Trope Tuesday: Smart People Play Chess

Want a fast and easy way to show that your characters are smart?  Not bookish, necessarily, or nerdy, or even the designated smart guy in the five-man band, but intellectually adept no matter what else their role in the story?  Well, you could indicate that through inordinate loquaciousness, but too much of that tends to… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Smart People Play Chess

Trope Tuesday: Chess Motifs

Chess is quite possibly the oldest, deepest, most well known and widely played board game in the world.  It should come as no surprise, then, that it’s often used as a motif in works of fiction. The interesting thing is how well the pieces fit some of the classic character archetypes: The King is like… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Chess Motifs