Sometimes, I think there are projects that I start where I prefer one aspect over the other. I really love creating characters, sketching them and writing some scenes and sometimes not even really writing up a story around them, just a draft synopsis that lasts four pages. And them sometimes I really want to write a particular story but can’t find the character to put there.

I used to always write stories with huge families, so that I could put in as many characters as I wanted, but of course, I don’t do that anymore because it’s too confusing. There might be big families still, but there’s more of a focus on a particular part so there aren’t thirty names and appearances and personalities for the reader to remember.

Even in games, I love making more characters than the amount of times I actually play it. I don’t know what it is. Maybe I don’t do it so much any more because my writing has more dimension now and I’ve found a way to blend three characters into one? And maybe I’ve done well at dialling back how much I like twins and triplets .

I think it’s easiest to love the character before the story, because I can build the world around them. But when the story comes first, sometimes it feels like the character isn’t good enough. There’s a strange lacking feeling and quality feels poor … or maybe the story just sucks and I’m better at pulling them out of characters? Maybe that’s it.

I love creating characters and I love creating worlds. They come hand in hand. I think, when I make the world first, everyone suddenly becomes an NPC to the land, and it just takes that little bit more to figure out who I want to follow there.