Writer for Animation, Film, Television, Books, Comics and Audio
2016 has been an odd year. In spite of its cavalier attitude to celebrity lifespans and its blatant disregard for commonsense voting, opinion poles and the general prospects for the future of humanity, my 2016 has been a bit, well… meh! It’s not been a bad year, I’ve had some really good times, a fantastic …
The holidays are almost over! It’s time for the world to get back to normal! Let’s be honest, the six weeks’ holiday is a long stretch for us grown-ups. The entire routine and rhythm of normal life goes out of the window. In my experience this is even more so for writers. I work from …
It’s three years to the day since Sorrowline came out and I became an official author. In some ways it feel like a long time ago, in other it’s just like yesterday. I can clearly remember the excitement and anticipation in the run up to publication, I can still recall everything we did on that …
If you’ve ever written a story you’ll know how important editing is to the process. Without it (unless you’re some sort of alien genius) your story will be flabby or under-developed or just not as good as it could be. Editing is the only way I know to make a story better. The first draft …
The second edition of Writing & Stuff is now live on YouTube for your pleasure, affection and scorn. This time I talk about character and how sometimes you need to take a step back from your work and figure out what purpose that character serves within your story. Also I visit the Game On exibition …
I’m trying out a new YouTube series of videos called Writing & Stuff. It’s a regular(ish) series covering my writing process, what I’ve been up to and what I’m reading. Have a look at the first episode here and, if you like it, please do subscribe, hit the like button or leave a comment.
“Here’s the challenge, Niel: you’ve got a month to do the next draft of The Death of Goldilocks. Thirty three chapters in thirty days. Are you in?” This is the voice in my head, always challenging me, always taunting me, except when it’s singing songs I hate, or deleting important memories and replacing them with …
A few people have asked me what I’m working on right now. It can seem like a long time between book releases for the readers (and the writer) and it might appear as if nothing is happening. You might imagine I’m spending the summer lazing about the garden, topping up my tan and sipping mojitos …
Things are starting to get exciting! In the last 10 days I launched my Facebook author’s page and its managed to get over 80 ‘likes’ already. I’m really grateful to everyone who has sent me messages of goodwill there too. Two parcels came last week that cheered me up as well. The first was the …