Start here: On Writing Fantasy, Building Systems, and Understanding How People Think
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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…
What comes after you stop chasing?
Over the past few days, I've been writing about mimetic desire — the way we absorb what to want from others, often without realising it. If you've been…
The envy map
Envy is uncomfortable. Most of us try to push it away, deny it, or rationalise it into something more acceptable. But envy is also information. Specifically,…
Why achieving your goals won't always make you happy
You've probably had this experience: You worked hard for something. A promotion, a milestone, a purchase, a relationship status. You achieved it. And then...…