Notes on the Writing

Most engineers aren't known for prose. But when something doesn't work, we debug it. I treated revision the same way.

Varn started as everything a villain should be. Cruel. Cowardly. Easy to hate. Then I tried to write his second scene.

Torven was supposed to be the good one. The one who does the right thing. Then I had to write what happened next.

The opening chapter has been rewritten seven times. Each version taught me something about what this story needs to be.

How do you create a community that feels lived-in? The Ashen Settlement grew from a single image: dragon bones used as architecture.

Seventy-four words. I wrote it, read it again, and knew it was done.

Why the spare sentences. Why the white space. Why I trust you to fill in what I leave out.

There's something honest about publishing as you write. The story exists in its becoming, not just its completion.

This story started as a video game I tried to build when I was fourteen. I never finished it. The story never left.