Navigation For Newcomers
Navigation For Newcomers
If you are here, you have clicked on an introductory link for newcomers! Welcome to Gibberish!
This is a space for me to write fiction, and learn in public. You are getting lightly edited, experimental stories about as often as I can produce them.
This page is intended to help you navigate Gibberish and get your bearings.
Quick Links
Where can I find Microfiction?
Where can I find Flash Fiction?
Tell me about your fiction settings!
What does a Paid Subscription get me?
Weekly Writing Exercises
The staple writing you can find from Gibberish is my weekly writing exercises. The section of Gibberish where you can find these exercises is The Writing Gym. The writing exercises tend to be Micro-fiction, and come in a few varieties which I have given special “exercise” themed names.
I use these weekly exercises to experiment and practice certain elements of craft. They have really helped me develop my skills and think about my writing differently! Some people even write their own takes on these exercises—I encourage everyone to develop a regular writing habit, whether they share it publicly or not!
A “Crunch” is a 250 word story based on a prompt
A “Stretch” is a 500 word story based on a prompt
A “Sprint” is a story written within a time limit
A “Relay” is a story where the first sentence is given.
A “Fable” is a story where the prompt is one of Aesop’s Fables
A “Prompt” is a story of any length based on a prompt.
Some of my most popular writing exercises are these:
The Suff - this story has the distinction of being the first published piece as part of the fun fiction community event surrounding the Substack Cryptid known as The Suff.
The Argument - This story was written exclusively with dialogue, and was fairly experimental!
The Headquarters - This is a satirical take on what Substack HQ must be like, which made its rounds among substack employees much to my shock and amusement!
The Dragon - This is a short exercise based on a challenge to make Dragons Cool Again. Really I just liked the story so wanted to include it here.
Short Stories and Flash Fiction
Occasionally I publish longer works of fiction, which can be part of a series or stand-alone. The section of Gibberish where you can find these stories is The Volume.
Generally, these stories are stand-alone, and if they are part of a series they will be marked as such. They tend to be longer—the longest story is about 6,000 words, the average is probably around 2,500. I try very hard to polish these stories slightly more than the weekly exercises. These do not publish on a schedule, though I occasionally will try to systematize my writing.
Here are some reader favorites:
The Call - This story was written as part of Macabre Monday’s “Sepulchral Roots” shared world project.
Father and Sun - This was my most popular piece of fiction until it was unseated by The Call, and is very near and dear to my heart. It reportedly made many people cry and I am very proud of that.
Who Are You? - This is an emotion-study, I described it as an exploration of an “interior world”, and was very well received. It illustrates some of the variety of my writing.
Brood - This is my longest story published to date, and a personal favorite even though it is not on a podium!
Serial Fiction And Mini-Series
I do, occasionally, write Serial Fiction! These tend to be longer, deliberately planned series, broken into multiple parts published weekly. The section of Gibberish where you can find my serials is The Index.
Here are all the serials I have published to date!
Completed Serials
Sandbox Earth - The starting point for what I call the “Sandbox Earth Universe”, the point where my science fiction setting diverges from history. It follows humanity’s first contact with not one but two alien races.
Duel - This was the first structured serial published with an audience. This is a Tech-noir thriller, featuring Detective James McElroy and his droid sidekick, DB431.
The Selected Letters of Armin Tolor - This is an epistolary serial advertised as “pride and prejudice in space”—published slowly, every three weeks, it follows a junior son of a remote holding and his adventures and romance.
Mini-Series
The Odyssey of Jonah Abbott - This is a story written which is outside of my other settings, it is a limited serial. It follows Jonah Abbott, a mysterious figure who washes on shore outside his village, and this strangers odd request.
Wolves of the Great War - This is an alternate-history fantasy/horror adventure set in an alternate 1913, highlighting tensions around the borders of the “Ostro-Carpathian Empire” and the Kingdom of Slavonia, and some ominous hills with some ominous rumors…
Story Collections
Surveyor Corps Adventures - These are not a discrete serial, but rather a set of adventuresome stories around the Sandbox Earth universe with the same conceit: surveyors exploring new worlds, and what they encounter.
Byron The Blackpage - This is a tag which takes you to stories written in a fantasy setting I have yet to develop further. I plan to write a serial centered on the character Byron the Blackpage, but until I do you can find everything I’ve written at this link.
Bounty Hunt - Stories which feature, in whole or in part, the villainous hunter, Black Zaelland or otherwise sci-fi horror stories.
Incomplete Serials
The Adventures of Tylus Worran - This is an unfinished serial, and the first serial I attempted before I realized I needed to plan better. It remains unfinished but I am sure to revisit it eventually. You’ll hear about it when I do.
The Settings of Gibberish
I primarily write Science Fiction, but at leisure I dabble outside of science fiction. I have two primary settings in which I have multiple stories planned.
My primary setting is science fiction, which I call the Sandbox Earth Universe. Every (complete) story and serial which connects to the Sandbox Earth Universe, as well as some world-building lore, can be found at this tag.
The Sandbox Earth Sci-Fi universe spans hundreds of years and stories are not necessarily told in order. The innovation of this setting can be found in its inciting story—Sandbox Earth (linked above). Humanity rises to the stars not as one but as many, competing factions. These stories tend to take the astro-political as a backdrop rather than the focus, and the history and patterns gradually become clear as you read more in the universe; even though each story stands on its own. I have a conceptual timeline of events, but may or may not share it.
My secondary setting is fantasy, which I call the Blackpage Setting. Every story set in this setting can be found at this tag. I have not written a lot in this setting, but I intend to write more!
The Blackpage Setting is a fantasy world, the core concept of which is that through magic known only to the various Orders of Authors, books can literally transport you to other worlds. As a fantasy setting, there are additional fantasy concepts thrown in, but this is the main innovation and the main concept I wish to explore in future writing in this setting.
Other settings may develop as I continue to write—you will be able to find them here once I link to them!
What Else Can I Find At Gibberish?
Sometimes I have been known to Write About Writing, which you can find at this tag.
Sometimes I write about Worldbuilding. My interests include History, Conlanging, and fictional politics.
On Notes, I publish Fiction Prompts for “Flash Fiction Friday”. At This Link you can find an index of my prompts published through 2024.
Podcast And Audio Features
The section of Gibberish where I post Podcast and Audio content is the Podcast. Occasionally I will do readings of my stories, more commonly I do monthly updates with Audio as well. I am not doing much else with the Podcast yet but I am glad the feature exists—I would love to use it more!
The Gibberish Writing Competition
The section of Gibberish where I host the Gibberish Writing Competition is GWC. I’ve hosted the Gibberish Writing Competition twice: First in 2023, and second in 2024. You can read the posts related to the GWC in this section. It will likely not be more than annually, and it takes a lot of effort and energy to run. Each year I iteratively improve the competition and I am looking forward to seeing what this looks like in future years!
Published Works
At the time of this writing, I have only one work available for sale!
The serial, “Sandbox Earth”, can be purchased from Lulu for $15. This was a project I undertook myself and I learned a lot. I have more things in the works, hopefully to release via Kindle Direct Publishing! For now—this is the only thing I have available for sale.
One of the projects I have announced is the Gibberish Anthology for 2023. Eventually, when that releases, the 2023 stories will go behind a paywall. Keep an eye out for an announcement for this anthology!
Voice Acting
You can commission me for Voice Acting, Voice Over, and Narration at the page Voice For Hire!
I do fiction and non-fiction narration, reading your essays or voicing your stories. There are examples of my work found at that page, please check it out! I really enjoy doing voice work and I would love to work with you on your projects.
Consider A Paid Subscription!
I do all of this to learn and grow as a writer. Right now, a paid subscription does not get you anything special (that may change in the future). Your paid subscription supports me in this project and helps me spend more time producing stories and investing more quality in them. When I release published versions of these stories, I will send the stories behind a paywall. And since I haven’t published anything yet, everything so far is free!
Thank you for being here! I hope this navigation page has been helpful, I really appreciate your subscription and I look forward to writing for you.
God bless you!
AJPM