Nobody Handed Me
the Word Founder

I kept making stories. The studio grew around the work.

Someone asked what I was working on. I opened my mouth to say “screenwriter” and stopped. The word was still true, but it no longer described most of my days.

I spent decades working on television, including Alias, Lost, Heroes, Hannibal and Star Trek: Discovery. Now I run Orbital Ranch Studios, building original worlds that can take different forms. A screenplay can become a novella. A fictional city can become a game people explore. A setting can have its own publications and the people who write them.

A world with several entrances

Terra Conflictus is the clearest example. It began with a wargame and grew into a shared setting for fiction, tabletop play, browser adventures and an in-world press. Each format gives people another way to experience the same world.

The question is what each form contributes. A reader follows a character through a story. A player makes choices inside the setting. A fictional magazine lets you see what its inhabitants argue about, admire or take for granted.

The decisions that make it matter

AI has changed how much of that work I can attempt. It helps with drafts, production and recurring tasks. It can also flatten a voice, overexplain a reveal or offer a perfectly plausible change that misses the point of a scene.

That is where authorship becomes concrete. I give the brief. I decide which revision earns its place. I settle contradictions and choose what reaches an audience. The tools can produce alternatives; I have to know what the work is for.

Design worlds that can generate stories. Author the things that make those stories matter.

The work behind the title

Nobody handed me the word founder. I kept making things after the familiar container for the work changed. Scripts I once handed to a studio became part of worlds I could develop and steer myself.

The presentations below show that practice at different scales. Scribbler Studio looks closely at one script and a few choices on the page. A Writers’ Room of One explains the longer process. Terra Conflictus 2066: Built with AI tours the world that process helped produce.

There are unresolved questions here, especially about how much direct work on the pages keeps the craft sharp. These presentations are an account of the work so far, and an invitation to look at the results.

Adapted from the accompanying essay for this presentation collection.