Start here: On Writing Fantasy, Building Systems, and Understanding How People Think
New to my work? Read this first.
What your reader actually wants
There's a persistent myth that readers need to like the protagonist of a story. They don't. Literature is full of protagonists who are selfish, deluded, cruel,…
The danger of ensemble pressure
The most common way a protagonist loses definition across a long manuscript is ensemble pressure. You introduce supporting characters. Some of them turn out to…
The decision-making logic problem
There's a peculiar kind of reading experience where you finish a chapter and realise you can't quite remember what the main character did in it. The plot…
How content design taught me to write better fiction
I've spent several years now writing content for various UK government services. One thing I have to do is apply Government Design Service (GDS) standards to…
Screenplay structure: why film needs different architecture
You know three-act structure. Every screenwriting book starts there. But understanding why film stories are structured differently from novels matters more…
Dealing with imposter syndrome
Every writer I know has felt it. The conviction that you don't belong. That the things you've written are fraudulent, or lucky, or about to be found out. That…
Your villain believes they're right
The best villains in fiction don't think of themselves as villains. They have a worldview. A logic. A set of values that, from inside their own perspective,…
New apps and websites
I do like to tinker with building apps and websites, and it's been a while since I shared my recent efforts. Scribomatic I created an iOS app of the same name…
Unreliable narrators in SFF
There's a thrill in realising you've been lied to by the person telling you the story. When it clicked that the voice you trusted was pulling a fast one on…