Firstly, I have to thank Jim Murdoch who gave me the idea for this post via a comment he left on my post last week.Thanks, Jim.Last week I talked a bit about characters, and how I like to base the qualities for my characters on the general bonkersness of people I encounter. Jim made an

Characters are my favourite part of being a writer.I suppose that isn’t suprising. As a reader, I think characters are my favourite aspect of a story as well. Sure, I might initially get sucked in by an interesting premise, or the promise of some sort of exciting revelation, but ultimately it’s the characters that keep

I know how to juggle.I taught myself how to do it, just after I finished school. I was a bit bored one day and on a whim I thought, “Why don’t I teach myself how to juggle?” So I did. I grabbed a bunch of golf balls (to this day, I reckon golf balls are

I went to see Neil Gaiman last week.It was a really fun night. He’s a great speaker and raconteur, a real writing rock star. And with the amazing body of work that he’s produced, he has an awful lot to talk about. Novels. Comics. Films and television shows. He’s pretty much done it all (did

There’s one thing I really like about being a writer. I get to be a master manipulator.I know what you’re thinking. It’s all about the characters. He gets to choose which ones live or die. He gets to decide which ones have happy endings and which ones don’t. He has complete control over every aspect