Writing Design Fiction

Great game stories don't come from big budgets. They come from good systems. The classic LucasArts adventures - The Secret of Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle - built worlds players still quote decades later. They did it on floppy disks, at 320×200 resolution, with no voice budget and no cinematic engine. Their advantage wasn't money. It was design discipline: story and mechanics fused so tightly you couldn't separate them. Modern indie developers work under the same kind of constraints those teams did - small crews, tight budgets, no time. This book argues that's an ...

Step beyond the boundaries of conventional storytelling. Writing Beyond the Wall is a transformative guide for authors, screenwriters, and creators who dare to break the fourth wall—and build something meaningful in its place. Inside, you’ll discover how to craft stories that don’t just entertain but engage readers as co-conspirators. Explore meta-narratives that acknowledge their own artifice, simulation loops that bend time and causality, and characters who awaken to their own fiction. Through in-depth frameworks, annotated examples, and practical templates, this book equips you to:...

An insightful and actionable guide to creating a hero that readers will fall in love with, from the author of The Secrets of Story The hardest yet most essential element of writing great fiction is character – specifically, creating a central hero who is relatable, compelling, and worth the...

A step by step route from a blank page to a finished book: drafting, editing, cover art, copyright, and launch. The methods are built to hold up across a full manuscript, chapter after chapter. Updated March 2026 for the current tools. Written by a law professor who researches AI and copyright, and who ran these workflows on his own writing. What the book covers Writing workflows for fiction and non-fiction that survive a full draft Prompting the major models for long-form work Keeping voice and continuity consistent across chapters Cover art and illustration without design experience ...

Unlock your storytelling potential with Story Ideas Unleashed!, the essential guide to creating captivating and original story ideas. This book is packed with extensive examples, easy-to-follow templates, and powerful generative AI prompts. It will take you step-by-step through the process of developing story ideas from the first raw thought to a polished story concept. Whether you’re new to fiction writing or a seasoned storyteller seeking fresh inspiration, Story Ideas Unleashed! will help you create powerful, imaginative story concepts that connect with audiences. The techniques and ...

An indispensable guide in the bestselling Save the Cat! story structure series that reveals the 15 essential plot points needed to make any young adult novel a success, from an accomplished novelist and the author of Save the Cat! Writes a Novel. In Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel...

A practical craft guide for romance writers from KJ Charles, former editor and author of over 30 novels—including The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen—focused on writing, revising, polishing, and publishing emotionally satisfying romance novels. Think, Write, Edit, Romance is a smart...

How do you create characters who keep readers hooked? How do you write the opposite sex? Teenagers? Believable relationships? Historical characters? Enigmatic characters? Plausible antagonists and chilling villains? How do you understand a character whose life is totally unlike your own? How do you write characters for dystopias? How do you make dialogue sing? When can you let the reader intuit what the characters are feeling and when should you spell it out? Roz Morris is a bestselling ghostwriter and book doctor, and a literary author in her own right. She teaches creative writing ...

Experience the final days of Pompeii in book two of the TimeDrifter Series. This harrowing historical fantasy unfolds through the eyes of the doomed city's inhabitants along with a trio of struggling time travelers. Their old nemesis, known as Basilius in Pompeii, charms others as he attempts to thwart their every effort. The fate of another relies on their ability to dodge Basilius's efforts and escape before time runs out for Pompeii. Will they be willing to forfeit a future for what they hold most dear?