How to write an adventure gamebook

The distilled wisdom of two decades of writing adventure gamebooks presented in four easy to digest chunks.

Part 1 - The Idea

Part 2 - The Proposal

Part 3 - Writing the Adventure

Part 4 - Re-Structuring the Adventure

On Monday I start writing my fifteenth adventure gamebook. And I can't wait to get started!

If you're a fan of adventure gamebooks, you might like to readmy piece on Fighting Fantasy's 30th in the new SFX Special.

Never be stuck for a name again

Looking for a good name for the hero of your latest short story? Can't finish that superhero strip you're writing because you can't thing of a suitably superheroic moniker? Lost for words when it comes to the title of your next fantasy magnum opus?

Well have no fear, for Michael Carroll is here!

Watt-Evan's Laws of Fantasy

Whilst trawling the Internet the other day (when I probably should have been writing) I came across Lawrence Watt-Evan's Laws of Fantasy. Any budding fantasy authors out there would do well to have a read.

Watt-Evan's Laws of Fantasy

1. Watt-Evans' First Law of Fantasy: Stories are about people.

2. Watt-Evans' Second Law of Fantasy: People are never wholly good or wholly evil, and therefore characters should never be wholly good or wholly evil.

3. Watt-Evans' Third Law of Fantasy: The basic human motivations are universal.

4. Watt-Evans' Fourth Law of Fantasy: Everything other than the basic human motivations will vary, depending on the cultural setting.

5. Watt-Evans' Fifth Law of Fantasy: Magic, like everything else, has rules.

6. Watt-Evans' Sixth Law of Fantasy: If a story can be written without a fantasy element, then don't bother with the fantasy element.

If you would like to read more about the above laws and see what other snippets of advice Lawrence has to offer, click here.

Ever thought of yourself as a budding J R R Tolkien?

Do you secretly harbour the desire to write your own fantasy epic? Do you re-read The Lord of the Rings every year in the hope that one day you will be able to create your own best-selling trilogy that then gets turned into a blockbuster film franchise? Do you have a folder full of scribbled maps depicting your own (but entirely different) Middle Earth?

If you do (or even if you just feel that you've read one derivative Hobbit rip-off too many) then you have to take The Fantasy Novelist's Exam.

Angry Robot

Publishers Harper Collins have announced that they have appointed Marc Gascoigne (one-time collaborator, editor and publisher of mine) to run a new SF & Fantasy imprint. This new business venture - with the wonderful name Angry Robot - is being set up to provide the global science fiction/fantasy community with new content both in physical and digital form.

To read more about this exciting development in the world of publishing, click here. In the meantime I'd like to wish Marc all the best with his latest publishing venture.