When you are living life, time seems by the by. I don’t look at my watch and I find myself shuttled through the day by doing what I need to do. How different is that to a good book. The physical universe often only seems a slog because you focus on the friction of the… Read More Sunday

Do I know Elon Musk? No. Do I know Johnny Depp? No. What about these stories around them are supposed to inspire interest? Their effect and proximity to you. With Musk and Twitter maybe that is an easier pitch, because you may have used the social media platform he just bought, so you have skin… Read More Thursday

I have been watching Living The Line on YouTube and hearing about different comic book writers approaches to storytelling. Not one of them seems to use the same system. They each have elements of their process that chime with the other creative processes. I never really want to adopt another’s methods, but sometimes I’ll snag… Read More Tuesday

I am kind of in a surreal space at the moment. I started two projects — one called Toffee Amorous, which is going to be an off-kilter love story spinning off a pun on toffee hammers. The second is called We Set Fire To The Sandwich, and I have no idea what it is meant to… Read More Sunday

Everything is a story. A poem, a piece of fiction, a piece of non-fiction. I’m not just saying that because I’m a writer. Everyone mythologises the things that happen to them. Whenever you say do you remember that time you …? is you sharing a story. People feed into their diaries; they write letters; they assemble… Read More Friday

You have to create convincing dead ends for your character to go down. Stumbling into the forward motion of a story can sometimes be more lifelike and convincing than something that moves along with no friction. People make plans but life happens and some stories forget that. If a plan went accordingly each time then… Read More Thursday

Taika Watiti is getting to make some very idiosyncractic projects and I don’t think I have seen one that I didn’t like yet. Our Flag Means Death in its best moments makes me think of Blackadder. What We Do In The Shadows is in a similar vein, and also tickles the funnybone. Thor: Ragnarok was my way… Read More Wednesday

The way that Vince Gilligan builds his characters, breaks them slightly, and allows them to stumble on a little. Edging you forward in a way that helps you believe, like the character is believing, that maybe that big break is just around the corner, and he keeps building with that until the character and you… Read More Tuesday

How you tell a story is very important. Have you watched the series Dear … on Apple TV? It is pretty inspiring. It takes you through someone’s biography by looking at how they have influenced others — these others walk you through their lives, in beautifully choreographed ambulations, as they read a letter to the… Read More Monday

There are structures and systems of organisation that you sometimes need in place before creativity can bloom. I am always trying to do that inbetween creating. It can be as simple as organising wires, as having some kind of plan for the day; some kind of idea for what direction you want to go in.… Read More Saturday