Empathic

We are all stories. We are all spirals.

The Golden Spiral

Welcome to this curve in Empathic, where I share the thoughts, discoveries and creative process behind my writing work.

Like the spirals found everywhere in nature, from nautilus shells to storm systems, from pinecones to DNA, my creative journey doesn’t follow straight lines. Here you’ll find reflections on the craft of writing, shimmering glimpses of ideas forming, updates on current projects, and the observations that fuel my stories.

This is where ideas begin to turn, where patterns emerge that shape both writing and life, and where you can follow along with the work as it develops.

  • 7 Things That Helped me Tackle Flash Fiction

    7 Things That Helped me Tackle Flash Fiction

    I’m struggling with Flash Fiction at the moment. I have avoided writing it for quite some time. I don’t like reading it. I prefer to get engrossed in a juicy sized piece of fiction. Hell, I get sad when I finish reading a meaty saga like Dune or The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant because I don’t like that it finally has to end.

    Soooo, why on earth did I sign up for a Flash Fiction contest then? Time is short right now. Working on long projects when I have a stupidly long survival job commute exhausts me. Plus, I just wanted to have a go. I find writing short stories challenging so I thought let’s try even shorter.

    Anyway, I signed up for Writing Battle… again. I did a scriptwriting challenge with them some time ago but this time it is Flash Fiction Yes, I am writing this blog post when I should be writing that story and I am procrastinating thinking long and hard about it, because it is difficult… but I have found some tips that have had some aha moments so if, like me, you find writing flash fiction difficult, I hope they might help you to.

    1 Core Moment

    Flash is short. There is no time for deep concurrent stories lines, branches of possibility, multiple characters, time-lines, red herrings and long twisty journeys.

    So, a flash story needs one strong shift…. Maybe a change in emotion, power or understanding.

    Think of one thing that is different at the end from the beginning and that is the spine of the story. Added bonus, you then know your beginning and end and what the shift is… then the rest is a doddle right? (hahahahahah….hmmm).

    2 Start Late, End Early

    Won’t labour this one as everyone has probably heard this. But just incase you haven’t… There is no time to write your characters origin story. Jump right in to the moment where something is already happening.

    No back story… no setting the scene… unless a single detail can imply it…

    Do as I say not as I do.. I have to go look back over the story I am currently writing as I think I might have done just that.

    3 Three Quick Beats

    Think of a story like a Haiku… Three beats.

    The 1st 25% is the setup / hook . A vivid image, tension or question.

    The 2nd 50% is the turn or escalation where something happens that forces a choice or reveals something.

    The 3rd is the resolution where there are the consequences of that change.

    4 Image or Metaphor

    Flash fiction often depicts a strong memorable image that carries the thematic weight of the story. You might want to ask yourself what visual or sensory moment does the whole story orbit around.

    5 Use Time to Compress

    Cheat time by using sentences such as “By the time the kettle boiled, he’d forgiven her.” Play with time jumps, fragments or contrasts and trust that the reader will fill in the blanks.

    6 Let Subtext do the Heavy Lifting

    Imply motive, emotion or history through action and detail rather than explanation. Don’t say “She missed her mother.” Show her polishing a chipped mug and placing it on the table anyway.

    7 End with a Click not a Bang

    The ending doesn’t always have to wrap everything cleanly with a bow on top. It should just shut with a satisfying click. Something that causes a shift in the reader in their understanding, emotion or perspective

    If you fancy having a play with flash and short stories here are a few fun competitions

    The Writing Battle

    The Booby Prize

    Reedsy Prompts

  • Random Genre Generator

    Random Genre Generator

    I plonked a random genre generator here, to play around with when I am writing. Feel free to use it for your own writing/ideas. Refreshing the page or clicking the button generates a new genre…

    Random genre: Nanopunk

    Pick again
  • Why Spirals?

    Why Spirals?

    Forgive me for nerding out, but I could not resist playing with the first blog post of Empathic. This piece is written in Fibonacci’s sequence… 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13. Each section spiralling wider than the last.

    1
    Spirals are, like stories, everywhere: in plugholes, tornadoes whisking Dorothy away, plant stems, whirlpools, galaxies, and spacecraft-crushing black holes.

    1
    I find them galactically terrifying at the large scale, brilliantly complex, at the small scale as proteins fold and dna, plants and crystals grow.

    2
    In 1994, when I studied natural sciences, I learned how stems and leaves grew in spirals.
    Later, in 1997, Ian Stewart’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
    showed me Fibonacci in breeding rabbits, sunflowers and the golden angle of 137.5°.

    3
    The Fibonacci sequence builds spirals step by step.
    Divide one number by the one before it and you approach φ (Phi) the golden ratio (≈1.618).
    Like π (which I once named my cat after) φ is irrational, turning forever.

    5
    DNA is the spiral written inside us.
    One twist of the genetic ladder measures 34 angstroms long and 21 wide, both Fibonacci numbers.
    Its proportions echo the golden ratio, though not perfectly.
    The spiral code in our cells mirrors galaxies.
    Life itself is patterned within DNA’s double helix.

    8
    In 2004, while at music college, I chased spirals into sound.
    I studied Tool’s Lateralus, a song built on Fibonacci rhythms.
    The lyrics climbing in syllables 1-1-2-3-5-8-5-3, rising and falling.
    Time signatures shifting through 9/8, 8/8, and 7/8, looping in rhythmic spirals you can hear.
    Story telling has rhythms too.
    Spiralling narratives turning, iterating, expanding, deepening, driving the story forward.
    Each return recognisable but transformed, as characters descend and return changed.
    We feel the rhythm, even if we don’t know the math.

    13
    Spirals have haunted me.
    They’ve followed me from science in 1994, to lectures in 1997, to music college in 2004, Uzumaki Naruto in 2006 and into writing in 2019.
    They are the equations written in seashells, storms, petals, DNA, and galaxies.
    They remind me that life is not linear, but recursive, returning to the same place at a deeper level.
    Growth is not a straight climb; it circles, expands, and sometimes doubles back.
    Endings often mirror beginnings, but not as they were before.
    Characters fail, falter, and begin again, as do writers.
    Failure is never the end but the beginning of the next turn of the spiral.
    Each setback adds depth to the pattern, not ruin.
    Maybe I am going round in circles (career-based pun intended).
    The years don’t quite line up like a neat Fibonacci sequence (1994, 1997, 2004, 2005, 2019, 2025) but they still spiral outward, each loop pulling me further onwards.
    But maybe that’s the point: the circle widens.
    The spiral pulls outward, endlessly.

    And so my next spiral begins…

    Pi (2009–2024) 3.1415. An irrational companion and constant in my spiral

    Featured sunflower spiral image created with the help of AI (OpenAI’s image tools). All other images are my own photographs.

    References

    1. The Golden Ratio: https://www.adobe.com/uk/creativecloud/design/discover/golden-ratio.html
    2. DNA structure: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381726994_Mathematical_Elegance_of_Chirality_The_DNA_Double_Helix_and_the_Golden_Ratio
    3. Fibonacci sequence:
      https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/fibonacci-sequence.html
    4. Gingerich, J. ‘The Spiraling Narrative’. https://litreactor.com/columns/the-spiraling-theme
    5. Ian Stewart Royal Institution: https://www.rigb.org/explore-science/explore/video/magical-maze-sunflowers-and-snowflakes-1997
    6. Tool Lateralus analysis: https://medium.com/@adityachoudhary.professional/fibonaccis-secret-symphony-the-math-that-makes-music-and-nature-sing-c23183742a45