All that glitters is very different from my first two short stories. With those I had picked scenes that were part of a longer story and simply described them. This resulted in a lot of exposition and a sense that there was no progress, no character development or purpose to
Kola took a deep breath before entering the large mess hall which was full of shouting, laughter and the crash of rock on metal as a wrestling contest broke out between two of the occupants. It looked like most of the thirty volunteers from her country, Zarlintar, were present. Some
I've been thinking about what is drawing me to creative writing at the moment. The easiest reason to give is "I have an idea for a story," but that's nothing new. I often have ideas for stories, but this is the first time I&
The Block took me over a week to write, across multiple short sessions. My focus was on using character dialogue to describe the situation, rather than the narrator explaining everything. My initial reflections are: * Lots of dialogue. Mission accomplished! (I didn't say it had to be good dialogue.
Sydney parked her car in a lay-by off the quiet road in Devon, between a small lorry and a camper van. The sun was setting on the cold evening and she pulled on a coat before stepping out to stretch her legs. A woman and two men were sitting
I've previously mentioned Royal Road as a site that I'd like to post my longer form stories on, as I develop my writing skills beyond the short stories that I post on this blog. This would be coming full circle as it was my discovery of
I took some time today to register the @ostrabiworlds handle on the following sites (and just @ostrabi for TikTok as the worlds handle wasn't available). While I'm not planning to post on social media just yet, I figure it's best to have these accounts
I wrote The Queue to show the build-up on Earth prior to the main storyline. As it's my first writing attempt I have left it mostly unedited. It serves as my baseline and as (hopefully) my writing and editing improves I'll be able to see
When the lights went out the flatmates responded in a practised way: Sadie carefully walked over to the dining table in the dark, found the camping light and switched it on. Bill picked up the bag of head torches by the side of the sofa and gave them out and
This site is a record of my progress towards creating a Sci-fi novel. I intend to log what I do, what I learn, and my practice pieces so that in the future I can look back and see the journey. I have no experience writing any fiction since GCSE