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…
Posts tagged: character
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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…
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…
Killing your characters: when, why, and how
Character deaths are powerful. They can be the emotional high point of a story — or they can feel cheap, manipulative, and pointless. The difference is in…
Agency
Agency, in terms of character and plot, is something that has always been something of a mystery to me. So when my editor flagged that sometimes my characters…
Want, wound, need
Every writing book talks about what your character wants. Fewer talk about why that want matters — or what's really driving it underneath. The…
Villains we love to hate (and what makes them unforgettable)
The great villains stay with us. Sometimes more than the heroes. What is it about certain antagonists that makes them unforgettable? The charming ones Loki.…
Why your dialogue sounds fake (and how to fix it)
Dialogue is one of those things that feels like it should be easy. We all talk. We've been listening to conversations our entire life. How hard can it be to…
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…
The Political Circle
Like many of my mad ideas for websites and apps, the Political Circle came from a need to better understand my characters. In the fantasy world I'm creating…