Friday 15th May 2026
Draft Two of "Stromheld" is complete. Now to focus on Draft One of ""[Book Seven - Title Not Yet Revealed]"" before ... working on Draft Two of ""[Book Seven - Title Not Yet Revealed]"" then two drafts of ""[Book Eight - Title Definately Not Yet Revealed]"" then Draft Number Three of the whole novel, then Professional Proof Reading, then editing the changes suggested by the Professional Proof Reading then ... yeh, then we should be good to go! Woo!
Friday 8th May 2026
Concluding our little series on tenses in White Hole (because I don't really have anything else to talk about), let's look at First Person Past Tense.
First Person Past Tense: I'm honestly not sure which is the more common narrative style, Third Person Past Tense or First Person Past Tense. Nonetheless, and at the risk of repeating what I said two weeks ago, if you've read more than three novels in your lifetime you've probably encountered this one before. Its your standard narrator telling the story from their perspective, but describing the events as having happened in the past, "I walked", "I went", "I saw". I've always thought this is the most "real" of tenses. Unless God Himself was to pen a book, there is no way that anyone could have the insight required to tell a true story in Third Person Past Tense. Likewise, it is very unlikely that, in the heat of the moment, anyone would have the time to write coherently in First Person Present Tense as chaos breaks lose around them.
First Person Past Tense is different, however, and that is probably why it is such a popular narrative style. A narrator describing something that happened to them in the past could just as easily be your friend down the pub on a Friday night, telling you about their week, or a talkative, distant family member on the Sunday evening call when you also watch "The Antiques Roadshow" on mute with the subtitles on because you really couldn't care less but want to be polite. It creates a personal, relatable narration that helps to bring the world and the events to life, as if someone really had lived them and then written them down for you to read.
The drawback to this style is that it is quite hard to jump between perspectives, creating a limited view on events (although I did try it with "One Small Step". Did it work? You tell me!). There is also the lack of uncertainty surrounding the narrator's fate, they have to survive or else how could they be telling you about their experience?
Overall, this is a tense that I really respect, although personally I prefer reading and writing in Third Person Past Tense because of the narrative opportunities it opens up. Still, expect to see more of this tense in "The Scientist Cometh".
... and that's it really ... Next Time? We need to talk about those plastic Corwin pot plants!
Friday 1st May 2026
Continuing my first ever "mini-series" of posts, let's talk about another of the tenses used in White Hole.
First Person Present Tense: This is, in my experience, a rare narrative style. I didn't even realise it was a thing until I read "The Hunger Games", but apparently it's popular in YA (Young Adult) fiction. Maybe there's a gap in my reading library that I need to look into! Anyway, first person present tense is used in "Jeffrey's Mood Swing" and (spoilers) "Stromheld". It has the narrator (Max in both cases) describe the action as it happens, "I go", "I choose", "I say". It gives the narrative a fast paced feeling of immediacy, and is perfect for these more action packed stories. Because it forbids the use of retrospection (any future events have not happened for the characters yet, so they cannot look back and reflect) I feel it really immerses the reader in the action, the characters have no idea what will happen, so neither does the reader. Personally, I found this the hardest tense to write with, perhaps because I'm so inexperienced with it. Particularly during "Stromheld", I often found myself slipping into first person past tense, which I'll talk about next week.
First person present tense was fun to try, though on the whole it is my least favourite of the three tenses I've used.
Friday 24th April 2026
So, before Easter I promised to talk a little more about the different tenses I used in "White Hole Volume One: The Corwin" and why I chose to do this.
The main reason is that I was aware of the episodic nature of the story, the sort of "stop-start" approach, and how that might get boring or even irritating to the reader. I felt that by changing the tense across the four books, it would help to keep the narrative feel fresh, with each "episode" having its own unique feel and perspective.
Third Person Past Tense: This is the tense I used for "Departure" and "Martin", and if you've read more than about three novels in your lifetime, chances are one of them has used this. Its the standard narrative style, "They went", "they chose", "they said". What's great about it is that the third person approach allows the narrator to jump between different character's perspectives quite easily, letting me give the story a wider range (though it can focus specifically on one character if need be). I felt it was perfect for the first and final book of the volume, as it allowed for a grander scale that didn't limit itself to one perspective.
I'll talk about the other two tenses in a future post, maybe even next week!
Friday 17th April 2026
Welcome back. Hope you were able to get at least somewhat of a break with some surprisingly good weather!
Still going through "Stromheld" making changes where neccessary. I have also put together a summary for the third book in "Rise of the Levellers" (Book VII overall). I won't reveal the title as it gives away a bit too much.
One of the things with Book VII is that I have tried to avoid introducing a "villian of the day" (a villian who appears for one book and then never again, without making any major impact on the wider story), with the main conflict coming from the character interactions and some space-junk. I was worried I might not be able to tell a story comparable to the first six this way, but it seems to have worked out.
More on this as it develops.
Friday 27th March 2026
This will be my last update before Easter, so wishing you all a happy one, hopefully with a long weekend and some good weather (we can dream!!!).
I'll be cracking on with "Stromheld" in the meantime, and will hopefully have a full update after the bank holiday.
Friday 20th March 2026
So, was browsing a friend's Facebook page the other day and realised he had shared my Facebook page with a review back in summer which I completely missed! So, just to show that I do appreciate every review, here it is, only seven months late!!!
If you've read White Hole Volume One: The Corwin - love it or hate it - I would really like to know your thoughts.
If you haven't read it yet ... well, check out the link below!
Friday 13th March 2026
So was about halfway through Chapter 10 of "Stromheld" yesterday when I realised that, at some point, the first-person present tense I had been using ("I walk", "I run", "I jump" - see "Jeffrey's Mood Swing" in "The Corwin") had changed to first-person past tense ("I walked", "I ran", "I jumped" - see "One Small Step" in "The Corwin"). Whoops! Cue an embarrasing few minutes going back over the chapter and changing the tense. Despite the books in "White Hole" using different tenses* this is the first time this has happened to me (in memory). Will try not to let it occur again.
*Hmm ... why did I choose to vary the tense I use throughout "White Hole"? Maybe I'll talk more about that next week!
Friday 6th March 2026
Finally finished the redraft of "The Scientist Cometh". Now to focus entirely upon "Stromheld".
Friday 20th February 2026
Still working mainly on the redraft of "The Scientist Cometh" and the first draft of "Stromheld" in between. Writing something for the first time is, in my opinion, much more enjoyable than going over everything with a fine-toothed comb to find out how asleep I was when I wrote it the first time, so very much looking forward to finishing the redraft so that I can focus on "Stromheld" full-time, and maybe give you more of an update than "Still doing that thing I was doing five weeks ago!"