Characters are a reflection of life – have fun with it!

Characters develop as you write

Writing is about realising dreams – my dream of being a writer, my dream world, and also the dreams of who I wish to be, reflected through characters.

One of the joys of being a writer is being able to be the person you always wanted to be through your characters. You can create someone […]

Results as a writer are a matter of discipline

Master as a writer takes discipline

Like any other skill, writing is about 10% talent and 90% discipline. It would be very easy for me to claim that Age of Oppression is taking a long time because of demands of work. I could give a dozen excuses about life challenges and the weather and other people getting in the way. I […]

The essential item in a writer’s toolkit

Essential item in my toolkit...

What’s in your toolkit? When you run down the list of all those items a writer needs, what springs to mind?

Pens? Paper? Laptop? Writing software?

All good things. But there is one that, to me stands out about all others.

Living the dream

I’ve always wanted to be a writer but for a very […]

From hobbyist to pro – the writer’s journey

The journey to become a writer is a strange one. In particular you have to be a writer first – and only then can you do it for a living.

That doesn’t mean you need to have had 10 best-sellers before you can call yourself a writer or anything like that. (Mind you, I was […]

Start as you mean to go on…

I started a 30 day blogging challenge today. I signed up at the weekend because I was curious and because I wanted to get back into the groove of blogging here on my Bremmand Chronicles site. And because, whoever we are, there is always something new to learn.

I’ve been in London today, at a […]

The bits and pieces that make a character

Once or twice, people have asked me who I base my characters on. The moment they ask, I know that they are not fiction writers.

What makes me say that?

Simply because character development isn’t about ‘lifting’ a real person you know and dropping them into a book. Let me give you an example of […]

Stage 2….

Image of the back cover of my next book

I’m faced with mixed feelings this week.

In the past few months, my focus has been on getting my business up and running, so work on Age of Oppression took something of a back seat. But, as my coach often says, “passion+discipline are what are needed for achievement,” and, if story telling is what I […]

Pressing on!

Here I am again.

The draft is written and now, all I need to do is review and polish the next bestseller-to-be. And, of course, half way through the second set of revisions, all I can hear in my head is “Oh, this is a really weak story. This is terrible. Everyone is going to […]

Back to it

Image of the back cover of my next book

You may have noticed that I’ve been away for a while. I stopped blogging for a while when I left work to start up my business. Anyone who has done something similar will know what a strange, exciting and challenging experience that is – EVERYTHING changes.

So, caught up in all of that, I decided […]

The power dynamic

Characters develop as you write

I’ve come to the realisation that Age of Oppression – the novel I’m currently writing is all about power.

The sub-plot of the book highlights the political manouvering between the Emperor and his brother as they attempt to gain power over one another. Their political wrangling and reactions to trouble in the south provides some […]