I realised the great power of fiction today in the library. I’ve invented characters and situations and interactions before, but I must say that I’ve never brought something like this into being. It’s an odd feeling, pride mixed with mischief, like I’ve done something outrageous. There are five exoplanets orbiting Tau Ceti in the constellation […]
Read more "Today I invented a planet. I’m celebrating."Season 1 – Episodes 1-4 Blake’s 7 is a British Science Fiction show originally broadcast between 1978 and 1981. I’m too young to remember it the first time around and although I know I saw some episodes, I wasn’t old enough to know what was going on. I watched the whole series a few years […]
Read more "Rewatching Blake’s 7"Saturday morning is here again. Target: 2000 words. This may be a bit more tricky than usual as we’re about to leave the Earth’s atmosphere and I’m going to have to read up a bit about what that’s like (as unfortunately I’ve not experienced it).
Read more "Saturday target"This is how it works for me. It may be very different for everyone else. I’ve never been published so I don’t speak from any position of authority. All I know is that I always wanted to write a novel and now I’m over halfway to doing it. From a position a while back when […]
Read more "Writing a Story – tips from a non-expert"Hi everyone. Quick update. This morning, on the train to Vauxhall with my laptop crushed against my waist, I reached the milestone of 50,000 words which I equate to being halfway through The Crossing. I can’t disguise my joy at having got this far with the project. There is so much left to do, but […]
Read more "Halfway!!!!"OK, so this is going to be incredibly geeky, and I’m going to voice some opinions so I expect to alienate some people with this one, but I have been thinking about writing this piece for a while now so sooner or later it was going to happen anyway. People always assume I’m this massive Star […]
Read more "Comparing Universes"Saturday morning writing challenge. Target:2000 words. I’m back off to the wilds of Snowdonia. I left Paul Armstrong running from captivity, alone and with no idea where to go for help, with a search party hot on his trail.
Read more "Saturday is here again!"I promised some drawings of what I was thinking about in terms of as a look for the spacecraft which becomes the home of Paul Armstrong and the others as they go on their journey. You can see these drawings below. This is a rough idea, based around two rotating cylinders which create a gravity […]
Read more "X5 Concept Drawings"It’s Saturday morning again and time to write. I’ve got this competition entry to prepare so I don’t know whether to work on that and polish up Chapter 8 which I’m going to use as my entry OR I could add to what I’ve already got. As I said, I’m only 6000 words away from […]
Read more "Decisions"I’m reaching a point in the story now where my characters are about to end up in space, on a longer journey than has ever been attempted in history. Up until now, everything I have written has been grounded in reality: school, bus, underground bunker and wild in the mountains of Snowdonia. In about six […]
Read more "The Science in the Fiction"Books, games, music, and life — filtered through the mind of a writer, drummer, and philosopher who thinks too deeply about all of it. If it moves something in your chest, I'm interested.
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