Writing and the process of creating stories is an activity that has always interested me. I’ve written a heap of stories of one sort or another and created a number of tools to help with story generation. The projects presented on these pages showcase some of my writing activities.
Writing
Recent Writing
The following articles contain recent short stories and snippets I’ve written for my own entertainment and as exercises with the writing group I belong to. You will also find experimental pieces written using the interactive fiction tools Twine and Inform7. I have included a description of the background for each story and the planning tools I used.
Stories Written as a Member of the Writer’s Plot Readers Read Writing Group
For a number of years I belonged to a writing group who met in the Writer’s Plot, Readers Read bookshop in Upper Hutt. Each month we would have a new challenge. The following stories are responses to those writing challenges.
Stories Written as a Member of the Writer’s Plot Readers Read Writing Group
When I moved to the South Island, I was keen to continue the association with the Upper Hutt group, but also saw the need for a local writer’s group. The Hurunui Library in Amberley, the nearest township, were very supportive of me starting one. In October 2023 we had our inaugural meeting with a large turn out. Since then a regular core of six others have been meeting to discuss writing, techniques, inspirations. Because I found them so valuable, we also have writing challenges.
Really Old Writing
These are stories that I wrote many years ago, primarily to plan cartoons, and secondarily in competition with my Sister to see who could write the most gross story. She won that one every time. Now she teaches.
Writing Tools
I have created a number of tools for helping create stories.
- A Scribus script to take a text list and distribute it across a multipage grid.
- A Scribus script to apply a business card size images across a multipage grid.
The most significant of them is StorySoup Main page, a tool for providing story prompts.
Download the StorySoup App for Windows, Linux, and Android through Itch.io.
Graphic Novels and Comics
Most of my early writing was planning for producing graphic novels. This also prompted me to start dabbling in Computer Generated Imagery in an effort to speed up the cartooning process. Little did I know that it would completely stop my cartooning efforts when I discovered how powerful 3D modelling was for building cool images.
Piss-Take Essays
All material presented on these pages are the copyright of Hamish Trolove.