W.R.I.T.E. with Phil Williams

Phil Williams was born in the commuter-belt of Hertfordshire, where he learnt to escape a comfortable life through sinister fantasy fiction. His erratic career has variously involved the study of language and people - and took him to such locations as Prague, Moscow and Abu Dhabi. He finally settled on the quiet Sussex seaside, where he lives in Worthing with his wife and his fluffy dog, Herbert. He divides his time between writing educational books that help people better understand English and fantasy books that help people better escape reality.

So he tells himself.

I've been a fan of Phil's stories for a long time, his Ordshaw series defines urban fantasy as far as I'm concerned. If you haven't read them - do so! Without further delay, let's find out not only how Phil writes but why he's so good!

1.      Phil Williams is the creator of the highly successful and varied Ordshaw series of urban fantasy novels. Never one to be defined in such simple terms, Phil’s latest Blood Scouts series has taken him into the darker, bloodier and grimdark corners of the fantasy genre. Think you know him yet? Well, don’t forget his books aimed at teaching the technical aspects of English.  Which prompts the question, how do you define yourself as an author, Phil?

I suppose the easiest answer there would be to say I try not to! When it comes to creative projects, I’ve always been driven by the idea of trying something new, so I end up mixing things a lot more than I should. I guess “experimental” might be a good word for it. But in genre-terms the vibe I go for tends to fit thriller, action and horror styles, with whatever speculative elements I can get away. Mostly, I’m telling stories that talk to me, but making them weird.

2.      In our highly contrived acronym, W.R.I.T.E. the letter W represents World Building. In such a diverse catalogue of novels, with such different worlds, tell us how you go about inventing your world. What must they include? What is less important? Does a world develop in an organic way as you write or, godlike, do you establish it first and then populate it with people?

 I find a robust setting helps a lot to get my inspiration going; whatever setting I’m going for, including contemporary stories, I like to create something that feels real by grounding it in various bits of background trivia. I particularly look for a sense of history: stories that have come before this story. That can be established in all sorts of way, but a particularly effective method I find is to create characters outside the scope of the actual story. For example, I try to root religious and scientific details in people who might’ve discovered or promoted them. Another jumping off point I enjoy is spending a lot of time developing histories for names, and exploring how they’re influenced by the wider world (details that are almost never actually explored in my actual books).

Once I’ve got my thoroughly detailed plans to start out, things tend to develop organically as I write; I’m always looking for opportunities to add more detail and texture to a world. Mentions of books, buildings, whatever you have, I want to give it some backstory…

3.      R is for Routine: what does your writer’s routine look like? Are you the disciplined sort that sets yourself goals and does everything to meet them or does writing sort-of happen?

A little of both. I have certain projects that I’ll set for myself as professional targets, e.g. whatever novel I am definitely aiming to release in a year, and with these I’ll tend to make myself sit down and write them at certain times of day. But with other projects, it’s more a case that I write them when they grab me, and if they grab me well enough I’ll keep writing every chance I get until it’s done. Though either way I tend to get drawn into my writing and want to finish it, as it occupies my mind in the meantime, so I tend to be a binge writer.

4.      I stands for Inspiration. Having established you have a wide and varied catalogue of books, tell us how you continue to find new ideas. What continues to inspire you to write?

 I’ve got a deep, dark back catalogue of story ideas that just hover around in my brain, so I’m always picking from that, and thinking about things until they become real enough that they need writing down. But in terms of initial inspiration, my stories usually get triggered by something I’ve seen, experienced or felt. A lot of the time I connect with a piece of music or art that conjures a scene to mind and a story comes with it – often in a way that might seem completely illogical from the source material. Other times, more mundanely, I get an idea where I see something that hasn’t been done the way I would’ve done it, or wanted it done.

5.      The T in this sequence refers to Type (yes, mega contrived!). Fantasy is a wide and diverse genre these days, pin your work down for us, what should we expect from your stories, think of it like a recipe!

 My fantasy leans towards the darker edge, with elements of horror but underpinned by dry (or often absurd) humour, balancing each other out somewhat. I’ve got fast-paced plots, eccentric characters and occasional mysteries, and strive for the unexpected with original creatures and settings.

6.      With E for Edit, the question could have asked you about another side to Phil Williams – the editor. You’ve edited for a variety of authors and publishers, both indie and traditional. Using this expertise, share a few tips to avoid those common errors writers can make.

 The main issue I see with new writers, which took me a while to get my head around myself, is understanding what the reader needs to know. As writers, we already know the story, and can picture the setting perfectly, so it’s hard to objectively see if the writing conveys what we want it to.

So, a difficulty I tend to see is in how much information we’re given: either too much or too little, and with a sub-consideration of where/when that information is presented. This applies on both plot and sentence levels; it’s the same consideration for whether you manage to surprise or confuse a reader with a twist, or if your description produces a clear or confusing image.

A lot of the time just stopping and thinking about your writing in these terms may be enough to start triggering synapses, and the key is regularly asking yourself if, at any point a reader might have room for confusion. Realistically, though, to properly gain perspective on this, what every good writer needs to progress is constructive feedback.

7.      If N had featured in our silly acronym we could have used Novella. Let’s pretend it does still work, that way you can tell us about your success in SFINCS.

 We could’ve said WRITEN I suppose, and confounded spelling and grammar enthusiasts alike? But thanks for wedging it in – the stories of my novellas are always fun because I never really intend to set out to write them. Usually it’s a short story that got out of hand, and that’s exactly what happened with Oksy, Come Home. It started out as a newsletter reward that turned out longer than I intended, fleshing out a bit of action for the world of The Blood Scouts. By the time I entered it in SFINCS, it’d been available for a while but almost no one had read it because no one knew it existed (it wasn’t actually available for sale).

SFINCS was a big boost for it; I only actually published the novel publicly after it’d already found some success in the competition, and I got some really wonderful responses to the novella. It’s since drawn people into the series, as opposed to being a reward for those already reading it, which goes to show you can’t always plan where your writing’s going to land – though I can’t emphasise enough the importance of such generous competitions to help draw attention to these books.

I was really honoured by how well it did, especially considering the talent of the other entries involved. It came out as a runner up to Cate Baumer’s As Born To Rule the Storm, and while my novella stretches the boundaries of a short story, hers achieves more than most full novels in a seriously short space!

8.      That I in the acronym serves a double purpose. I is for Independence. You self-publish your books. Tell us why and what you’ve learned about the publishing industry in the meantime.

 I can also stand for Impatience here, because that would be my main reason for self-publishing. Traditional publishing is incredibly slow compared to the ability to churn out your own materials. I used to put out submission after submission, but I got fed up with waiting more than anything else.

The traditional publishing industry is also minutely concentrated, though, more so now than ever: there’s a vanishingly small chance to find anything resembling commercial success selling books, and it’s made all the harder by having such a limited number of entry points into traditional publishers. I’d rather spend my time working on new projects than trying to figure out a way in.

Finally, it’s also mostly more financially viable to self-publish these days. Case in point being that I’ve heard of people writing English textbooks for publishers and being given a flat fee, with no royalty options, which was lower than I’d make in a month from one of my books (in their peak; not going to lie, those sales aren’t what they used to be!).

I won’t say I’d not still consider traditional publishing if the opportunity arose, but I’m more than happy doing what I’m doing.

9.      If it had been possible to squeeze an A into the High Contrived Concept of W.R.I.T.E. it would have included A for Admire. Which modern, (current) authors do you admire and why?

 Okay but now we’re up to WRITENIA. Come on, Phil, we could’ve gone with RATWIINE! But oh there’s so many authors to recommend. I admire your work, for starters, Phil – not just for your genre-bending fantasy and humour but all you do for the indie world too!

I most like authors who manage to do things differently, though it’s a matter of the voice which most resonates with me. Currently, Christopher Buehlman is one I really admire for his mastery of horror, humour and fantasy; each of his books feels like a quintessential example of a different aspect of the genre, while also pushing the boundaries of it, but they’re also just damn well written and entertaining.

The past year I’ve also been really enjoying Nnedi Okorafor’s books after seeing her give a talk; she is likewise adept at slipping between different genres and has a fantastic sense of voice. In the indie sphere, I’m a long-term fan of Travis M. Riddle’s books, as he goes in for some truly weird concepts with a very light and dry style that dips into surprising humour and outright brutal horror. And limiting myself to some more off the top of my head, I think the most impressive horror authors for me in the past couple of years have been Alison Rumfitt and Philip Fracassi.

Lastly, shout out to Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, whose dystopian death game novel Chain-Gang All-Stars was one of my top reads last year. Death games have been done and done but again, this one has such a strong sense of voice, it’s a great (and important) read.

10.  What does 2026 promise for Phil Williams: Fantasy Author?

 As always, I’m packed with plans but I’ll try and keep things realistic – the main target I have besides surviving is to get the next Blood Scouts book out, to keep that series consistently going. I’ve just started it and the idea I have is the most ambitious of the series so far, so let’s see how that pans out.

Other than that, I have another two novels I want to write and three unpublished novels I’d like to finally get around to releasing, but that all depends on me finding time in between learning to design computer games, which is my current distraction. Phew.

Tell us how we can find you on social media and the internet.

Mostly through my own site: www.phil-williams.co.uk

Or possibly on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fantasticphil.bsky.social

I’m hesitant to suggest I’ll keep using other platforms at the moment!

Click the image to buy my books!