Ask the Author: Christopher Bramley
Answered Questions (10)
Christopher Bramley
I've realised the burgeoning understanding of late diagnosis autism and why the world is not as it seems is not only a fascinating and surreal reframing of reality and how I've been pretending things are as they are not, but that the main character in the World of Kuln is actually autistic and I didn't realise it until halfway through book 2
Christopher Bramley
He picked up the discarded tissue; it was still warm. Opening it, he felt a deep hunger.
Christopher Bramley
Some Sanderson, for sure.
Christopher Bramley
Probably the one I write in. I think it's fascinating, and an old friend who has left this world now lives there.
I'd like to see him again.
I'd like to see him again.
Christopher Bramley
I work around it in the same way you work around an injury when you need to exercise; concentrate on something related but not the block itself. You can't force it. You can, however, just write; write anything. get words down. Sometimes random or unrelated writing evolves into the very thing you couldn't write in the first place.
My biggest writer's block was with The Serpent Calls; it was too big, too complex, too full of ideas and no set goal. I couldn't correlate everything, until i finally realised as the genius I am that an Excel Spreadsheet would allow me to cross reference everything (Since I work in IT, there was no excuse to not see this a long time before).
Now I use Scrivener, a fantastic tool that has replaced Word utterly; if you can't write end to end, change your style. Write a scene. Work on another story. Work around it. Inspiration invariably comes in one way or another.
Scrivener makes all this easy, and helps work past blocks, but nothing can supplant just writing, thinking, and working around it. focusing on it merely highlights a problem, whereas working around it lets it go.
My biggest writer's block was with The Serpent Calls; it was too big, too complex, too full of ideas and no set goal. I couldn't correlate everything, until i finally realised as the genius I am that an Excel Spreadsheet would allow me to cross reference everything (Since I work in IT, there was no excuse to not see this a long time before).
Now I use Scrivener, a fantastic tool that has replaced Word utterly; if you can't write end to end, change your style. Write a scene. Work on another story. Work around it. Inspiration invariably comes in one way or another.
Scrivener makes all this easy, and helps work past blocks, but nothing can supplant just writing, thinking, and working around it. focusing on it merely highlights a problem, whereas working around it lets it go.
Christopher Bramley
I pay attention and observe, and allow every day to spark my imagination. Dreams, thoughts, ideas, all inspire stories or scenes; sometimes it is an angry muse and demands to be noted down all at once, and other times it is more gentle and comes and goes. Everything is a story waiting to be told.
Christopher Bramley
I would say there are three pinnacles of being a writer: seeing a world that doesn't exist and helping it come into being; sharing that world with others and seeing it evolve within them; and having the story you have crafted so carefully take on its own life and move itself, with you suddenly a passenger.
Christopher Bramley
Don't stop writing, or planning writing. Write a little every day or when you can; if you can't, think about what you want to write. And don't be afraid to let the writing move you. Everyone ends up writing a lot of stuff, and not all of it will be used; don't feel you've written crap and give up.
Every word is a step on the journey to the story flowing properly, even if it's just practice, and you never know when you might find a use for what you wrote.
Persevere and believe in your work; be exact and stern, but don't let people tell you you are worthless. Better yourself and take constructive criticism wisely, and let the writing move you.
And get trustworthy opinions from people you know will tell you the truth. You can never judge your own work fully... it's hard to navigate when you are too close to the sun.
Every word is a step on the journey to the story flowing properly, even if it's just practice, and you never know when you might find a use for what you wrote.
Persevere and believe in your work; be exact and stern, but don't let people tell you you are worthless. Better yourself and take constructive criticism wisely, and let the writing move you.
And get trustworthy opinions from people you know will tell you the truth. You can never judge your own work fully... it's hard to navigate when you are too close to the sun.
Christopher Bramley
It is something I have had for a long time - I have always loved fantasy worlds and dragons, and this most recent short book was something I wrote as an addendum to the main story and then decided to pre-release. I really wanted to know how dragons could really work... so I had a serious think about it!
Christopher Bramley
I am finalising publishing book one in an epic fantasy, The Chaoswar Saga. The book is The Serpent Calls, and I am also working into the second book in the series as well as playing with ideas for a standalone sci fi.
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