Playing catch-up on a few interesting bits and pieces, first of which is to highlight a contribution I made to a free resource pack for writers over at the National Centre for Writing. This one was all about METHOD and featured insight from Jenny Offill, Eimear McBride, Bregje Hofstede and […]
I produce and co-present The Writing Life podcast at the National Centre for Writing, a weekly show talking to writers about writing. At over 100 episodes it’s one of the leading arts and non-profit podcasts and has featured guests including Val McDermid, Elif Shafak, Jenny Offill, Owen Sheers, Ben Okri, […]
I’ve written three novels, all of which are available to read for free online. If you enjoy my work you can follow my progress and say thanks by supporting me over on Patreon. No Adults Allowed was released in 2020. It’s a coming of age, post-apocalyptic story in which adults […]
I’ve never enjoyed editing. Have avoided it like the plague, in fact. Until now.
It’s November 2016 and I write the first chapter of my new book, The Mechanical Crown. After a spot of editing, I immediately post the chapter online. The next week I write chapter two and upload that, too.
(more…)I held these chapter notes back because they were all a bit inter-linked and spoilery. Now that the entire book is OUT THERE, it’s time to drop the notes: (I’ll have separate notes for the interactive game soon) All it takes This chapter was exceedingly difficult to write. It’s essentially […]
I rather like the title of this chapter. This is one of those chapters that required some extra wrangling to get right, in the form of a more detailed breakdown. I often find that action-based chapters need that beat-by-beat examination before I start writing. The kind of action I like […]
Read this chapter here. This is Stryke’s final reckoning, really – with himself. All his life he’s followed orders, followed his king, always on the assumption that he was on the right team. Throughout TMC he’s been forced to reconsider that, in the process having to come up with his […]
As a less experienced writer I used to obsess over plot. Plot was everything. This seems to be the case for a lot of people who aren’t writers, too — a common criticism of a film or book will be that “the plot isn’t very good”, or “the plot’s a bit basic”. When I used to write as a kid, my entire focus would be on trying to formulate a twisty-turny, intricate plot.
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