Ecstasy by Smiling Cynic