CW: Reference to rape.

I said, very early in these blogs, that I didn’t want to do reviews. Much as I have my own opinions of various creative works I don’t feel it’s my place to bias any of you as to what you should and shouldn’t read or watch. I’m not a reviewer, I’m a writer. That said I do want to share some thoughts about the recent BBC adaptation of Dracula with you as a means to explore basing your work on a pre-existing material. These opinions are my own and suffice to say spoilers for the show below.

I should start by giving you some grounding on my own interpretation of ‘vampires’. I’m not one for the dark, brooding, romantic, lonely wanderer type. The legends of vampires, to my mind, are cautionary rape tales where the central figure is one of power and influence, using their charm and position to take sexual advantage of others lower placed in the social food-chain. The ‘Lord of the Manor’ or some such, having their way with the staff or, in more recent years, producers or celebrities using their position to their own depraved ends. Vampires are monsters, not love-lorn loners in my mind. The vampire mythos and warnings therein still apply in our modern world but, with the bravery of those involved in the #MeToo movement I would hope that’s changing.

The Dracula story has seen many interpretations, from the Hammer Horror movies of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s to things like Vampire in Brooklyn (1995) starring Eddie Murphy. My personal favourite is still Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) with Gary Oldman in the titular role and, while other vampire based media has taken the bare bones of the legends and spun their own story around it, producers and script writers return, again and again to the Bram Stoker story and Dracula himself. So, now we move on to the latest BBC adaptation and some thoughts/comparisons of the telling itself.

The BBC’s Dracula (2020) is a three-part dramatization developed by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat. Both have written for Doctor Who and have a wide range of other credits between them spanning drama, comedy and Sci-Fi. The show starts from the point of view of Jonathan Harker, a very familiar character in Dracula lore, but here he is telling of his encounter with Count Dracula in a convent under the watch of Sister Agatha Van Helsing. This is the first important divergence from the original where Van Helsing was an aging professor of disorders of the blood and Harker didn’t meet that character until he’d escaped Dracula’s castle and returned to England. Some might rail against the gender reassignment of the character but to me the gender of Van Helsing (or any other character for that matter) is not as important as the character’s portrayal. When Katee Sackhoff was cast as ‘Starbuck’ in Battlestar Galactica (2004) it didn’t matter to me who they cast as long as there was a certain faithfulness to the character as portrayed by Dirk Benedict in 1978 and, in Dracula, the performance of Dolly Wells in the roll is one I find no fault with. She manages to conjure impressions of Anthony Hopkins, Christopher Plummer and even a little Mel Brooks from time to time and she is immensely entertaining to watch.

As Harkers account develops we see Dracula take advantage of the young lawyer, not only enlisting him as a kind of tutor on the ways of society and style in London but by draining the mans blood to restore Dracula’s own youth. Rather than some kind of mesmerism the approach Dracula takes is more akin to gas lighting, the darkness of the castle making the passage of time hard to track and Harkers own frailty from increasing blood loss and the growing influence of Dracula over him playing into that process. I’ll insert a brief note about the interpretation of the Harker character here. I wouldn’t be so bold as to assume that the screenwriters were representing an abusive relationship between Haker and Dracula but it does appear so to me. Harker presents as a timorous individual, even refers to himself as ‘just a lawyer’ when the Count suggests tutelage in the ways of modern society. It takes a great deal of trauma and a clear presentation of the Counts dire intent and nature involving a baby to give Harker the determination to leave.

Another bold step away from the usual form comes in the interpretation of Dracula’s ‘Brides’. So often used as a means to titillate the audience (as in 1992, with Keanue Reeves under direction by Francis Ford Coppola) the brides in this adaptation are presented not as glamorous vampires themselves but as Dracula’s experiments toward propagating his species. Beyond that, later in the episode Dracula refers to Harker, saying he might be ‘my finest Bride yet’. The dialogue smashes wide the arbitrary gender assignment of a four-hundred year old creature (Dracula can no longer be described as ‘human’) who, up to this point, has only passed on vampirism by an act much removed from (but still reflective of) sexual intercourse.

In this telling Harker escapes before Dracula leaves for England and so the Count follows him to the convent and this is where there is something of a dialogue masterwork between Dracula and Sister Agatha. The two actors riff, like fire and ice, the dialogue is punchy and combative in a playful way. It’s very much a meeting of minds and a testing of resolves. Dracula, from his human origins as a warlord of Walachia and as a noble of darkest Europe in the late Victorian era obviously doesn’t much expect such astute observation from a woman, let alone a nun but when faced with its existence he revels in the challenge irrespective of its source.

I’ve yet to touch on the presentation of Dracula himself and it is a different characterization to any I’ve seen. The aesthetic of the character quickly changes from a ragged and elderly man to a Bela Lugosi-esque presentation that did give me quite a smile but, beyond the visual this Dracula stepped away from the quiet and cultured, sinister figure to a rather bombastic and overbearing, East-end diva completely assured in his own superiority whether that be intellectual or physical. Whenever the character finds himself stymied he revels in it turning it into a scene within the scene. He plays the characters within until their own human nature swings the balance back in his favour.

The first act of this three-piece is as much about establishing that this is a different take as it is about introducing the characters we are already familiar with and that’s a lesson we all can learn when basing new material of existing stories. Even with Agatha, she’s a nun, but she’s also Van Helsing. The concept is introduced and we swiftly move on. Act two is, in my opinion the best installment. It deals with what happened on the Demeter, the ship that bore Dracula to England and an instance often overlooked in subsequent re-tellings. Here the scriptwriters indulge in a rather fun ‘Death on the Nile’ inspired mystery where we all know who’s responsible but the cast do not. Despite the fact that the audience is well aware of what’s going on the writers hold to spinning a narrative around the disappearances on board and the mysterious ‘passenger in cabin nine’. It’s so very reminiscent of both the old mystery novels and certain more modern formats like Slasher Horror or even The Thing and it works. Alongside this narrative the Count is telling Agatha of the events aboard the vessel and the two blend together in a way that is ultimately very gratifying and, at least in my case, rather unexpected (admittedly I never was good at ‘Who Dunnit’ mysteries).

At the end of part two Dracula comes ashore and is bathed in light from a helicopter and surrounded by Range Rovers and personnel armed with modern assault weapons. He’s also confronted (apparently) by Agatha Van Helsing in modern clothing and she calls him by name. This is a compelling cliffhanger and a clear indication that this is no longer the Dracula story we’re expecting, having stepped on from Victorian England into the modern day, but is it? What we get is almost the story as was, characters like Lucy Westernra, Doctor Seward, Quincey Morris and Renfield appear but, in different guises. Lucy is a social media influencer as well as being a party-girl; Renfield is Dracula’s lawyer and argues with the Harker Institute over the vampires ‘human rights’. There are many changes to the original but also many similarities too. The commentary at play is also undeniable. Dracula sits in the living room of a modest home and states ‘I knew the future would be full of wonder, I didn’t expect it would make them ordinary’. Lucy is cremated rather than interred and, upon rising and at the climax, when shown her true, now burned face she begs Seward to kill her despite Dracula’s assertions that she is still beautiful. At the very finale, Dracula ends the life of Van Helsing (now a merging of Sister Agatha and her descendant, suffering cancer) as an act of mercy and then drinks her blood as a means to end his own existence. It’s a subversion of the form that still holds enough in common with the original story. This isn’t, as such, a review but my feeling is, for all its clever twists the third act comes across as quite shallow. That may or may not be more of a reflection on it’s setting than its story.

This BBC interpretation of Dracula is, in my opinion, a very useful example for writers who intend to revisit existing stories. Many of the differences and changes work while still staying true to the work of Bram Stoker. So often trying to re-imagine or reinvent existing stories or properties can draw negative reaction from the fans of those existing works. In my experience the ones that succeed are those that keep true to those works while still establishing a character of their own. The differences that set a work apart from its inspiration can make it, or break it and it can be the toss of a coin as to which is true.

Hello again everybody, so today I wanted to talk again about how you write and share a little about my own cyclic behavior when it comes to my own creativity. I don’t know if you’ll identify with this but maybe it’ll help and reassure you in regards to some of your own experiences of writing and creativity.

Many people I’ve talked to about writing or creating have said ‘I just can’t seem to see it through’ meaning that they lose interest in the work they’ve done, file it away and never go back. To me, I’ve found that, rather than a hurdle or a wall this is part of a repeated cycle that I go through from time to time. Writing is a passion for me, but like many passions it’s hard to be passionate all the time. I’ve discussed in these blogs about renewing yourself from time to time and, simply put, if your interest in your work starts to flag then it’s time for you to renew your creativity.

For myself this falls into a predictable pattern and it’s one that I’ve found I can pursue while writing. I read, I watch movies and I play video games. The cycle often falls in that order too. I often joke that my ‘to read pile’ has simply transformed into a ‘to write pile’ but I do still read and I have a few titles to work through yet. Currently I’m reading Tom Holt, ‘An Orc on the Wild Side’ alongside ‘The Walking Dead Psychology’ by Langley. I have Hugh Laurie’s ‘The Gun Seller’ lined up as my next read, whether I get that far before the cycle turns is the question though.

There’s a couple of shows I’m working my way through at the moment, ‘Titans’ and ‘The Witcher’ to name two. They tend to play in the background as I write but, if my attention for the WiP flags I’ll sit and pay them my full attention.

Gaming is something I dip into from time to time. With my recent work it’s as much research as anything else but games now have easily as much narrative contained within them as any movie or other work of fiction so it pays to pay attention. If I’m just looking to recharge my batteries then I opt for simpler games, ‘World of Tanks’, ‘Friday the 13th’ or ‘Dead by Daylight’. Simply round based games where I can have a crack at it and pull out as soon as I want.

I also picked up my guitar for the first time in years. I’ve got to work on rebuilding my calluses but it’s great to be playing again. Writing is very much like learning an instrument, it takes time and routine. Practice, getting your butt in the chair and doing it. Inspiration comes and goes but building routine keeps the flow alive.

Many of you have day jobs and don’t have the time to do all this but keep in mind. If your impetus to write tails away don’t be tempted to ‘replace it’, or don’t think of it like that. Instead accessorize it, find a companion activity that renews your creativity. Exercise is also a good outlet, there are a million things you can do besides your primary creative outlet. I resisted exposing myself to other creative works for a long time, I worried that they would dilute my contribution to my own work by drawing the influence of others. Sometimes it does but I’m aware of the influences so can avoid anything being too similar. Most times I even cite my inspirations to people I’m discussing my projects with.

So, stick with it, renew yourself and find other activities that feed your own creativity. Hurdles and walls might spring up but acknowledge then and realize that they don’t need to stop you permanently. If you’re distracting yourself acknowledge that too, it’s not bad, don’t beat yourself up for ‘procrastinating’ but realize that it’s a necessary part of the creative process.

Keep going and good luck.

There’s no getting away from it, a lot of people enjoy being scared. From roller coasters to haunted houses, games, films and books the market for Horror and all it’s sub-genres is huge.

As an example, Peter Benchley published ‘Jaws’ in 1974 and it was picked up by Zanuck/Brown to be turned into a major motion picture, directed by Stephen Spielberg in 1975. Many people are aware of the production issues that plagued the film and that the animatronic shark was named ‘Bruce’, but did you know that the town of Martha’s Vineyard (the stand-in for Amity Island) was initially concerned that the release of the film would kill its tourist industry as surely as if they did have a man-eating shark? Well, the exact opposite was true, Tourism to Martha’s Vineyard tripled after the film was released and to this day, more than forty years on, the island cultivates its association with the movie franchise as a premier destination for horror movie fans.

So, how does that translate to writing horror, how do we make it work in a era post ‘Saw’, ‘Hostel’ and the rise of the so-called ‘Torture Porn’ genre? Without images, special effects or tension music it’s not as easy as throwing gore at the page and seeing what sticks, I can tell you that much. As a horror fan myself I can still only give you my personal views on what makes something scary. While the genre is flooded with material, for me as much of it is laughable shlock as is truly terrifying so I’ll share my thoughts for you in the hope that they prove beneficial in your creating.

One of the key stones of good horror isn’t even the scares, it’s the characters. Whether you’re writing dystopian crime thriller or occult body-horror, if the audience don’t care about your characters then you’re more likely to get a laugh when they inevitably die than a gasp or a tear. Worse still would be a shrug and an ‘eh’ response to your carefully crafted execution scene. The trope of ‘the macho asshole’ getting what the audience thinks they deserve is proof of that. If the audience feel empathy with the character and their struggles it will encourage them to ‘feel’ as the character feels when they’re uneasy or afraid making your job of scaring the reader that much easier. Pay attention to your characterization, encourage the audience to care.

Slow-burn tension is another good tool, steadily building the idea that all is not what it seems, making the familiar slowly more unfamiliar, threatening or outright dangerous is one approach to take. Occult horror follows this pattern all the time. It’s a favorite trick of Stephen King (see also Dean Koontz and James Herbert). There’s a term among those who study and work to build humanoid robots, ‘The Uncanny Valley’ whereby an seemingly human object that isn’t human engender feelings of fear or revulsion in observers, that’s the kind thing you’re trying to encourage (but without the humanoid robot focus). The Stephen King novel ‘Desperation’ (and ‘The Regulators’ published under his pseudonym Richard Bachman) take this approach, the ‘normal’ becoming abnormal. Taking examples from real life it’s a well-documented phenomena that the victims of home-invasion, whether they are present for the even or not, can struggle in finding that their home is not a ‘safe place’ anymore. Again it’s something you’re trying to encourage within the bounds of any horror that the usually ‘safe’ aspects of our everyday life aren’t anymore. You’re building a creeping sensation of unease among your characters up until the tipping point where they find out why.

Alternately you can pull the rug out from under the cast almost straight away. It’s a regular feature of Apocalyptic or even Post Apocalyptic fiction with the characters often reminiscing about the world as it was before, a means to encourage empathy from the reader. ‘The Walking Dead’ did this quite successfully with the character Rick Grimes but that’s only one fairly recent example. The third book of ‘The Rats Trilogy’, ‘Domain’ by James Herbert starts with a thermonuclear explosion over London and goes from there, you don’t have to have read either of the previous works to pick this one up either (though I warn you there are scenes of sexual violence within). Horror based around animal antagonists build on very primal fears, the fear of being hunted and eaten for example. ‘The Rats’, ‘Jaws’ even ‘Cujo’ make use of that primitive fear. It’s also employed with zombie horror though that plays more on the fear of mortality and of becoming ‘other than we are’.

Throughout the horror genre it’s the application of fear on a cast of characters that the audience identifies with and feels empathy for that provides the payoff as they either die, or ultimately overcome the danger that has been posed against them. Those fears can be general concepts that nonetheless plague our subconscious minds, fear of the dark or the unknown or they can be more specifically targeted, fear of spiders or *shudder* clowns. We’ve seen many from ‘Arachnophobia’ to ‘IT’, ‘The Hunger’ (Alma Katsu, Donner party inspired survival horror) to ‘Bird Box’ by Josh Malerman but still the  audience craves new and inventive ways to be scared, to investigate and shine light into the dark places of the human psyche and, more often than not, to truly feel ‘alive’. Continuing protests against properties in the horror-genre cite the old argument that it ‘desensitizes’ people, that it ‘makes monsters’ who go out and perform horrific deeds. It rarely works live that, the ‘violent games breed violent acts’ argument just doesn’t hold up under the weight of close scrutiny. The sad fact is that there has to be some instability there in the first place, something that sadly goes undiagnosed, unacknowledged or untreated in the first place. For the vast majority of the audience it’s the sensation of our heart-pounding in our chest making us feel ‘alive’ that drives our interest in the genre and it’s the thrill of exploring the themes behind and expanding on that thrill that drive some of us to write it.

Contrary to the vocal protests of a very small community, writing horror doesn’t make you a monster. Exploring themes of fear and trauma in a fictional setting, via the means of a human monster or an inhuman one doesn’t make you one yourself. The battle of ‘Good vs Evil’ or ‘Innocence over Corruption’ is the most common core concept of any horror fiction and (if a few secondary characters get murdered and maimed along the way) it’s all in fun, right?

The main problem facing you as a horror writer is how to make your work original, just like any other genre. There are so many Serial Killer stories, Undead or Diabolic vengeance Revenants out there. So many monsters from Vampires to Werewolves to the Bunyip and beyond being drawn out of folk-history. Animals from Spiders to Sharks, Bears to Birds brought to the fore in the name of new ideas. What you write, how you write and who you write will prove the proof of your manuscript. You can and will find your audience, no matter how niche and remember.

Selling a hundred-thousand copies might make you ‘successful’, but putting one smile on one face makes you a success.

Well, here we go again. I would’ve liked to open this one simply by expressing my wishes that you all had a wholesome holiday and a Happy New Years celebration. I’d like to, but I can’t. You see, I’m painfully aware that there are many many hundreds of thousands of people in this country who struggle through this time of year for a myriad of reasons and that there are millions more in this big wide world who struggle to survive in the current socio-political and ecological climate.

I’m afraid that the UK Election of 2019 hasn’t quite turned out how I’d have liked and now (like some sad and aging tribute band) the UK have not only retained our bargain-basement Trump knockoff, but apparently given the only-Muppet-Jim-Henson-never-loved a proper majority to endorse his racist, sexist, bigotry powered agenda. It’s been less than a month and we’ve had Christmas and New Years and the Tories have basically back-tracked on all their big key manifesto pledges.

I didn’t ever really want this blog to be politically oriented, it’s supposed to be about my experiences as a writer and advice to others following that path but I’m rather afraid that circumstances have dictated a shift in my stance on that policy.

I was going to write how, as much as the winter holiday period is branded as ‘family friendly’ there’s one huge problem with the ‘perfect holiday’ and that is people and especially family. No-one can get on our nerves as well as family and, throw in the tiresome business of travelling to and fro/hosting, and the sheer effort of the extra socializing, and the burden of the almost sacred duty to do all the above, and the holiday season can quickly become a very stressful time of the year. The ‘tradition’ of the family argument is all too often a reality (rather that a comedy bit for a Hallmark Comedy) which, though it may blow-up then settle just as quickly can mar the day for everyone.

It’s a little embarrassing to admit but, these times offer a great opportunity for the writer to watch how people interact and behave under pressure in an almost benign situation. You don’t really want to be an observer for an accident or crisis or violent incident just to improve how you handle such things in your writing but, within the petri-dish of such strained family dinners, lies the examples of interpersonal interaction under stress. I don’t endorse provoking argument for the purposes of research BTW.

That’s what I was going to write about but, in the wake of this election and it’s result, legitimizing the ugly face of Nationalism in this ‘green and pleasant land’ the added politics has been so much nastier. That’s not a sudden development, politics has been getting pretty nasty for a long-time it flares and dies  but we’re in a prolonged flare right now and all because of the Brexit (and that’s still a stupid name) Referendum of 2016. Brexit brought it into your house, there was so much venom stirred up by that issue that it didn’t stop at dividing friends but broke families apart like a game of Monopoly that no-one can win. I won’t say the election reignited the arguments because they never stopped but, certainly in the places I witnessed it, the socialist leftists where calling for the Conservatives to be hauled out on the grounds of their quiet culling of the most vulnerable elements of society while those who had supported Brexit where still calling for someone to ‘Get it done’. It seems that, nowadays in Not-so-great Britain, anyone clawing for some form of societal equality can be drowned out if the establishment even hint at them being anti-Brexit, the ‘Leave’ supporters will howl the poor devils to silence for them.

In the past I’ve talked about stereotypes and how they are used for comedy or to save time on descriptive prose by offering the reader a familiar concept. Well, the old stereotype for the British (before it became a drunken, violent football ‘supporter’) was essentially John Cleese in a bowler hat and pin-stripe suit. Well spoken and mannered, reserved and educated. That was the stereotype for the average citizen but, if we were to do the same for the Nation it’s very different. The UK leadership still likes to think this country has a lot more influence than it actually does. The legacy and political clout of ‘the Empire’ seems (in the eyes of many) to be not so long ago when really it is all but gone. The caricature of the UK I have in my head is an aging, aggressive single-parent (who has suffered several strokes at this point), dressed in the remnants of their once-finery, who makes much more of their tenuous ‘booty-call’ status with the US than there is even though no-one else believes it. Their ‘family’ immediate and extended has either turned it’s back on them or is in the process of doing so and it’s embarrassed offspring (Scotland, Wales and the remaining Ireland twin) can’t wait to finally get the hell out of the house.

So, while I may be frustrated, angry and admittedly a little afraid of what might come, and while I could go on, and on, and on I won’t. I will save the sentiment, if not the actual words, for my works in progress, my manuscripts will benefit from my emotions and my messages, warning of Corporate Greed and Political Corruption, will be interwoven with them and be all the stronger for them.

I can’t go ahead with hope. Unless something radical happens we’re looking at five more years of Tory leadership and, if  they haven’t already, the establishment of quiet means to keep them there. The continuation of Tory austerity means hundreds of thousands more vulnerable people will die from neglect and oppression while the trough at the top overfills with the proceeds of privatized utilities, health services, and eventually the emergency services too. The next five years holds little hope.

So I intend to go on in defiance, write my stories and lambaste the elite for their misdeeds and, if I cannot shame them through satire and caricature then maybe I’ll just have to include the list of their misdeeds alongside their actual names and have them whine ‘Libel!’ in my direction.

Forget ‘Happy’, let’s have a ‘Radical’ New Year.

So it’s Dragonmeet this weekend, a one day gaming convention in London and there are going to be loads of representatives of the board gaming and table-top RPG industry there as well as artists and writers. So today I’m going to share a little of my experience in writing for games and how to approach these kind of projects and work alongside other writers to create deep and engaging settings and situations for the audience.

I have been lucky enough to work on several games by a couple of different groups and have worked independently of and in concert with other writers on a couple of genres in a number of settings but what I’m about to share with you are the central lessons that I have learned when writing for games.

The first thing you have to remember when working on these kind of projects is that this intellectual property doesn’t belong to you. This becomes important later on but it is something you have to keep in mind the whole way through. However, just because it’s not ‘your world’ doesn’t mean you should do any less than your best during the creative process.

So, once you’re taken on board you should receive a guideline document from the project coordinator telling you about the style and layout that’s expected of you. Read it. If you’re writing for an established name in the industry or even a new company just starting out then they have, or are building, a recognizable style that their readers, their customers have come to identify with their brand. It’s also important for the final editors who don’t want to spend ages re-formatting submitted pieces to fit into the boundaries of the finished piece. You should always conform to the submissions guidelines as with any publisher or agent because it helps to build a reputation as someone who is easy to work with and follows their rules.

If you’re writing for an existing/ongoing game it is essential to have a good knowledge of that setting and the rules system you are writing for even if you are just writing settings or even vignettes it is important to be able to look at a scene and see how it would translate into gameplay. In fact the vignettes are often examples of story-telling within the system and used to explain specific rules so the short story needs to be engaging, entertaining and conform to the rules system. If you’re brought onboard for an existing system you’ll likely have at least a little background knowledge of it (usually at least a small criteria for the selection process) but, if you don’t, you should be given access to existing publications to familiarize yourself with the setting and rules.

Writing settings is different to writing stories but very much like world building. It’s essentially exposition intended to help the game-runner or GM build a story within the game world and there will be a word count limit and structure to how to go about it. Like exposition it cannot be ‘dry’ it still has to grab the reader and submerse them in the world they are reading about. In settings writing it’s more important than ever to avoid passive prose and keep your language active. The reader wants to be drawn into the world and we (as writers) are, in these instances, serving a customer and their audience so it is our job to do just that. That said, don’t be afraid to have fun with it (within the bounds of the Guideline docs) the reason you’ve been approached is to bring fresh eyes and and new perspective so it’s an opportunity to show what you can do.

Often these projects will engage a group of writers to contribute to the finished piece. Sometimes you’ll be working independently and sometimes collaboratively but it’s likely that there will be a shared workspace (either IRL or online) for asking questions related to the project or sharing ideas and suggestions. This is invaluable for new writers as some of the people involved will have prior experience and a deeper knowledge of the game world. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, don’t be afraid to seek suggestions if you’re struggling. I made a habit of working online in G.docs and sharing a link so the other writers on the team could drop in and look at my pieces and I wasn’t the only one. It is very important to engage with your team and I cannot stress this enough. Don’t scurry off into your workspace to ‘do your bit’ in isolation (especially if a number of you are working on a shared section or chapter), be involved, be active, the project will benefit and, again, prove you are someone who is not only easy to work with but takes an active interest in the success of the project.

Once the draft is done and submitted it’s time for the Redlines process where the project coordinator goes through the drafts and offers feedback on the material. You remember when I told you to remember that it ‘wasn’t your world’? Well this is where that becomes important. It’s very unlikely that your first draft gets through without suggestions for change so don’t be surprised and, more importantly, don’t be defensive or resistant. You’re working on contract, your piece has to fit their specs. Your project leader shouldn’t just highlight the bits that need changing though, there should be positive feedback in their as well highlighting the parts the PL really liked. So, read the feedback, think about it and make those changes. There should also be suggestions for how to go about it so you don’t have to rewrite cold.

Personally I really enjoyed my contract work experiences and look forward to being involved in more projects in future. Seeing how other writers approach a broad theme is a wonderful thing and I’m certain the experience helped me grow as a writer and push the boundaries of material I can write. Game writing is certainly a different beast from narrative or novels but shares enough similarities so as to make any fantasist or story-teller a candidate for contribution. Currently I’m actively looking for opportunities and may try my luck in the worlds of video games in the coming year.

I’ll probably wrap-up the blog for December (so maybe one or two more entries this year) and see you all sometime in January. Happy Holidays.

To be clear, just because I’m not writing Camelot 2050 now doesn’t mean that there will never another installment. Camelot 2050 was part of my life for a long time but it was always going to be a trilogy and there are other projects I want to get on with.

Camelot is my debut series but not what’s described as a Trunk novel (that being an unpublished manuscript that sits in a trunk in the attic). It shares some aspects of the trunk novel though, it was during Camelot that I discovered and refined my style, voice and approach to writing. You can see that as you read through. So why did I stick to writing a Trilogy? We’ve heard of the ‘Trilogy in five parts’ (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) and there are other debut series that carry on, The Dresden Files was Jim Butchers debut but he had plans for the Codex Alera and Cinder Spires series. Despite that the Files carry on currently standing at fifteen novels with a sixteenth on the way and with numerous short stories set in the chronology.

I love a good series. The Dresden Files, the Honor Harrington books, the Discworld novels. A good series lets you really get to know a set of characters. It allows the reader to really get invested in their journey but, to my mind, once you get beyond five or so books it becomes harder and harder to put them down either as a reader or a writer. It becomes harder to step away from them maybe because of habit or loyalty both to the books themselves and to the fans who read them. I’ve come across a couple of book series that I had to step away from. In those cases it was because the authors went through dramatic events in their lives and the tone and character of the books changed into something I didn’t enjoy anymore.

I love the works of Gail Carriger, the Parasol Protectorate series and the Finishing School trilogy are joyous but they are also well contained within their run length. The PP runs at five and the Finishing School series is a trilogy along with it’s follow-up the Custard Protocol. Each series or trilogy is set in the same world with familiar characters but to read one doesn’t absolutely require knowledge of the rest.

So, back to the initial question, why no more Camelot (for now)? Although I have (and may again) put pen to paper on orbital short stories from before, during and after the Le Fay Campaign I want to broaden my writing horizons. Lest we forget that even Terry Pratchett stepped away from the Discworld on occasion to pen works like the Bromeliad Trilogy, Strata and co-authored such works as The Long Earth series and Good Omens. Camelot is adventure and militaria with a scattering of fantasy, horror and sci-fi. I want to explore those genres more deeply and flex my imaginative muscles as a means to get better at what I do. As I’ve mentioned before a ‘pure’ Sci-Fi novel is on the way as is a Horror with a twist on the well walked ‘zombie survival’ theme. Beyond that is my planned Urban Fantasy series influenced by the British Gangster genre.

Once all that is done (or even while I’m doing it) I may return to Camelot 2050 (or 2060) should a new story emerge from the depths of my brain. I’d like, at some point, to explore the possibilities of a comic series or RPG based on the setting but that’s beyond my personal talents. I’ll hold out hope for a Netflix series but that’ll be a ways away (if it ever does happen). The main reason to keep tapping away at the keyboard is to get my stories out to the audience who’ll enjoy them.

Apologies for leaving you all hanging last week, it’s been busy and I’ve been a little under the weather but, to make up for it, to day I’m going to try and cover something meaty, a brief review of tools in the story-telling toolbox.

So, back in school we were all taught from early on that a story comprises a beginning (where you establish characters and setting), a middle (a situation in need of resolution) and an end (the situation is resolved). Fortunately for us, way back in the mists of time, someone said ‘Is that it? Hold my beer!’ and story-tellers have devised a great many narrative tools to satisfy the requirements of their stories.

So, if we disregard genre for a moment, most stories fall into two styles, linear and non-linear. A linear story follows a chain of events, cause and effect, down a sequential time-line (this even applies to time-travel stories told from the PoV of the traveler although, sometimes the effect comes much later). A non-linear story jumps from point to point, back and forth in the process of the telling. Flash-backs or flash-forwards highlight things that happened before or have yet to happen but that have a relevance to the ongoing story. Once in a while someone will shale things up, in the 2000 movie Memento by Christopher Nolan the linear story takes place in reverse. The MC played by Guy Pierce has lost the ability to form long-term memory so the film is a series of flashbacks telling the story from end to beginning. The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger tells the story of a woman romantically involved with a man who jumps in time, sometimes backward, sometimes forward so, while the story is kind of linear her experiences of her husband are disjointed as he appears out of sequence in her life.

So, the basic model of storytelling, the Male Ejaculatory Arc (as dubbed by Douglas Rushkoff) is a steady escalation until resolution. The situation introduced at the beginning gets worse and worse until it is resolved. This steady stream of stress can, over the course of a full-length novel, lead to reader burnout so, how do we switch things up? Breathers and Victory Laps, moments when an immediate problem is dealt with and the characters can catch their breath or celebrate some small victory. These can take the form of character developing interactions (and character development throughout a story is very important) or more intimate social moments between two or more characters. It’s important to show the reader that these characters are individuals with fears and frailties outside of the current situation.

Escalation, as it applies here, is raising the stakes. Whether that be in terms of threat and danger, emotionally or the consequences of certain actions. Different Genres handle that escalation differently, as the number of survivors dwindle in a horror piece, the threat of another victim showing up in a crime thriller, the prospect of open hostilities in a political piece or external interest by a rival in a romantic novel.

If the stresser is introduced early and needs ongoing effort to resolve (as in many comedy settings) then there can be gradual progress to resolve before ‘The Fall’ or a catastrophic event where everything goes belly-up and undoes all the progress so far. The fall generally leads to a Hail-Mary effort by the characters to bring about a fitting resolution. The sudden tug of the rug out from under the main cast as everything they worked for falls apart and they have to double-down and risk all or lose everything to achieve the goal is a well-known tool in narrative.

As mentioned above, flash-backs and flash-forwards can stir up a story. Pieces of the history or the outcome, out of context can liven up a story or give the reader a deep desire to discover how things got this way. I started my second book Dragon Fire with a section from the opening of the second act, a scene of devastation with the goal of teasing my readers onward into the story. Employed at the very beginning this ‘Hook’ is intended to grab the readers attention, whet their appetite for the adventure to come. Hooks come in many forms, the first hook in your arsenal is your title. A strong Title draws eyes to your book, you might employ a tag-line, a single compelling sentence to supplement the title and then the blurb on the back cover. Inside the book your hook is your first line, paragraph or chapter. A prologue as a flash-back to something the reader is familiar with (as with Black Knight) but changed in some way to pique their interest is one technique. As above the flash-forward into the story is another. Whether you use one or neither of those approaches the first line of a book is the most important, you can gain or lose a reader on its strength.

Fake-outs, the red herring or the dead end. When the investigation loses track or the action hero appears to be dead. Again, genre to genre, there is massive disparity in the accepted use of this mechanic. An action story or horror tale might play host to one or two fake-outs (when the Slasher appears dead but comes back for a final ‘Hurrah’ or the apparent death of a named character) but, a mystery novel is occasionally built on red herrings (a suspect characters odd behaviour is explained away by some personal catastrophe). In noir it’s acceptable that, when the PI has exhausted their avenues of investigation, that’s the moment the crime boss takes notice and has them kidnapped or someone comes forward with a key piece of as-yet unrevealed evidence. Used sparingly (relative to the genre) they can add an unexpected twist or turn to a story, but too many and the reader will roll their eyes and shut the book.

The key thing to remember, even as you employ these tools, is pacing. Some books suffer by over stimulating the reader with a constant barrage of escalation and some over estimate the readers need to rest between narrative hits. If you look around you’ll find other blogs, some with diagrams, about escalation and rests. Something that should be recognised is that, what appears a small triumph or victory lap for one character may not be for another. Dealing with multiple story lines among a group of characters allows you to add another dimension of escalation and rest and that doesn’t necessarily count toward over stimulating your readers. Some readers will root for one character, others for another. What might be seen as a resolution for one character can be interpreted as an escalation for another and that will apply to your audience too. The escalation/rest  swing doesn’t need to be totally rhythmic, it’s not a pendulum. Life is erratic, why should your story be any different.

That’s by no means the exhaustive list, I’ve missed a bucket load but I hope these will help you develop your work and maybe encourage you to go looking for more tools for your toolbox.

The next four weeks are going to be really busy for me so I apologise now if the ensuing blog posts are somewhat short or even none-existent. With that in mind I’m going to talk about everything I’ve achieved this past year and what I hope to achieve going ahead.

Back in 2018 I attended four events with Camelot 2050, my goal during 2019 was twelve. In the end I managed ten but, considering one of those events was WorldCon I think I can forgive myself. So far this year I’ve attended;

• The Enchanted Market (Reading),
• EasterCon (by Ytterbium, Heathrow),
• London Film and Comic Con Spring (by Showmasters)
• Portsmouth Comic Con (by GoGeek events),
• CollectorMania (by ShowMasters at the NEC Birmingham),
• WorldCon Dublin,
• NorCon at the Norfolk Showgrounds.

Still to come I have;

• BristolCon,
• Worthing Wormhole,
• DragonMeet (at the Novotel Hammersmith)

I must say I met so many wonderful people and made so many new friends who are really enthusiastic about Camelot and my upcoming projects that I really can’t begin to say ‘thank you’ enough to everyone who’s followed me on social media or come up to chat at the conventions and shows. The series continues to sell and gain traction. Once I’ve completed a couple of new projects and really settled into the next series it might be time for those revised editions I’ve been considering to really polish the Camelot Books and bring them up to the standard YOU deserve.

One of the reasons for doing a year in review now is because I’m already elbow deep in scheduling next year. A lot of these events are already on that list (some will fall by the wayside) with a likely return to Sheffield FCC thrown in. Those paying close attention will see there are Literary cons, Trade cons and Games conventions on there. This coming year I’ll be pushing some of the other independent projects that I have contributed to by Isolation Games, table-top games like ‘Age of Steel’ and ‘Tormented’ will be going on my table. That, of course, doesn’t include the other projects with Onyx Path and Dirty Vortex. The Contagion Chronicles, Dark Era’s 2 and Solemn Vale all draw closer to general release so watch out for them.

As far as Camelot 2050 is concerned there are two shorts written and in editing and I’ll be looking for anthologies or magazines to take them up while I work on not one, not two, but three new, original novels. Two stand-alone pieces aimed at full publication and the first novel of the long talked-about Bentley Pennywhistle Chronicles (think Lord of the Rings meets Lock, Stock and Two Smokin’ Barrels). I’ll keep my ear to the ground for new RPG projects to sign onto and my nose to the grindstone writing my new material. Look to see me at GoGeek, Ytterbium and ShowMasters events throughout the year and I’ll update on other events I book onto.

 

 

CW: Reference to sex, sexual content and sexual abuse.

I’m a day early, I know, but this subject has been bouncing around in my brain since Worldcon. During Dublincon I attended a panel about sex positivity and, while fun (it was late, mid con and we were all a bit wired by that point) it didn’t really satisfy the subject for me. So, what is sex positivity and what is its place in literature?

I’ve written before about sex in fiction, sometimes used as a mechanic to mark the development of character relationships. All too often, sexual violence is used as a stresser or a mechanic to dis-empower a character or create ‘threat’ (check out this great article for challenging that Mythcreants – Six Rape Tropes and How to Replace Them).

Sex positivity is all about how you approach sex in your writing. There’s a culture, carried over from our overbearing and repressive ‘forefathers’, that sex is a shameful act unless it is for the purpose of procreation. We know that that is an antiquated view, and for decades there have been efforts to encourage sexual freedom and, whilst the majority of the population are more open to sex for enjoyment there’s still a pervasive opinion that sex equates love and relationships and marriage etc. There’s a lot of guilt and shame attached (mostly to women, and it’s the double-standard here that’s shameful) who ‘break’ these socially enforced standards, and that carries over into film and literature. Characters who enjoy responsible sexual liberty are commonly seen as ‘irregular’. But why? Why can’t consenting, responsible adults engage in sexual activity without falling under that pall of shame? This is the purpose of sex positivity.

Now, without denying that there’s a lot of ‘bad’ associated with sex (rape, people-trafficking and other abuses of trust and or power) the purpose of writing sexual positivity is to promote healthy, consensual relations and practices. If we deny the bad entirely it creeps into the shadows, but by promoting the good we provide examples of how to be and challenge the bad.

By writing positive sexual experiences we can help to wipe out the stigma that is still attached to certain sexual practices. The most important aspect for sex positive writing is consent. If either party can’t or hasn’t consented you’re not being sex positive (that includes animals [unless it’s fantasy where they’re sentient but that’s a whole other ‘rabbit hole’] or individuals unable or emotionally unprepared to give informed consent).

Other things to avoid are external judgment from any character not involved. If we’re trying to present sex positivity, then presenting negativity or judgment is counter-productive. Body positivity, support of sexual identity, communication between the sexual partners and a sharing of responsibility (for things like birth control and sexual health) are key features of presenting a sex-positive arrangement.

So what areas suffer from sexual negativity?

• Initially and possibly earliest, masturbation. Self-satisfying is stigmatized. We use terms like ‘Wanker’, ‘Tosser’ or ‘Jack-off’ as insults in everyday life. It’s seen as the last resort of lonely individuals rather than a healthy expression of sexuality.
• Pornography (not without justification). Porn suffers from it’s long history of exploitation, abuse (substance and physical) and presenting unrealistic standards of human development, but, does that make everyone who follows a career in porn immoral? No, it makes the opportunists and the immoral individuals in porn immoral. Over the past few decades the industry has seen a rise in actresses taking the reins as producers and making their own films, a rise in awareness of sexual health and support for the talent. The rise in visibility due to free access via the internet (and not having to sneak into sex-shops) has not only increased society’s consumption of pornography, but a rise in standards within the industry itself.
• Polyamory, the practice of having multiple sexual partners in a network. Unlike the Mormon practices depicted in Big Love (HBO, Olsen and Scheffer 2006) polyamory doesn’t require a romantic attachment, but is best described as “consensual, ethical and responsible, non-monogamy”. That is that every partner in the network is aware, informed and understanding or the wider arrangement, nobody’s ‘flying under the radar’ or going behind anyone’s back. Polyamory is based upon communication and mutual respect.
• Prostitution. Firstly, the word itself. Sex-workers (and the term covers performers in the porn industry too) have been around as long as society itself, and they haven’t always been stigmatized like they are today. Secondly, much like the porn industry, Sex-Work has been a breeding ground for abductions, people-trafficking, enforced substance abuse and other amoral practices enacted by those in positions of power against those in desperate situations. Examples of individuals who choose to pursue a career in sex-work as a means of personal empowerment are few, but not non-existent. The idea of an empowered, responsible and happy sex-worker is almost diametrically opposed to the media perception of victims suffering poverty and abuse. It is the dichotomy between society’s resistance to decriminalizing sex-work and the persistent demand for sexual services that continues to make it a profitable enterprise for criminal organisations. That said, there are those who pursue it as a career of choice without suffering under a ‘pimp’ and, while examples of that in media are rare, they do exist.
• Hypersexuality (nymphomania/satyriasis)/Sex-Addiction. Just like any other form of neuro-diversity or addiction, these are serious subjects not to be played for laughs or as a justification for aberrant behavior. Again, for those who manage these conditions (most without clinical aid since, as of 2010 the condition failed to get the support of the ADA for addition into the DSM) there’s a lot of stigma that sufferers of conditions such as alcoholism or substance abuse have (largely) overcome.

The main point about writing sex-positivity is that it doesn’t detract from the story. Relationship stress, action, and violence are all still viable tools, the point to stress is that they aren’t related to the sex. Should you still choose to use sexual violence in your fictional plot, the onus of wrongdoing should remain firmly upon the perpetrator, but do take the time to research survivors’ accounts, we owe it to them.

Remember, informed consent, communication and respect between the subjects and avoidance of external judgment are cornerstones of sex-positivity. Promote healthy sexual relations and don’t lean on bad ones as a plot crutch.