Write Here, Write Now

Firstly, apologies for the pun.

Secondly, hello.

Thirdly, thank you. The internet is a vast, noisy place and the fact that you have found your way here demonstrates either a level of interest in the ramblings of a young writer, or that you are woefully lost. If you fall into the latter category, then I fear I can be of no help to you, for navigating the mad tesseract of tweets, feeds, dumps, sites, torrents and chans is something I only accomplish through a crude road-map drawn in crayon, the darkest of arts and quantities of luck only measurable in cubic buggertons. For those of you who intended to find yourselves here, or who are neither foolish nor confident enough to step back out into the digital maelstrom, let us continue…

I’ll get the basics out the way as quickly as possible. My name is Griff Williams. Ralph Griff Williams, to use all the barrels. At the time of writing this first entry I am twenty one, a law student (please try not to hold that against me) and still slightly sodden from the poor Caledonian weather outside. My hobbies include reading, gaming and collecting coats. On occasion, I may even wear some, although generally only one at a time unless the situation demands otherwise. I am a writer. It is not my hobby, or passion, or even my profession. I write because it’s the only thing I can see myself doing. Fantasy, if you are interested (which, given that you are still reading, I shall take as read from now on), with the occasional excursion into horror, mystery and the like. I already operate a nifty short-story website, Littlerature, which I would highly advise taking a look at, or even contributing to if you have 1,064 words to spare. Why, then, am I starting up a separate site?

Good question, rhetorical device, thank you for asking it.

At the chilly peak of my mind, pebbles and stones of thought have begun to trickle downwards, building up momentum as they encourage other, larger notions to join them in a quickly-growing landslide. For those not fluent in flowery metaphors: I’ve had an idea. For a book, to be specific. But I don’t want to coop this idea up on my word processor; I want to share it with anyone interested. Thus (god, I love that word), to ensure that these rolling stones don’t gather moss, I’ve put together this little collection of ones and zeros to voice my various musings, ponderings and other ruminations on the book as it goes from idea to concept to story.

Now, I’m not talking about drab, boring updates on its progress. This blog is going to be a series of introspections on the various aspects of the writing process. You lucky readers get front row seats to me agonising over how to put together a sympathetic protagonist, dynamic setting, clever story arcs and everything in between. Something along the lines of Christians being thrown to the lions in the Coliseum, only more abstract and less gory.

So here’s how things are going to work: every Tuesday I will post the flickering illuminations I’ve gleaned from my work on this book. Partially to straighten things out in my own head, partially to help other aspiring writers, partially for your amusement. In addition, every Sunday I’ll be uploading a new short-story, because it’s good to have some variety (and an ever-growing portfolio of work looks tres professional).

I’m not here to preach. My word is far from gospel. I’m just trying to come to grips with the realities of the fantasy genre.