A few days ago, I realised that I have to rewrite roughly a third of the Novel. Most of the middle section is flawed, to the point where I don't know what else to do with it. Yeah, it's irritating. It's not enough to have written a book - the book is a product, and...
I seem to be posting a lot lately, go figure. Writers get ideas out of everywhere and nowhere. The sound of a car in the street in the evening. A news story. The smell of bread. In the course of things, we turn ideas into stories that may or may not be available to...
I like comic books, really I do. They're remarkably underrated as a medium. Alan Moore in particular is a storyteller of consummate skill; V for Vendetta, Top Ten, and others are among some of the most in-depth and emotionally involved works I've ever come across. The...
So yeah. Queries. The bane of my existence. As I get to the end of the second draft of the Novel, I realise I have to start thinking about queries. At some point I'll have to get an agent interested in selling it if I'm ever going to see it in print. So it follows...
Writing fantasy usually means writing a certain amount of fight scenes, it seems. Writing fantasy action adventure means that times ten.I love it, really. If I could write action movies for a living, I would in a heartbeat. I love epic fights, and huge odds, and...
Right, this blog is supposed to be primarily about writing, not about my love of fast cars....One of the reasons I really like driving is because I can think while I drive. That is to say, I like to drive and think alone; having another person in the car with me puts...
I had stalled on the Novel there for a while. I get writer's block the same way I get insomnia - suddenly, viciously, and fleetingly - and while it's annoying, it's nothing I can't get over given a little time.I'd say I get off lightly. The Wikipedia article on...
I think every author must remember their first stories. The first published one, the first written one, the first completed one. You think back on them sometimes, even when you know they were complete rubbish and your current material is infinitely better. It's a tiny...
On this day, in 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. I'm celebrating the occasion by watching a film called The Dish. It remains one of my favourite movies of all time. It was pitched as a comedy, though, and it never received the real recognition...