I might take the day off today. I have to go to the dentist and have my face drilled which, despite the apparent frequency of this occurrence, I am still not quite used to. Wandering around with a sleepy face kind of makes it hard … Continue reading The Routine is in Jeopardy
Light Touch: Progress!
Things are starting to move forward on Light Touch, I am assured, so I thought I'd talk a little about the book today. It sits in quite an odd place in my heart. Diplomancer was my first book, put together as the conclusion of a … Continue reading Light Touch: Progress!
SNIDE: The second act slump
I have a habit of checking my word count a lot when writing a book, which isn't helping me right now. For a while it is super useful, seeing that I've made so much progress. The first ten thousand words feel like a slog, but … Continue reading SNIDE: The second act slump
On Emergent Storytelling in videogames
I'm often confused by people who champion emergent stories in games, but that's largely because the stories they cite are rubbish. That said, I've been playing Crusader Kings 2 an awful lot, and that's throwing stories at me left right and centre, and all of … Continue reading On Emergent Storytelling in videogames
SNIDE: Writing baddies
Writing the baddie always seems to become more fun for me than creating the protagonists. That's not to say the others are arduous, but they tend to be a bit easier to put together. There are more pitfalls with the bad guys, and that's what … Continue reading SNIDE: Writing baddies
SNIDE: Multiple Viewpoints and why they are fun to write
SNIDE has multiple viewpoint characters. If you've read Diplomancer, you'll know this is not something I am unfamiliar with – and when you get to read Light Touch, you'll see it a lot there – but I am tweaking it a little this time around. … Continue reading SNIDE: Multiple Viewpoints and why they are fun to write
Things are starting to look like the future now
I've never been much of a military person. I know people who were in one of the armed forces, or who have a damn-near encyclopedic knowledge of them, but I'm very much a casual observer. So bear that in mind when I say that this … Continue reading Things are starting to look like the future now
On Research and the Secret History of Concrete
Doing research for a novel is weird. It feels a bit like cheating, seeing as it's a perfectly legitimate way to not be actually writing your book. Here's an example. I'm writing a book at the moment – a shock, I know – set in … Continue reading On Research and the Secret History of Concrete
My Writing Routine
The hardest part of being a writer is the whole “writing” thing. It sounds a little bit stupid when you lay it out like that, but it's true. When you've got the idea formed in your mind – or written out as a cool little … Continue reading My Writing Routine
Here is a thing I wrote
A friend of mine is working on a little indie game that is sort of a dungeon crawler in space. I’m doing all the in game logs, and I’d forgotten I had written this one.
Whitehall Press Corps. 