Bring a premise, a subject, a character, a draft or a blank page. I develop the world, find its people, and work through the situations that keep it generating stories. I’ve written 30,000 words for the reports of the MoD’s Futures Centre.
Do we rescue them—or hire them cheap?
Everyone expectsA time gate lets us rescue our descendants.
A time gate connects us with people living in a damaged future. We have resources they need. They have labour we can buy cheaply.
Follow how it could happenHe saved them. Then the market bought them.
Everyone expectsThe world cannot agree how to house refugees.
Liam O’Donovan can no longer bear watching people die while an adequate response fails to appear.
Follow how it could happenShe paid to be in your dreams.
Everyone expectsNeural interfaces restore lost abilities.
People can purchase appearances in somebody else’s dreams. Aiden keeps seeing the same woman. His suspicion grows alongside feelings he does not want to dismiss.
Follow how it could happenIn a ruined world, somebody still has a job to do.
Everyone expectsAn emergency is something to end.
Farmers in microlights herd vultures along refugee trails, following forecasts of where people are likely to die. Rival herders compete for territory.
Follow how it could happenYour country needs your gran.
10 finds brought back so far
The outrage is on the menu.
Everyone expectsThe restaurant sells a sustainable menu.
Protesters press against the glass while diners eat endangered meat. The enormous bill pays for conservation.
Follow how it could happenFind the idea, the reversal or an alternative direction—and the situation that makes it worth developing.
Rules, money, institutions, livelihoods and daily life. The opportunities and pressures those arrangements create for characters.
Wants, competing loyalties, plot turns and episode possibilities. Change a motive or a rule, then follow what it opens up.
Usable situations, practices and telling details from someone who has lived and filmed in the former Soviet world, followed conflict and displacement, and worked in defence futures.
“I’m carrying seventeen tomatoes,” Tom said, offended. “Some of us have responsibilities.”
Basil wants more light. Barry wants carbon. The owner wants dinner. An ecosystem becomes a cast of characters—and the household takes sides.
Read the complete storyAn abstract proposal about trading electricity became a live-action political game. You follow an ambitious minister who wants to become president, and live with the future your choices create.
I conceived, wrote and directed it for USEF. Energy Institute Public Engagement Award, 2019.
See the projectOriginal premises, a world bible, research-led development or ongoing story consultancy. The format follows the work you need.
Discuss a projectFor film, television and games. A different imagination at the development stage.
