About the Author
I'm Stephan, a Linux user with a passion for open-source, UI/UX design, and exploring what makes fiction work.
In my spare time, I focus on (and write about):
- Programming (mainly in Python and Rust)
- Retrocomputing (mostly DOS but, as of January 2023, I also own a machine running Mac OS 9.2)
- Reading and Reviewing Fiction
- The odd bit of UI/UX design or literary theory
For notification of significant updates to existing posts, consider following me on Mastodon.
Popular Posts
- Resources for Reverse-Engineering 16-bit Applications
- Recommended Battlestar Galactica “Earth-contact” fics
- Fanfiction – A Quick Overview of The Whole Pureblood Pretense Series
- Embedding the DPMI Extender for your Open Watcom C/C++ EXE (And Related Knowledge)
- Home-made tamper-evident security seals for kids and adults alike
- Displaying An Image or Animated GIF in Qt With Aspect Ratio-Preserving Scaling
- Learning Materials for getting into C programming for MS-DOS/PC-DOS/DR-DOS/FreeDOS
- Getting your way with setxkbmap
- Fanfiction – The Pureblood Pretense
- Recommended “More-Than-Human Shinji” Evangelion fics
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Category Archives: Writing
Starting Your Story
For over a decade now, no thanks to various set-backs, I’ve been taking notes for a book on how to write fiction (and planning a tool for organizing them). You might ask why, when there are already so many other … Continue reading
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The Role of Anger
Now another note that’s been sitting in my bin of writing advice drafts for a while, that should really be on this blog instead. When you’re writing a character and they get angry, it’s very important to understand the root … Continue reading
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On Dehumanization In Fiction
I have to admit it… I have a lot of drafts kicking around in my notes which most people would consider to be perfectly good blog posts but which, for me, were just flashes of inspiration that I wrote down … Continue reading
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Another Tangent: Degrees of Connectedness
NOTE: Given the amount of time and effort I’ve put into finding good example links for this, I decided it would be acceptable to let it double as this week’s fanfic roundup. While I was reading The Futile Facade (the … Continue reading
Posted in Fanfiction, Writing
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The Importance of Consistent Tone: A Brief Tangent
While I was working on my latest fanfic review, I found myself going off on a massive tangent about one of the most common ways I see fanfiction authors ruining stories: Realizing “late” that the main character “has it too … Continue reading
Sci-fi and Fantasy: Why They Differ and Why You’d Blend Them
I’ve been wanting to post more regularly, so I decided share some of the insights for the book on plotting out stories that’s been on my TODO list for a while. (Embarassingly, I’ve actually wanted to do that for a … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
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What Disney Has Forgotten About Classic Donald Duck
Who hasn’t seen at least one of the classic Donald Duck cartoons from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s? You know, the ones where, in the later cartoons, the theme says “Who never never starts an argument?” Sadly, it seems that … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
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