Category: storytelling

• Granular verisimilitude

  You know you have a good editor—thanks Tim!—when they point out that the narratively-necessary-but-totally-arbitrary-8-digit number in your novel manuscript is unlikely to have the unique digits you thought would make it appear random because among the 100 million 8-digit numbers, there are only about 1.8 million whose digits are all different. So your number is…

• The Mad King

  The mad king’s madness was the source of his power, for by wrongly ascribing subtle reason to his actions, his enemies defeated themselves. But having vanquished his enemies, his victory proved Pyrrhic, for the mad king’s madness stoked internecine feuds just as surely as it had undermined his foes. The mad king was never dethroned,…

• Broken, but not irreparable

  Six weeks ago I finished the rough draft of a new novel. While I was writing it, this book felt perfect—a spitfire of a story. When I reached the end, I knew that, barring minor edits, it was ready to rumble. I was more confident of it than any other rough draft I’ve written. I…

• Stories are bicycles

  There’s a myth that puts storytellers on pedestals. It says that storytelling is the province of poets, novelists, and screenwriters. It says that there must be a moment of perfect inspiration, that the muse must whisper in your ear. It says that stories are supernatural, the revealed truth of someone of extraordinary talent and insight…

• Paul McAuley on writing Anthropocene fiction

  Paul McAuley’s Austral is a gorgeous, haunting novel—brimming with fractal stories-within-stories—about a fugitive on the run through the backcountry of the new nation established on a greening Antarctica. McAuley’s unskimmably precise prose conjure the bleak beauty of the internal and external landscapes the protagonist navigates as she tries to find her way in a world where…

• How to Kill a Dragon

  My friend Derek has a six year old grandson who came for a visit. They were exploring the basement together when the boy pointed to the door on the left and asked, “What’s in there grandpa?””Canned foods and supplies for the kitchen,” said Derek. His grandson pointed to the door ahead of them, “What’s in…

• Imagining the future

  On May 21st, I’ll be joining Marija Gavrilov to discuss how to think like a science-fiction writer: Imagination and storytelling in times of crisis are powerful vectors for activating change. We’ll come together with science-fiction writers in a semi-bookclub format to discuss imagination, possible futures, and better worlds. The first session is with Eliot Peper,…

• Alix E. Harrow on opening doors to other worlds

  Alix E. Harrow can spin a tale. Her debut novel, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, is a no holds barred adventure full of heart and imagination in which a young girl discovers magic doors that lead to other worlds and must learn to harness her power to write changes into reality itself in order to untangle…

• Why companies are hiring sci-fi writers to imagine the future

  Katie Underwood interviewed me for a Pivot Magazine feature on how business leaders are commissioning science fiction that challenges them to think differently about the future: In recent years, major multi-national companies like Nike, Google, Apple, Ford and Visa, and governmental bodies like NATO and the French army, have all enlisted the services of sci-fi…

• Advice for authors

  I receive a lot of emails from authors asking for advice. This is where I send them. My advice: Don’t listen to advice, including mine. Live your life. Pay attention. Follow your curiosity. Spend less than you earn. Read books you love. Write books you want to read. Share them with people you care about.…