Issue #5
March 17th, 2024

Hi friends,

Stories have "bad people" who are often driven by greed for power, and a morally questionable agenda. They are necessary to make a story exciting. They create conflict in the plot.

Except, sometimes they're not people.

A tidal wave crashing into a city, or a meteor striking the planet. They're not people at all.

In my latest, blog, Villain vs Antagonist in Fantasy Fiction, I explain the difference between Villains and Antagonist and why, as readers and writers, we should distinguish between them.

Above all, it can help us reframe events in our own lives, understanding that some things opposing us aren't inherently evil.

In other news, the website's homepage now features a beautifully animated video of the Phoenix art piece, a character that is featured in A Wizard's Hunt.

📖 Novels

A Wizard's Hunt 🏹

Progress: 20%

This week we've hit our target of 20%. Stay tuned for chapter two, which will be released on the website later this week!

🗞️ Blog

Villain vs Antagonist in Fantasy Fiction

Learn the difference between Villain and Antagonist in Fantasy fiction.

✒️ Writer's Circle

Our discord community, Writer's Circle, is currently being built out. Look out for updates on future Newsletter issues!

🎓 What I've Learned This Week

This week I'm reading A Guide to the Good Life (a book on Stoicism that I sincerely recommend — more on Stoicism in future blog articles).

The author makes an interesting point.

In ancient times, the leaders were often emperors and kings who weren't usually elected into power, at least not by the common population.

Given they had an indiscriminate rule, their main concern (at least, for the ones interested in improving) must have been to hone their skills in reading, writing, logic, and mathematics. Essentially, the skills that would make them better at making decisions.

When democracy came into the picture, things changed: leaders were incentivized to learn the skill of persuasion since they now had to win over votes from the people.

Ancient Romans, for example, hired experts to teach their children sophism (the art of winning arguments through psychological and linguistical tricks, and logical fallacies), and philosophy, all in an attempt to make them better at persuading people.

The same applies to our modern jobs. To be hired for a position, we need to persuade the interviewer that we are capable of it. A large component of most "interview prep" advice is simply to exercise your skill in persuasion, often through effective storytelling.

💡 Life Hacks

Five Second Rule.

Each day, we're faced with difficult tasks that we don't necessarily want to do but have to.

We might need to fulfill our responsibilities. We might be improving our future selves by working hard today.

We often procrastinate on these tasks by coming up with many excuses and justifications for postponing them.

A useful technique to combat this is the Five Second Rule.

When you are faced with a hard task, and you know you should do it now, count to five, get up, and do it.

Don't give your brain time to think; it will use that time to come up with many dozens of reasons why you shouldn't.

The five seconds are key: be careful not to jump impulsively into activities, and think about what you are doing first.

But after you established the task is safe, and should be done now, and the five seconds are over... it's time to do it.