Upgrade’s first draft is done. When I started writing the book, I figured it’d be longer than Night’s Favour.  I guessed I’d land it somewhere between 150,000 and 160,000 words as a first draft.  Give or take, bang on: it’s landed in at a whopping 154,459 words. That’s still a lot of edits from being done, but the first draft is there.  I’m…  I’m really happy with it.  I can’t wait to share it with you.

Upgrade is almost done. It’s been quiet around here: I’ve been cranking the handle on the manuscript instead of blog posts.  That feels like the right use of my time, yeah?  Yeah. By “done” I mean “first draft of a potential thousand drafts” so don’t go getting too excited.  But just between you and me and the rest of the Internet, I’m going to admit to being very excited anyway.  I like the first draft as it sits right now, and I can’t wait to get it out there to y’all. I’ll be looking for beta readers for it soon.  If you want to read horrible first or second drafts, I’m your man — drop me a line. On other news, I didn’t get the “top job” at my G Man place, which has left me feeling pretty good — there’s Read More …

At some stage, the Internet is going to get sick of me.  Until then: forward unto dawn, I say. On that note, there’s an interview up with yours truly at My Life In Books.  You can see my witter on about my life, my family, and other such mundane shit. Richard Parry on Writing, Friends & Night's Favour @TactualRain #BookClub #Thriller #MustRead http://t.co/kUdi1q8aOI — Rose Myers (@MyLifeBooks) May 2, 2014  

One of my great frustrations is characters in stories that don’t do things for believable reasons. That’s why I wrote this guest post for Reading The Dream Life on Good vs. Evil and Believable Characters.  It’s gold, people.  Gold. Richard Parry on Good vs. Evil & Believable Characters @TactualRain #AmWriting #Thriller http://t.co/2ZTa2iaTDR — Mike Grey (@ReadDreamLife) May 1, 2014 You ever seen one of those villains in a movie that cackles with glee, rubbing their hands together at the downfall of the heroes? Just being a bit of a dick? The thing is, people are dicks all the time, but only super rarely do they wake up in the morning and say to themselves, “You know, it’s Tuesday: I’m going to be a dick today.” If we start from there, it gives us our first hint on how to make Read More …

Someone at the work cafeteria today was complaining that the faucet was broken. “It doesn’t work,” she said. Turns out, there’s a subtle shift in some obscure, alien-originated technology we’ve adopted for Earth use.  I think the key is this: if it doesn’t work with a twist, try a pull.  The scary thing is, she’s been working here longer than I have, so I really want to know: how has she survived more than six months without a drink of water?  Does she usually lap it from the toilet? I’d love to include things like this in my writing — but no one would believe me.

I’ve prepared a piece for From Mind to Mind Books on Work Area Inspiration. Colour theory. There you go: guest post done. … Okay, apparently I need to do a little better than that. The thing about my work area is that I want to make sure that it doesn’t jar with my delicate eyeballs. My home office desk is this sheet of tempered glass, and I’ve got the various technology pieces in step with this: the MacBook is grey like the desk, and the mouse, monitor, and keyboard are black. Even the mouse mat is black.Maybe it’s not colour theory. Maybe it’s OCD. I use this basic premise for anywhere I write — it’s a pretty good determiner of whether I’ll get good writing done. I sometimes like to lean back, take a rest from the keyboard, and let my eyes Read More …

Lonely Heart have just put a piece up I wrote on avoiding procrastination.  Go check it out. Oh, the irony: you’re surfing the Internet right now. Is it helping you write, or whatever it is that you should be doing?  I don’t know.  Maybe not.  Don’t beat yourself up about it: I surf the web when I should be doing things that are more productive too. I’ve got a few techniques that I use that I’m happy to share.  It’s not really a recipe — it’s just how I work out whether I’m in a good place to mess about on the Internet or not.  Here’s my top five tricks. Trick one: set aside some time to write.  I put it in my calendar.  It’s regular — same time each day, same amount of time each day. Trick two: avoid assholes.  Read More …

This is not about Dr. Phil, despite how much of an admirer of his work you may be. I’ve put together a piece on writing believable characters over at the Author’s Friend.  Check it out. You ever seen one of those villains in a movie that cackles with glee, rubbing their hands together at the downfall of the heroes?  Just being a bit of a dick? The thing is, people are dicks all the time, but only super rarely do they wake up in the morning and say to themselves, “You know, it’s Tuesday: I’m going to be a dick today.” If we start from there, it gives us our first hint on how to make our characters more real.  Start with them being human, and having human drivers.  People are “evil” or “good” because they want to achieve a Read More …