Frequent breaks and YouTube videos

I’m finding my groove with writing and editing. And it is not how I thought it would be. I need frequent breaks. Like days-away-breaks, in order to get into it. I need to step in, and then step back out. Being too deep for too long isn’t good for me and I’m not thinking constructively. Or emotionally. The breaks are helping. I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos. Videos from shows and films of characters I admire. Situations I want to understand and replicate. I think understanding motivations is the biggest thing for me right now. Sometimes the plot wants me to do something. Or rather, I think something is cool and I want to do it. But I also need to ground myself. People react in certain ways to certain things. And understanding their motivations, and not my own, is what should be driving this.

The big lightbulb moment was when I started watching clips from video games. Video games can have such a beautiful layer of art and depth to them. Like Tess, from TLOU. Rewatching gameplay of Tess made me realise why I didn’t really like the TV series. They changed so much of her character. Tess was who she was, not only because of the way she acted around people, but because of how people acted around her. She was the front, the director. She drove the story as much as the story drove her.

This is especially important as one of my MCs is a black warrior woman. As a cis-het white male, I am not black, nor a woman, nor a warrior. And it is very easy to put MY motivations and MY reactions onto a character, without actually understanding what it is to be a black warrior woman in the world I am creating. At the core, I want to encapsulate Ys-ult’s drive, her passion, her power, and let that guide her actions and decisions. Make her active, and not RE-active. It is all much more of a balancing act that I realised. As much as I want a cool scene, or for a character to do something, I’m realisng I need to square that away with who I am setting them up to be and if they would actually do what I want them to do.

Daft for the Drafts

Writing has been going well lately. I took some time off as I was returning home to Ireland for a week to see my family. I’m working through what I’d call Draft 0.5-1.79. I’ve been trying all sorts of writing advice. Some is working…some is…well, to each their own.

I’ve sorta been working it all together into a modge-podge of a book. I got Draft “Zero” out, wrote a synopsis for each chapter and the overarching plot and themes. For the first third of the book, I went in and created like a Draft 0.5 to Draft 1.1? Bit my skeleton from the pieces in the graveyard. I’m now working in segments. The first segment is Prologue to Chapter 3 - which last night became Prologue to Chapter 4. That was fun…changing file names and folders and renaming all the subsequent chapters. Lol. But it was worth it.

For the Prologue to about Chapter 3, I’d say I’m on Draft 1.1-1.79. I couldn’t help myself, it was better to go in with a fine tooth-comb now while I had the ideas and language and prose in my head. Side characters were starting to take shape and I could give them meaning without making them just background fodder.

I don’t have any spoilers to share, and I’m keeping the details close for now, but I can say the process has been really meaningful. Trying to balance Irishness, culture, language and heritage while not being overtly obvious and in-your-face about it. Trying to be “natural”. There’s so much history I want to explore, so much culture and dancing and stories and myth. But I also don’t want to overindulge. Gluttony is definitely my Deadly Sin lol.

The editing process isn’t glamorous. And I really now understand how much of an undertaking this process is. But I’m enjoying it more than I expected.

I’ll keep sharing what I can, when I can. For now, just wanted to say thank you to everyone who’s been following along. Your support means more than I can really say.

B

Welcome

Hi and Welcome!

I’m Bryan, a new writer and author, working on my debut post-apocalyptic novel rooted in Irish mythology, mythic horror, and the quiet brutality of existence

This blog is where I’ll share updates on my novel-in-progress, behind-the-scenes worldbuilding, folklore deep-dives, and reflections on what it means to write in the ruins of genre, of history, of self. Whether you're a reader, a writer, or just someone who stumbled into this mess and decided to follow it, you're welcome here.

My current novel is set in a post-apocalyptic Ireland, where old gods have clawed their way back to the world, survival is currency, and magic is dangerous. It’s a work of myth, literary horror, and speculative science fiction, woven through with themes of colonial trauma, LGBTQ+ identity, and the price of remembering. I’m calling it Gods Between Us and All Harm and it’s about gods who consume, and humans who endure.

I’ll be using this space to talk about:

• What it means to write grief and mental illness in fiction

• How I’m weaving real Irish folklore and language into speculative storytelling

• What "Irish magic" looks like in a world based on our own

• How I’m balancing horror and hope, myth and science, and identity and erasure

If you're looking for thoughts on writing a debut novel, queer speculative fiction, or just want to follow the journey of one writer trying to stitch something beautiful from loss and fire, you’re in the right place.

Thanks for being here.
More soon.
The gods are waiting.