Erik’s Top 10 Toughest Dark Souls Boss Fights [2/2]

Hello again, everyone! Today (after a long than intended hiatus) we're continuing my list of Top 10 Toughest Dark Souls Boss Fights. This time we're down to the top 5 and oh boy, do I have some annoying ones for you. I'm sure for those who have played the Dark Souls series, these will bring …

Erik’s Top 10 Toughest Dark Souls Boss Fights [1/2]

As the tagline of this blog indicates, it may be the Plotting Machine but it would also be my “random ramblings on writing, story and everything else”. That's why I thought it was time for a slightly different topic for today and that topic is: Dark Souls! Having finished the third and final installment of …

My Thoughts On: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

The time has finally come. Continuing my retrospective on the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise in the lead-up to the release of the fifth one, we now get to nr. 3 on the list. After nearly 10 years to the day that this film came out, I finally have the opportunity to get this off …

Writing Lessons #3: Character VS Story

I’ve personally often wondered which element of writing is more important to craft a great tale: character or story. I think most of us can agree that both are essential to make fiction work. Without good characters, the people that the story follows become meaningless devices only there to play a certain role (hero, villain, …

My Thoughts On: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Arr! Ahoy, mateys! Okay, I’ll stop that now. It might not be International Talk Like A Pirate Day yet, but pretty soon there’s a new (and possibly final) Pirates of the Caribbean film coming out and I wanted to share my thoughts on the story of some of Captain Jack Sparrow’s adventures, especially as I’ve …

Writing Female Protagonists: Daenerys Targaryen VS Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Some of you might be confused about the nature of this post, especially those of you who are very familiar with both characters and interested in well-written female protagonists. After all, aren’t Daenerys Targaryen (from George R. R. Martin’s epic Fantasy book series A Song of Ice and Fire and HBO’s TV adaptation, Game of …

My Thoughts On: Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi Teaser

I’m sure I’m not the only one who caught the first teaser yesterday for the latest Star Wars film coming December 2017, Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. If you’re a fan of the Star Wars saga and you didn’t see it – then what the hell are you waiting for? Head over to YouTube …

Writing Lessons #2: Examples of Fundamental Goodness – Avatar: The Last Airbender

The last column I wrote should be enough to give you an indication of what I mean with Fundamental Goodness, but before I wrap up talking about this topic, I would like to give you a few examples of this process at work, drawing from one of my favourite franchises: Avatar – no, not the …

Writing Lessons #1: Fundamental Goodness

Writing Lessons will be the first on-going column on my blog/site/journal-thingamabob. It’s not intended as some sort of arrogant, high-minded section presuming to teach people how to write; it’ll just be a column on some of the observations I have personally made on writing and story. Some of this stuff may be obvious, especially to …

Once upon a time…

That's how the stories we are most familiar with usually start out, don't they? For this mandatory introduction, I figured it would serve likewise. Once upon a time... There was a young writer, who had a great passion for the art of story-telling. The young writer, however, did not always share his gifts with the …