The Art of Combat in Ghost of Yōtei
As a professional fight director ... and a lifelong player of video games ... Ghost of Yõtei has the most interesting and artistically satisfying combat experience of any game I've ever played.
Love, Blood & Rhetoric
Writing about writing. And swords.
Latest posts
Ten Steps to Outline a Novel—Part Two
This is the second half of my novel outlining process (here’s the first half, with steps 1–4). At this point, you should already have a story you’re excited about with main character and an arc. Time to flesh it out a bit. Step Five: Choose a Framework So, you’ve got a main character, a beginning [ ]
Ten Steps to Outline a Novel—Part One
A friend recently asked me for tips and resources on “how to plot a novel.” I gave her some quick thoughts over the phone, but since I’m in the middle of plotting a novel myself at the moment, I thought I’d write out my process as an extended answer. Note first that 1) while I’ve [ ]
2025 Year in Review
When I started this blog in 2018, my plan was to write a Year in Review post every December, hoping to document a trail of continued progress and success as a writer. And for a few years, I kinda did. [1] Then the pandemic hit, and everything went sideways. It took me a long, long [ ]
What’s Going On Here
This is the online writing home of Tony Pisculli (I do other stuff in other places). You can find links to my published stories and interactive fiction, with notes on produced plays coming soon. The best place to start, if you re new here, is probably this roundup of short stories I wrote for Inktober in [ ]
The Magic of Polly Amnesia
Placeholder page for some extended playwright notes on The Magic of Polly Amnesia. I need to establish this URL for inclusion in the program, but I won t have time to flesh this out till later. Come back and read more after March 27!
A Day in the Life of a Damn Interesting Guy [1]
2 am: Bill Clinton calls, desperate for advice. What tie to wear for inauguration? Chide him for forgetting five-hour time difference, suggest he wear an Aloha shirt, go back to sleep. [2] 8 am: To work up an appetite for breakfast, swim two laps around Oahu towing an Atlantis submarine by a rope clenched between [ ]
Inspiration
“A little warm for a fire, don’t you think?” “It’s for inspiration, not warmth.” “Well, it’ll burn better if you stop poking it.” “I’m tickling it. To amuse it. You know, Shakespeare? Oh, to amuse a fire?” “I don’t think you’re remembering that right.” “And if tickling doesn’t work, I’ll try poetry or knock-knock jokes.” [ ]
Paper Hoard
Harold had expected the last dragon would be larger. “Disappointing, I know.” The dragon, barely three feet long, spoken in a voice like a bamboo flute—high, thin and melancholy. “Hardly a challenge at all. Go ahead, kill me. Get it over with.” “I’m not here to kill you,” Harold said. “You’re a link to [ ]
RetroFit
“So, how does this work, exactly?” “First step is intake. That’s what we’re doing now. We’ll determine your goals and map out a strategy for how to achieve them. You’ll train in our bubble—the entire facility is temporally isolated—and we’ll reinsert you into the timestream when you’re ready. Guaranteed return within ten minutes of pickup. [ ]