Cullen McHael

Author, wanderer, enthusiast

  • Great Antagonists, From Nurse Ratched to Big Brother

    Stuart J. Tanner and Cullen McHael trade examples of compelling antagonists in speculative fiction from Sci-Fi to Fantasy, deconstruct the role of the antagonist, and offer advice from hard earned lessons about how and when to consider your antagonist in your writing process. Cullen lists nine kinds of antagonist, which one are you?     0:00 […]

  • Inking Neon: Light Up Your Stoires

    How do you write a comepelling fight scene? What’s a good framework for designing your PoV character? Is there ever a bad time for humor? Hi folx, I’m launching a new podcast to trade advice and swap stories with other authors, all to take our work to the next level. The first two episodes are […]

  • The Fight for Compelling Fight Scenes

    Stuart J. Tanner and Cullen McHael share hard-earned lessons about getting your fight scenes right. 0:00 Intro1:34 What are Fight Scenes For?10:00 The Fun Element11:00 Problem Solving14:39 Scaffolding, Worldbuilding, and Playing With Rules24:22 The Great Challenge: Clarity28:25 Examples of Compelling Fight Scenes32:52 4 Things a Fight Scene Can Do34:56 Establishing Stakes: Costs, Risks, and Invincibility40:17 […]

  • Discovering Characters With Stuart J. Tanner

    On this first episode of Inking Neon, journalist, author, and teacher Stuart J. Tanner is sent to Baghdad at the height of the Iraq occupation and discovers that and other strange worlds. We discuss what makes for compelling characters, the process of investigation in writing, and read from Stuart’s book Devas: A Sci-Fi adventure in […]

  • IN/HUMAN: Epilogue

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  • IN/HUMAN: Chapter 44

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  • IN/HUMAN: Chapter 43

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  • IN/HUMAN: Chapter 42

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  • IN/HUMAN: Chapter 41

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  • IN/HUMAN: Chapter 40

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