Writing, not just novels but short stories, flash fiction, even blog posts, has become more enjoyable to me than watching TV. More than movies. Sometimes, even more than reading.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love a good story in any form. But there’s something different about sitting down with a blank page. Something alive. It’s not passive, it’s creation. Every sentence, every scene, is something I get to build. To breathe life into.
It’s strange, isn’t it? We spend so much of our lives consuming stories, but when you start creating them, time shifts. You stop watching from the outside and begin shaping the inside, the heartbeat of the world you’re building.
And it’s not just about finishing something. It’s about the act itself, the quiet joy of shaping a world from nothing, of following a character you didn’t plan to meet, of reaching a line and thinking, Ah. That one was honest.
Writing has become my pause in the noise, a place where time disappears, yet I feel more present than anywhere else. It’s where I find myself again.
So I wonder, does anyone else feel this? Has writing ever felt more fulfilling than bingeing a series? More grounding than scrolling through a feed?
If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Because for me, writing isn’t just a pastime anymore. It’s where life slows down just enough for meaning to take shape.
There’s a romantic image of writers, sitting at a tidy desk by the window, sunlight pouring in, coffee steaming, and silence wrapping around them like a warm blanket. I admire that image. But my reality looks nothing like it.
I don’t have a designated writing space. Instead, I bounce between my school desk during quiet moments, the dining table when it’s free, and sometimes, my children’s study desk, usually after they’ve abandoned it for something more exciting. These places aren’t ideal, but they’ve become little writing islands where my story continues to grow.
As for my schedule, it’s a puzzle I solve day by day. I try to write in the afternoons between lessons, catching the quiet moments when the school slows down. Evenings are when I get the most done, once the family is asleep and the house slips into silence, that’s when I open the laptop and step back into Ældorra or whatever world I’m working on.
Weekends are unpredictable. If there’s time, after the housework, the errands, the family time, I write. Sometimes it’s just for twenty minutes, sometimes I surprise myself with a full hour of deep focus. But I’ve learned something valuable: consistency doesn’t always mean strict routines. Sometimes it just means showing up when you can, and making those small moments count.
I don’t write in perfect conditions. I write around life. And in a way, I think that gives my stories more life too.
If you’re a writer juggling your own chaos, I’d love to hear where and when you find your writing windows. Let’s build a space together, even if it’s scattered.
Writing a novel isn’t always a straight path. For me, it’s been more like a winding mountain trail, sometimes clear and exciting, other times foggy and slow. I’ve been working on The Veil of Kings and Gods for years now. The world, the characters, and the themes have all evolved over time. And yet, somehow, I’ve never walked away from it.
So how do I stay inspired?
It’s not some mystical lightning bolt. It’s smaller than that, quieter. Sometimes it’s rediscovering an old scene I wrote months ago that still makes me smile. Other times it’s worldbuilding, filling in the map of Ældorra, thinking about what life is like in a ruined empire or how a long-forgotten piece of magic reshapes a character’s fate.
I also let the story grow with me. When I started this book, I was in a very different place in life. But I didn’t throw it out and start over. Instead, I’ve allowed my voice, my ideas, and my perspective to shift as the years have passed. I’ve rewritten, restructured, and reimagined, but never lost the heart of it.
What helps most, though, is this: I don’t pressure myself to rush.
This is a story I care about. I want it to be the best version of itself, not the fastest one. That mindset keeps the love alive. Some days I only manage a few lines. Other days I go deep. But each word brings me closer to the story I want to share.
If you’re writing something that’s taken years, you’re not alone. Let it take the time it needs. Let it change with you. The story will be stronger for it.
I’d love to hear about your long-term projects. What keeps you going? What has changed since you started?
Drawn with soft pastel pencils on toned sketch paper.
Sometimes, in the middle of writing about broken kingdoms and gods at war, I need a moment of stillness.
This little bluetit was one of those moments.
Drawn in soft pastel pencils, it reminded me how quiet creativity can be just as powerful as the loud, epic scenes I build in my books. No magic, no battles, just colour, texture, and the way nature always finds a way to perch calmly in the chaos.
These kinds of drawings help recharge me. They bring back focus, especially when I’m buried in worldbuilding or struggling with the structure of a chapter. I didn’t plan this one for any specific purpose… I just wanted to draw something gentle.
Thanks for taking this quiet detour with me.
I’ll be back in the next post with more from the worlds I’m building, but until then, I hope this little bird brought a moment of peace to your screen, too.
There’s a difference between going quiet and being absent.
For a while, I stepped away, from videos, from updates, from showing anything before it was finished. It wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t burnout. It was the slow realisation that I didn’t want to just “upload” things. I wanted to build something worth showing.
It’s the novel I’ve rewritten, expanded, and quietly carried through drafts and worldbuilding documents while the rest of life kept moving. But now, it’s taking shape and with it, so is the purpose of my YouTube channel.
✍️ What You’ll Find on the Channel
This isn’t a general author channel. It’s not a catch-all for whatever I feel like filming. It’s a focused space for one story, The Veil of Kings and Gods, and the creative journey behind it.
Here’s what I’ll be sharing:
Novel updates: where I am in the process, what’s being edited, and what’s coming next
Behind the scenes: life as a writer, both the structured and the slightly chaotic
Art: drawings, AI-assisted visuals, and map explorations that bring the world to life
Book reviews: quick, honest thoughts on books that inspire or contrast with my own
And eventually: readings, lore explainers, and maybe even glimpses into the writing process itself
All of it will centre on The Veil of Kings and Gods, because if I’m going to share something, I want it to matter.
🧾 The Chapter in My Hand
In the video below, you’ll see me holding a printed chapter from the novel. That was intentional. There’s something about seeing words off-screen that makes them real again.
This is me picking them up, literally and creatively, and deciding to let others see the journey.
📺 Prefer to Watch?
Here’s the full video version of this post, where I explain the relaunch and what’s coming next:
Thank you for reading. Whether you follow through these posts or through the videos, this is where the story begins.
Simon J. Phillips Author of The Veil of Kings and Gods
The beginning of this archive, and the journey behind it.
This space has taken time to shape. Like the stories I write, it came together slowly, with silence between the threads. I didn’t rush it. I couldn’t. The worlds I build are not made in bursts of light. They are carved out of quiet, over long nights and early mornings, in the hours when everything else has settled and the work finally begins.
If you’ve arrived here, I’m grateful. Perhaps you’ve come from my YouTube channel. Perhaps from a short story, a drawing, or something whispered in passing from one page to another. However you found this place, know that it was built with purpose. It is an archive of things still in progress. A collection of worlds that are not yet whole, but growing.
What I Write
I write across fantasy and science fiction, but neither word quite holds what I mean. My stories often begin with silence. A god gone quiet. A system no longer stable. A spiral forming in the place where something once held firm.
You will find epic fantasy here, shaped by prophecy, broken kingdoms, and gods that do not answer. You will also find slow, psychological science fiction, where deep-space vessels drift far from Earth, and the only sound left is the echo of something watching from behind the interface.
I don’t believe in tidy stories. I write to explore what happens when power collapses, when prophecy fails, and when the line between magic and memory fades.
What This Site Offers
This blog will carry fragments of everything I build. It will grow slowly, as the projects do, shaped by time and intention.
Here you’ll find:
Reflections on the creative process and what it demands
Updates on my current projects, including novels and short story collections
Lore fragments, worldbuilding notes, and mythic structures from my worlds
Occasional behind-the-scenes artwork and video features drawn from my YouTube channel
If you’re unsure where to begin, you might want to explore the Projects archive, or glance through the Short Stories & Lore page, where fragments from different timelines are gathered.
What Comes Next
I have no announcement to make here. No date to mark on a calendar. This is not a launch. It is an opening.
I intend to release short stories in digital form, first as standalones, later in curated bundles. I am also working toward the completion of my epic fantasy novel, The Veil of Kings and Gods, a project that holds the heart of much of this world. There will be more. Other books. Other timelines. But not all at once.
This site will grow. Quietly. Steadily. As I do.
Beyond the Page
My YouTube channel is a companion to this space. There I read from my stories, draw maps from broken histories, and speak on the slow road of building worlds from scratch. If you prefer to listen or to watch, you may find what you’re looking for there.
Thank you for visiting. Thank you for arriving at this point in the process, the part no one sees, when the work is still forming and the pieces do not yet connect.
Simon J. Phillips 