If you’ve ever written a story you’ll know how important editing is to the process. Without it (unless you’re some sort of alien genius) your story will be flabby or under-developed or just not as good as it could be. Editing is the only way I know to make a story better. The first draft …
Sorrowline featured in Guardian Top 10 list
I was thrilled to read that my first novel, Sorrowline, was mentioned in Rhian Ivory’s top 10 books set in the past and the present article for the Guardian. Here’s what Rhian said: I love and am quite jealous of the unique idea at the heart of this book: you can travel through Sorrowlines, the channels …
Writing & Stuff #02
The second edition of Writing & Stuff is now live on YouTube for your pleasure, affection and scorn. This time I talk about character and how sometimes you need to take a step back from your work and figure out what purpose that character serves within your story. Also I visit the Game On exibition …
Writing & Stuff #01
I’m trying out a new YouTube series of videos called Writing & Stuff. It’s a regular(ish) series covering my writing process, what I’ve been up to and what I’m reading. Have a look at the first episode here and, if you like it, please do subscribe, hit the like button or leave a comment.
CGI strain
Have you ever been in a cinema, watching the destruction of a city, and found yourself being bored? It’s an odd sensation. There’s so much to see in front of us, carnage on a scale we’ll hopefully never witness in real life, entire buildings lifted from the ground, ripped apart by superheroes, aliens, military helicopters, …
July Edit – part 3 – The End
Mission accomplished! Draft 4 is complete! It’s taken a month longer than I had originally planned but I’m there now, so who cares how long it took! Structurally the second half of the book is quite different than it was in draft 3, shifting the focus onto the characters rather than the situation. As Steve …
Timesmith arrives in Brazil
Sometimes authors are the last to know about foreign edition release dates. That might seem hard to believe (I’m still getting used to it myself) but having spoken to several other authors it’s not unusual. So it was with some surprise and delight that I stumbled on a familiar image via Twitter. There was the …
July Edit – part 2 – Hampstead reccy
I’ve made some actual progress this week. It feels like I’ve hit the brow of the hill and can see what’s left to do. I’ve just started on Chapter 24, so only 9 more to go! (Unless I decide to write some more new ones!) The good thing about getting lots done on the edit …
July Edit – part 1
Almost the middle of the month already? How did that happen? Well I’m at the beginning of chapter 18, so it’s been super slow going over the last two weeks, but I’m hopeful for a quickening of the pace now I’ve got some of the biggest changes in place. And I’m off to London later …