Writing “Star Trek” for Cinefex with Scrivener

I write for Cinefex, a bimonthly magazine devoted to motion picture visual effects. In 2016, one of the many films I covered was Star Trek Beyond. Want to know how I tackled it? I’ll tell you. First up, a few facts and figures. My Star Trek Beyond article was 8,300 words long, about average for the … Continue reading Writing “Star Trek” for Cinefex with Scrivener

Storytelling – When Will It Ever End?

Many stories share a common structure derived from just three component parts: Premise Conflict Resolution Or, if you prefer: “Where the hell am I and what the hell’s going on?” “Aw jeez – can you make this any more difficult?” “Wow – who’d have thought we’d end up here?” Think of almost any story, and … Continue reading Storytelling – When Will It Ever End?

What is Story?

"What is story?" That’s one of the prickly questions tackled by screenwriting guru Robert McKee in his book Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting, which does a remarkable job of both dissecting the craft of the storyteller, and inspiring the reader to stop shirking and get to work. At the heart of … Continue reading What is Story?

“Talus and the Frozen King” – First Draft VS Final

At what point does homage become pastiche? That's the question I came up against when I wrote my Neolithic murder mystery Talus and the Frozen King. While the novel is unashamedly inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic stories about Victorian detective Sherlock Holmes, I was determined that my tale of ancient crime and punishment … Continue reading “Talus and the Frozen King” – First Draft VS Final

Writing in Technicolor

I write in Technicolor. Perhaps I should explain. Like most writers of my generation, my writing style and sense of narrative have been greatly influenced by cinema. If you asked me to list the stories that have had the greatest influence on me, I'd be as likely to cite George Lucas's Star Wars as John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, … Continue reading Writing in Technicolor

Neolithic Names

Character names are a thorny issue for writers of fiction. If a name doesn't remind you of your old Uncle Henry, it probably conjures up an image of a famous actor or politican. Perhaps a notorious serial killer. Give your hero a long name and you'll be sick of writing it out by the time … Continue reading Neolithic Names

The Sensual Typewriter

I remember my first typewriter well. It was a pale grey Remington and it weighed approximately half a ton. While it was theoretically portable, it was impossible to carry the damn thing from one room to the next without risking a double hernia. It was so heavy that I was under strict instructions from my … Continue reading The Sensual Typewriter

The Forgotten Words Story Generator

The English language is a truly ancient organism. Like all living things, it evolves constantly, growing new words and shedding old ones like a snake sheds its skin. Thanks to a wonderful website called The Phrontistery, many of those forgotten words have been preserved in a kind of lexical deep-freeze. In order to demonstrate the … Continue reading The Forgotten Words Story Generator

Copy Editing “Talus and the Frozen King”

Here's how the copy editing process works. Your editor emails you a copy of your manuscript in Word format, conveniently marked with proposed changes and pithy comments using the handy Track Changes feature, accompanied by a request that you read through their remarks, accepting or rejecting their suggestions as you see fit, before returning it for … Continue reading Copy Editing “Talus and the Frozen King”

Fishing for the Right Words

When I started out writing fiction, I thought all kinds of things were clever. Like using lots of different words. Better still, using really long ones. Like antidisestablishmentarianism (OK, maybe not that one). Over the years, my tastes have changed. Now that my hair is a little greyer and my joints are a little stiffer, … Continue reading Fishing for the Right Words