Hi.
I write and teach serial fiction.
Serial fiction helps you to be consistently productive while building an enthusiastic readership. This newsletter is all about how to do it.
“Excellent advice for anyone interested in learning how to use Substack to publish serialized fiction. Top-notch.”
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Write More is a weekly dose of writing tips, interviews and inspiration, sent out every Monday to help kickstart your week.
Tales from the Triverse is my ongoing weekly serial fiction. We’ve all suffered internet writing gurus who haven’t actually published anything of their own. I’ve been creating serial fiction for over a decade, and Triverse is the latest project to show my techniques in action.
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Starter kit
If you want to sample some of my stuff before subscribing, check out these packs:
“Packed with how-to info for the newbie to Substack + an interesting take on serialised fiction.”
What is Tales from the Triverse?
My current fiction project is a crime thriller that blends science fiction and fantasy.
It’s hard-hitting speculative fiction that explores current day political and social issues. It also has dragons and spaceships, obviously.
It’s free to read, for now, and if you enjoy it you can help fund the project by taking out a paid subscription. That also gets you the ebook collected anthology of everything published so far, which is a great way to catch up on over 350,000 words.
“Substack's serialisation expert. Years of experience in helping writers to write both more and better.”
My previous projects
I’ve been writing online serial fiction since 2015, and have completed three major projects. Tales from the Triverse is my fourth and most ambitious, which will wrap up later in 2025.
“Simon is working hard to crack the code of publishing serial fiction online. He's also a hell of a great storyteller with a wide and deep imagination. For your consideration.”
Some info on my previous books:
No Adults Allowed (2020) is an optimistic, post-apocalypse mixture of Lord of the Flies and Heart of Darkness, about responsibility and parenting and well-meaning but murderous AI. You can get this one as an ebook or paperback from Amazon.
The Mechanical Crown (2016 - 2019) is my epic fantasy adventure, packed full of airships, swords, battles and politics. It’s big and exciting and I’m very proud of it. Currently trapped on Wattpad, but I have plans.
A Day of Faces (2015 - 2016) was my debut and is a YA coming-of-age story about a snake girl and her shape-shifting friend who accidentally wind up changing the world. It’s hard to explain. Also only on Wattpad at the moment, but watch this space.
“Not only does Simon write serialised science fiction of the most enviably thoughtful kind, he also *really* understands the newsletter-delivered serialised fiction space - I don't think anyone else gets this stuff better than he does - and on top of all those signs that he has a brain the size of a planet, he's a really nice guy. I kinda hate him? Go read, learn and enjoy.”
A bit about me
I’m a writer based in Norwich, England. Here’s me looking serious and overly beardy:
You might have heard me on The Writing Life podcast which I produced for several years. I’ve spoken about writing serial fiction at Primadonna Festival and for the National Centre for Writing and have taught workshops for the BBC, FutureLearn, LinkedIn Learning, Access Creative and Literature & Latte. These days I work at Creative PEC, where I support the creative industries in the UK and abroad.
“This newsletter is why I have a newsletter! And he’s an amazing fantasy, time-hopping sci-fi crime fiction writer.”
AI declaration
I experimented briefly with MidJourney in 2022, but as of February 2023 have not used generative AI for images or text. You might encounter some AI images in older, pre-2023 posts. Everything I publish now is created by real humans.
I’m not against using interesting technology as part of my creative process. At some point in the future I might incorporate AI tools into my larger creative workflow, but that’ll require resolving numerous ethical concerns first, and ideally wrestling the tech away from the 'orrible lot currently in charge.
To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
