Tag: dailyprompt

chess, first draft, planning, Ideas, inspiration

A Bad Game of Chess.

John Payne

Something just occurred to me. A great first draft of a novel is like a really poorly played game of chess. I’ve never been any good at chess. I never plan ahead, and I always just hope for the best when placing my pieces (I’m mostly hoping the person opposite me is as clueless as yours truly). This makes for a disastrous game of chess, but a brilliant and spontaneous first draft. You place all the characters where you think they might like to go (I often plan the first few chapters, but no more than that) and then see where they go from there. Let rip with your pen or keyboard, and enjoy the ride. You’re the first reader of your story, after all, so this time will never come again. Until next time, keeeeeeep writing (or reading, or both. Whatever you’re into, I won’t judge).

Let rip!
Ideas, inspiration

Fast Brain, Slow Mouth.

John Payne

Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind.

Many things come to my mind, all at once, all the time. I occasionally make sense of them and manage to manipulate and compile them into a sentence, but a lot of the time, my mind works in a higher gear than my mouth, and sometimes I forget that the person I’m talking to doesn’t have all the background context that’s just flashed through my brain. I suppose that’s why I’m a writer, so I can get my ideas across in my own sweet time.

cartoons, Ideas, inspiration

‘Stripisode’

John Payne

If you could have something named after you, what would it be?

I’m not sure I care that much about having something named after me (I named a couple of stars after my ex. She feels further away than both of those stars now, even though we both still work in the same building), but I’d like to think that I coined the term ‘stripisode’.  Obviously, comic strips have been around a long ol’ time, but I wanted a term for one of my comic strips ‘Still Life’, which is longer than a standard newspaper strip, but shorter than a full page strip in the Beano, so the term ‘stripisode’ was born. It’s not in the Oxford English Dictionary yet, but I’m working on it.

One of around 150 ‘stripisodes’ I’ve created (inspired by an original idea from my great friend Mike Chapman). Check them out on my Facebook page, John. D. Payne Author.
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Vibes and Views

John Payne

You’re going on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, car, or bike?

It has to be train. I love to take in the views and vibes of train journeys, especially the old-fashioned steam engines. I’ve been lucky enough to go on a short trip at a railway museum, and there’s nothing like the ‘chugga chugga’ sound of gears and cogs doing their thing. The old train stations are a wonder to behold as well. Preston train station is just like Kings Cross with the high billowing roof and framework. Yep. Trains every time.

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Small, Kind Acts

John Payne

What is the last thing you learned?

There is no great karmic control that comes from the universe. We decide how fair the world is. How fair we want it to be. Of course, the people in power control the big picture, but you can make someone’s day a little bit better just from a small, kind act. You can give them hope that the world isn’t this cruel, harsh place that most of the time, the people in power are determined to prove otherwise.