Every so often I get asked about how I got into writing so I thought I would share the resources that helped me to become a better writer, narrative designer and creative. This is in the hope that I can save someone just starting out a little pain and frustration and do them the same courtesy that others have shown me.
I often find these kinds of posts to be a little vague, so I have endeavoured to be as specific as possible.
The most important thing if you’re trying to write a book or anything is to just write, there is no better teacher. Vomit out a first draft, prove to yourself how terrible you are, just get something down and then you will have some clay to work with.
Work at it consistently, and stay in the fight. It won’t be easy, so stabalise your life as much as you can and baton down the hatches, because it will probably take a lot longer than you thought it would. But it is doable.
Writing
Brandon Sanderson is a personal hero of mine and his lecture series - all for free on YouTube - gave me invaluble advice and kept me going.
The best non-technical thing I have learned is to vomit out your first draft like you don’t even care, then do a second draft. But you’re only improving vomit so how hard can it be? Then on the third draft you’re just improving the second draft… and so on. You can do it, just finish the damn thing and don’t put so much pressure on yourself. Persuing your art is persuing personal growth and expression and that is a beautiful thing. Even if you don’t write your Magnum Opus on the first try who cares? If you write something you like, you will have succeeded and chances are other people will like it too. And writing the first thing will give you confidence to write the next thing, and so on from there. Before you know it, you’ll be good at it. Trust the grind. Trust the process. And something it took me a long time to learn: Don’t redline it and burn yourself out, just keep it consistent. Ten minutes a day, an hour a day, a few hours a day, whatever works and is maintainable for you. And don’t give yourself too much grief because god knows there are plenty of other people out to do that for you. I started with a short story and went from there, I think that’s a great way to get the wheels turning.
Story/Character Arc Planning
Miro
Simple layout. Looks like digital sticky notes, great for planning character arcs or story beats. Especially if you’re working with other people and you need something to refer to.
Books and Links I Like
Discord is great for communicating of couse but I have also created my own server for keeping track of links, projects, pitching and anything that I need. It’s been invaluble, it keeps everything in one place and prevents my brain from melting.
The first book I ever read on writing and still the best. Good advice for video games but a large chunk of it is just a great breakdown of the fundamentals of storytelling. It’s really plesantly written too.
Dan Harmon’s ‘Storytelling 101’
Quick read, digs in deep, easy to understand. One of the best things I’ve ever read about storytelling.
‘The Writer’s Journey’ - Christopher Vogler
The levelled up version of the first two. If you want to go really deep into the Hero’s Journey and mythic structure then this is the one. Big and detailed but so accessibly written that it’s very easy and fun to read.
Probably the most pratical advice on writing I’ve read.
‘Blood, Sweat and Pixels’ - Jason Schreier
Really enjoyable read (or listen paricularly) and offers great insights into the gaming industry and how it works. All of his books do.
Narrative Design Talk GDC - Jamie Antonisse
Most useful thing I’ve listened to on multiple-choice narrative, a lot of GDC videos are really great if you’re looking for insight or inspiration.
‘Hugo Martin on the Creativity Behind Doom’ - Noclip Documentary
More about video game design but offers great insight and inspiration, as do many of the Noclip documentaries.
Scirptwriting
I prefer it to Final Draft as the design is really nice to engage with, the shortcuts are really useful and there’s even a template to get you started if you’re not familiar with screenplay formatting.
Narrative Design
Twine is a great place to start messing with multiple-choice or branching narrative. You can find a good tutorial here, just start with the first one and that will be plenty to get you started.
Here are some good tutorials for Unity and/or Unreal Engine 5. They are both free, just make the most basic thing you can (the tuorials below will help) and mess around with it. You only need to learn a small percentage to start with, but any familiarity will be a massive benefit.
I did this Diploma in Narrative Design from Pulse College. It doesn’t go deep into how to use engines if that’s what you’re looking for but it has great advice on the foundations of storytelling and narrative design in general. The lecturer was great as well; really friendly and happy to help, and the course can be done completely remotely.
Portfolio/Website
Squarespace is the best way to get your own website and is easy to use after some initial bumps. It can be restrictive with certain design elements but the upside is you can make something beautiful with very little knowledge of web design. You will have to pay for it but I promise it will be worth every penny.
If you want something free, I like Blogger, but getting your own website is definitely the way to go.
Design
I use Canva for anything design related. And if you knew how bad I was at artistic design, you would be inspired. If I can do it then so can you, just find a free template and edit it to have your info instead. Easy peasy.
Amazon
You will need to convert your word document to a KPF file in order to upload it to Kindle. You can do this by downloading Amazon’s bespoke software called Kindle Create.
Finding a Book Cover
I used Reedsy. Expensive but worth it. If not, there are free e-book cover templates on Canva but I would highly recommend getting original work done as it’s the biggest advertisement for your book that you have.
That’s it. I hope this helps you on your journey. You can be reassured that we live in a time where any information you need is a quick Google search away. The hard part is just sitting down consistently to put words on paper. Be kind to yourself, stay in the fight and good luck!
- Joe