Development

Ok writers: what's your development process?

I've got a project I'm trying to size up for next year — potentially two connected projects in two different writing formats, because I never met a bite I could chew a reasonable amount of.

One of them will almost certainly be a screenplay, and the other a piece of fiction; and I have a theme for both, and a lot of character ideas and plot ideas, and definitely some vibes. But now I'm trying to put all that into a reasonable shape where I can both describe the project to myself, and others.

Rule #1 around here, lately: you can't write from theme. So that's a dead letter office. Yay me for having an idea I want to explore but little definition in the framework I want to explore it within. It's the plot, stupid, and the way the plot unfolds that I need to develop: by which I mean create one.

So please, enlighten me: when you have an idea for something (let's say it's a writing project; but it could be anything, really) and you need to take it from "sense of a primordial thing that could emerge, with luck" to "thing that can actually be built," what are your tools? How do you do it?

I can D&D out the characters. I can build intentions and obstacles. I can write the backstory and the backstory to the backstory, and figure out when is the most advantageous place for the story to start. And maybe by the time that's all done, the actual shape of the story itself will make itself clear to me.

What do you do? Subscribers can answer in the comments, everyone else is gonna text me and I will shake my fist at their anti-social ways.

Listmaking

Anyone can do it, New York Times!

The best TV shows of the 21st century: (NOTE: no minis, no single-seasons.)

1. Deadwood
2. The Wire
3. Andor
4. Veep
5. Six Feet Under
6. Better Call Saul
7. Fleabag
8. Breaking Bad
9. LOST
10. Doctor Who
11. Survivor
12. The Thick of It
13. Girls
14. Succession
15. Atlanta
16. Orphan Black
17. Star Trek: Lower Decks
18. Community
19. Severance
20. Parks & Rec
21. The Good Place
22. Stranger Things
23. Reservation Dogs
24. The Bear
25. Insecure

I understand all the reasons why making lists for artworks is dumb, and I have grappled with those reasons for many years. I've also recently come to a realization, which is that those reasons are wrong, and making lists is good. Here endeth the lesson.

So while we're here,

1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Larsson)
2. The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Larsson)
3. The Girl who Played with Fire (Larsson)
4. The Girl who Takes an Eye for an Eye (Lagercrantz)
5. The Girl with Ice in her Veins (Smirnoff)
6. The Girl in the Spider’s Web (Lagercrantz)
7. The Girl who Lived Twice (Lagercrantz)
8. The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons (Smirnoff)

I can only do the latter list because — while I definitely have not seen all or maybe even most of the significant television series of the 21st century — I have now actually read all of the Lisbeth Salander books.

Which on the one hand, as a whole, feel touchingly Pyrrhic: even Stieg Larsson seems to recognize, starting The Girl Who Played with Fire, that he's never going to do anything as formally interesting or powerfully plotted as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The two authors who follow Larsson (Lagencrantz; Smirnoff) do better or worse versions of playing in Larsson's stylistic space (Smirnoff never even tries) but the Lisbeth-vs.-Zalenchenko overstory of the original trilogy is also much, much too high a bar for anyone (likely including Larsson) to clear with any continued work.

So what we end up with is a defining work of crime fiction and then a series of follow-ups that descend in a wavy line from there. For me, then, the follow-ups succeed or fail based on how willing they are to sketch Lisbeth as a thorny, unrepentant little asshole who (on the inside) is perhaps more unsteady and confused than expected.

And now, two miscellaneous ideas for pushing back against the digital hegemony

ONE: I started scheduling my TV. Because we all know life was better when shows were just on TV at a pre-set time, right? But most shows aren't that anymore, right?? But the ones that are, kind of rule, RIGHT?? Anyhoo:

Sunday

The Celebrity Traitors: UK

Lanterns [complete as of this writing; but let's assume something will fill the HBO Sunday night slot shortly]

Monday

The Simpsons

Twenty Twenty Six

Tuesday

The Paper

North of North

Wednesday

Survivor

Thursday

Arcane

Stranger Things

Friday

Sugar

Poker Face

Saturday morning

Young Jedi Adventures

She-Ra: The Princess of Power

TWO: you know how you get those emails every twenty minutes from some online something you signed up for a decade ago that is changing its terms of service?

These days, when I get those, I take a minute to sign in and delete those accounts. If you submit a GDPR request (i.e. if the company operates in Europe at all), it even has a reasonable chance at being a complete deletion.

Sure, if it's a service I'm actively using, I don't do this; but that's maybe one in five cases for this stuff. Mostly, there are just a a bunch of dormant digital profiles collecting dust and being sold to A.I. training firms, and y'know what... to hell with that.

OOH, BONUS SUGGESTION: last time I went to buy cat food and they asked me for my phone number, I said "I don't need to give you my phone number." And we all just looked at one another — service personnel and cats and myself — and realized we'd been playing a game for decades, that no one ever asked us if we liked.

Some more links and things to do, c/o me

• This is a terrific conversation between the Midnight Boys and two of the writers of this season of Lanterns, Vanessa Baden Kelly and Justin Britt-Gibson. (The Ringer)
• Hey, if you're around here listening to podcasts, I've got another one for you: Ranged Touch still working its way through the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and in this episode, midway through The Two Towers, they fully get what is so weird and interesting about how Tolkien presents Saruman. Something purely literary, and largely forgotten in the post-film world. (Shelved by Genre)
• Goblintimacy. Horrible word. I am definitely down for it (Closer)
• So, that happened. And now that we have literally no ability to change this Sky Bros situation whatsoever, I guess all we can do is hope for the best and that even half of what the Engineer-from-Prometheus is saying is true. (Variety)

But in the meantime, David Ellison, welcome to...

The Harry Potter Shit List

Updated October 7, 2026

1. David Ellison
2. Ynon Kreiz
3. Hans Zimmer
4. Lenny Rush
5. Billy Barratt
6. Rupert Grint
7. Kit Harrington
8. Nicholas Hoult
9. Bel Powley
10. Tim Horton’s
11. Peter Serafinowicz
12. Warwick Davis
13. Lambert Wilson
14. Anton Lesser
15. Andy Greenwalt
16. John Lithgow
17. Janet McTeer
18. Nick Frost
19. Paapa Essiedu
20. Simon Pegg
21. Johnny Flynn
22. Daniel Rigby
23. Bertie Carvel
24. Hugh Laurie
25. Tom Felton
26. Matthew McFadyen
27. Riz Ahmed
28. Mark Addy
29. Michelle Gomez
30. Keira Knightley
31. Alex Hassell
32. Iwan Rheon
33. James McAvoy
34. Ruth Wilson
35. Bill Nighy
36. Cush Jumbo
37. The New York Times
38. Francesca Gardiner
39. Jon Brown
40. Mark Mylod
41. Casey Bloys
42. David Zaslav
43. J.K. Rowling

Finally,

My most recent adventure in toyland, on which more next week.