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...…
How to spot a borrowed desire
Not all of your desires are borrowed. Some are genuinely yours — things you'd want regardless of what anyone else was doing. The trick is telling them apart.…
Why scrolling makes you miserable (and it's not what you think)
You already know social media can make you feel bad. That's not news. But the usual explanations — it's addictive, it's a time sink, the content is toxic —…
The uncomfortable truth about what you want
You're chasing something right now that you don't actually want. I don't know what it is. The promotion. The lifestyle. The relationship status. The home in…