I’m a verbose writer and, in today’s world, that seems like more of a vice than a virtue. Back in the day, reading R.A. Salvatore’s writing, observing his use of wordplay and vocabulary was like microwaving my brain until it exploded with wonder. But nowadays, I imagine that type of writing—the good writing—seems to falter in the midst of ‘cleaner’ reads, or that prose that lacks more uncommon words or grammatical modifiers. Granted, consuming too much of a thesaurus and then vomiting it onto your writing is never good practice, but that’s also not the type of writing I’m referring to, in case you might be thinking that.

Creatures rule the fantasy genre. Some are allies, some are foes. Some are mean, some are not. Some are good, some are evil. These creatures are utilized, just on a general level, to establish a fictional world. But, where do these creatures fall on the menace spectrum? When and how are they used in storytelling? Personally, the concept of demons doesn't settle well with me, and yet there is a method to using them in storytelling. In some instances, there is a real necessity for them. This is not to say that I do like monsters. But I can say that some facet of a monster is badass in some situations. Some may wonder why they’d ever need to write about a demon, especially if they’re not in a spooky cult or writing a horror story.