Start here: On Writing Fantasy, Building Systems, and Understanding How People Think
New to my work? Read this first.
Pantsing is just writing a very long, expensive outline
There's a long-running debate in writing circles between “plotters” and “pantsers.” Plotters outline their stories in advance. Pantsers fly by the seat…
Magic systems we love (and what makes them work)
There's a particular pleasure in understanding how magic works. Not just accepting 'it's magic' but grasping the rules, the costs, the limitations. When a…
The mistakes everyone makes in their first chapter
First chapters are hard. They're ones I always spend the most time worrying at. You're trying to do everything at once: establish character, set up the world,…
Infernal Creations
A council worker gets more than he bargains for when investigating a complaint about noise in a spooky old house. Starring Mark Benton, Ken Colley and Ben…
The three questions every scene must answer
David Mamet — playwright, screenwriter, and famously direct writing teacher — articulated three questions that I now use constantly. Whenever a scene isn't…
Wear the silly shirt
Robert Rankin — the wonderfully strange author of *The Antipope* and *The Brentford Triangle* — once gave me a piece of advice that sounded like a joke but…
Tropes that need a long rest
Every genre has its clichés. Patterns that once felt fresh, got repeated, and are now so worn that readers groan when they see them coming. Here are some SFF…
A guide to fantasy subgenres
Fantasy isn't one thing any more. The genre has fragmented into dozens of subgenres, each with its own conventions, tones, and reader expectations. Finding…
Why we love science fiction and fantasy (and what that says about us)
There's a particular feeling that drew me to SFF as a child and keeps me here as an adult. That sense of stepping through a door into somewhere impossible. The…