[Slight spoilers for Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender] On the day it (officially) released, I FaceTimed by brother and sister-in-law and “together” we watched the new Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender movie. The three of us drank in the rush of nostalgia and beautiful animation, a retread of familiar paths from our childhood. And it …
Category: The Writing Life
Writing Update July 2026
It only took 7 months, but at last: I’ve got a readable draft of the first Myth-Keepers book. Huzzah! As mentioned in my writing update from the beginning of the year, I revised The Myth-Keepers in an unusual way: I started at the end. I rewrote the third act of the novel, which amounted to …
Novel-Writing Lessons From Video Games: Themes
For the last entry in this series, I must address briefly what is at the heart of every story: themes. Depending on whether you’re a gamer or not, you may be wondering: do video games even have themes or a “moral to the story”? And yes, there are, as there are themes to every story. …
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Novel-Writing Lessons From Video Games: World-Building
I’m typically a fairly self-controlled person when it comes to video games. I’m decent at managing my time and turning the game off after an hour or two. But I’ll admit: I’ve had a few 2am gaming sessions, and it’s always because of one thing: getting lost in the world of the game. Exploring Hyrule …
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Novel-Writing Lessons From Video Games: Plot
It’s time for the next level in this series on Novel-Writing Lessons from Video Games: plots. Many of my favorite games tell compelling and engaging stories: Xenoblade Chronicles, The Legend of Zelda, Kingdom Hearts, etc. Even games that don’t have a storyline, like Mario Kart or Super Smash Bros., have a sense of progression to …
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Novel-Writing Lessons From Video Games: Characters
Video games have some of the most iconic characters in all of storytelling: Mario and Luigi, Link, Zelda, Pikachu, Master Chief, Lara Croft, GLaDOS—and I could keep going. Many games have you make your own character, projecting a digital avatar of your choice (whether true to yourself or a projection of a role you’d like …
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Novel-Writing Lessons From Video Games: Introduction
The notion that video game storytelling can teach novel writers something is not a new concept to this blog. In the past, I’ve given mini-summaries of different tips I’ve picked up from playing some of my favorite Nintendo games, and I’ve discussed at length about the impact of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 on my own writing, …
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Writing Update January 2026 + State of the Blog
Okay, I was shocked to realize that my last writing update was in May 2025. Whoops. But to be fair, life is unpredictable, and as I mentioned in my Thanksgiving Post, 2025 was a hard year. Plus, my other commitments—namely those that my financial livelihood depend on at the moment—took up a lot of my …
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A Merry Myth-Keepers Christmas: Gift of the Phoenix
Author's Note: Here's a short story from the world of The Myth-Keepers, my current fantasy work-in-progress. This is set before the first book and follows the main characters of the series, Matt and Aria. It's been a delight to work on over the past few months, and I'm excited to share a light, humorous holiday …
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A Completed Draft 2: Writing Update May 2025
Huzzah, The Myth-Keepers Draft 2 is complete! This semester-long project has been an absolute delight to work on in the beginning part of 2025. I mostly kept up with my goal of revising 10 chapters each month, though that fell off in April entering into finals. However, the flexibility of May post-finals week allowed me …
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By Madelynn Orion 