Tag: writing

A writer has many challenges when creating a consistent, self-sustaining fantasy world for a story. Some are easy to anticipate, but others sneak up on you. After months of preparation, mapping, outlining and imagining, many a Fantasy writer has leaped into the first draft intoxicated by the joy of...

Writers have many challenges. Getting a pencil to a perfect sharp point. Coming up with alternatives to ‘Once upon a time’ to start a story. Finding time to count our enormous sacks of money. Things like that. With The Extraordinaires, my most recently released series I encountered a challenge...

After my last post on Historical Fantasy was enjoyed by so many, I thought I’d walk across the line and look at Alternate History, especially seeing as I made the distinction between it and historical fantasy. And just a word on the Alternate/Alternative debate. Frankly, I think ‘Alternate’ doesn’t...

I’m about to make a distinction that is bound to be argued with, disagreed with and flat out rejected but, nevertheless, I’m going ahead because I think it’s useful, especially for beginning writers. Character is one of the vital aspects of storytelling – this isn’t the controversial bit, by...

I’m excited to be able to tell you all about my new book, to be released by Random House Australia in April 2014. It’s called Machine Wars, and it’s unrelated to any of my other series. Machine Wars is a return for me to writing for a slightly younger...

If you’re writing Fantasy, names can be a real headache. You want names that are distinctive, evocative and resonant, without sounding ‘just made up’, and that put a real strain on the old creative gland. The answer lies, as it almost always does when writing Fantasy, in History. For ...

Look around the bookshops and the libraries and you’ll see series all over the place. On some stretches of shelves, you could be forgiven for thinking that EVERYTHING is part of a series. And, as an aside, don’t you hate browsing in a library, spotting a book that looks...

Reader feedback time: a recent fan letter loved the Laws of Magic partly because it ‘has me looking up words very page? (which is what I absolutely love about your books)’. Finding the right language level is a crucial aspect of writing for young people, but I maintain that...

Reading and writings go hand in hand. I wanted to be a writer because I loved reading so much. I wanted to do for other people what writers were doing for me. In a presentation to a large group of teenagers, I was once asked about the connection between...

Version Control This could be the most important writing tip you’ll ever read. I’ll settle for second best, I suppose, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be in the top five. Easily. Computers are wonderful and they make a writer’s life easier in many ways. But computers can make a...