Novel Writing 12: My Plotting & Pacing Process.

I’m now over 25,000 words into the first draft of my latest novel. As things continue to come together, I’ve been thinking about the techniques I use to bring my plot together and keep it punchy. Before I started writing my current trilogy, I sat down and worked through a series of world-building exercises, which helped me to create the topography and setting of the Empire. My […]

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Novel Writing 11: A New Story Takes Shape.

And so it rolls on. I’m now 20,000 words into my third novel – and that number feels like its come out of nowhere. About ten months ago, I started writing my first novel proper, after much preparation. I ran quite hard to complete the first draft for each of the two novels within a few months each, and then did some intense refining to […]

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What’s Next? A Lesson from David Bowie & Anna Wintour.

What’s Next? A Lesson from David Bowie & Anna Wintour.

“Ok, what’s next?” A few months ago, I had the privilege of visiting David Bowie Is, an exhibition that catalogued the life and career of David Bowie. With his passing yesterday, I’ve found myself reflecting on a man who had an enormous impact on pop culture over five decades, and in particular, Bowie’s refusal to stay still. It’s cliche to say that David Bowie refused to […]

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Revisiting an Old Classic.

Well, maybe it’s not quite a classic, but it’s where I started. Yesterday I finished reformatting my original steampunk mystery novella, What Went Wrong With Mrs Milliard’s Mech? Editing the novella was an enlightening experience to say the least, one that was spurred on by a review I received on Amazon almost a year ago, which used my novella to complain about the death of the English language. […]

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