So Martell is this wonderful, hack, B-movie action screenwriter to whom so many people have gone to fix their actions scripts that he got sick of doing it piecemeal and just wrote the cult bible on the topic....   (read more)

"Without stakes, action quickly devolves into spectacle, which enthralls an audience for roughly one and a half seconds." - Christopher McQuarrie...   (read more)

I've long had this essay brewing, this grand apologia about how the ZA novel is actually the ultimate sandbox for the exploration of existential themes, how I swear up and down if Graham Greene were alive today he'd be writing ZA novels, &c. I instead put it together as a talk for the recent Nine Worlds London GeekFest Convention....   (read more)

"I seen a million writers with talent. It means nothing. It's work, you gotta work, do the f*&^ing work."...   (read more)

"I'd love to hear about how you tackle story design, something you talk a lot about..."...   (read more)

"If there is a single more powerful piece of wisdom for any writer, artist, or entrepreneur, I don’t know what it is. Theme. Theme is everything."...   (read more)

So, as on previous occasions, once again here is a glimpse into the complete story design for the latest cycle of ARISEN material, Books Eleven and Twelve....   (read more)

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"Story talent is primary, literary talent secondary but essential... Only by using everything and anything you know about the craft of storytelling can you make your talent forge story." - Robert McKee...   (read more)

So, as last time, here for grins and posterity is a glimpse into the complete story design for my latest, ARISEN Books Nine and Ten....   (read more)

"What we seek is a spiritual connection, the sense of something important happening in our lives, the proof that whether we get what we want or not, there is a point to being here."...   (read more)

So I've gotten really, really interested in story design. I may actually have gone a bit too far down the rabbit hole at this point. In any case, herewith is a glimpse into my complete story design for the latest book....   (read more)

And, incidentally, how I learned to write (SOF) military fiction....   (read more)

This month and next, as I execute a novel I've been planning for years, and which certainly feels like the most high-stakes book I've written in a long time, I am endeavouring mightily to keep at the absolute forefront of my mind at every waking second... the core dramatic principles. Nobody does those like him, so thus to David Mamet....   (read more)

So it turns out that immortal, affecting stories tend to work for surprisingly universal and archetypal reasons. Understanding these archetypes and principles, and how to employ them, gives the storyteller seemingly magical powers. I feel like I have just gotten my first glimpse or two behind that veil; and am now at the very beginning of being able to do these things myself - just, and fumblingly....   (read more)

Readers are calling the ARISEN series 'a non stop thrill ride' ... 'unputdownable' ... 'the most original and well-written zombie novels I have ever read' ... 'riveting as hell - I cannot recommend this series enough' ... 'the action starts hot and heavy and does NOT let up' ... 'astonishingly well-researched and highly plausible' ... 'non-stop speed rush! All action, all the time - got my heart racing' ... 'A Must Read, this book was a hell of a ride' ... and 'may be the best in its genre.'...   (read more)

Well, it's done. After eight months of bashing full-time... and two years of doing story and structure work... and coming out of probably six years of reading and research... I've finished the new novel. It's by like a factor of four the most ambitious thing I've ever attempted. But I think I may have just pulled it off....   (read more)

I love trailers - all that emotion compressed and distilled down into a roller coaster two-minutes. A great story well and successfully told, out there in the world now, waiting for you to come into its world....   (read more)

No, I don't mean the Saturday that's Ian McEwan's novel, though it's really rather good and you should probably read that, though not at the expense of reading Atonement, which is just amazingly good....   (read more)

Clementine: This is it, Joel. It's going to be gone soon. Joel: I know. Clementine: What do we do? Joel: Enjoy it....   (read more)