Developing Your Character’s Inner Struggle
Often when I’m developing a character or a story, I get lost in my own head with all the possibilities available to me, and I need something to anchor me and narrow my choices in a simple, direct, and progressive way. To help me think through a character’s inner struggle, I developed this 10-point questionnaire…
Origins of Goth(ic Punk)
I didn’t realize I was a Goth until I moved to the US to go to NYU. Growing up in the UK in the early 80’s the music of bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, and Cocteau Twins was just what was played on the radio. I remember walking into the dining hall freshmen…
The Crafty Guide to Cheyne Heath (Pt. 1)
Excerpted from a curious book I found hidden in the back of a dusty shelf in a used bookstore on Cape Cod: As we all know, we witches are never the most welcoming of people, save to the needy visitors to our kitchens, and the witches of Cheyne Heath are more unwelcoming than most, so…
The Storyteller’s Tarot Spread
Sometimes inspiration doesn’t come to me spontaneously and I need external prompts. The divinatory system of the tarot offers a complex map of human psychology, archetypes, and challenges that I’ve found a great starting point for understanding and developing characters and stories. In trying to harness all that intuitive potential planning my books, I came up with this approach to using the cards as a storyteller.
Gone To Water
Morag’s boots slipped on the wet cobblestones as she ran in search of Feargal, her heavy woolen skirts wrapping around her calves and threatening to trip her to her death, but she would not stop until she knew her son was back at home and safe in front of the fire. Not in a hundred…