Writers Beware This 4-Letter Word
Words can be impactful, so be careful how you’re using yours when reflecting on your writing year.
Writing that dreaded Synopsis
I think putting together a synopsis for a novel is one of the most challenging aspects of writing for ‘new’ writers. Even practised writers still find it difficult. How are we expected to sum up a story that it has already taken us around 90,000 words to tell in only a page or two? There […]
GUEST POST: Finding My Voice at 40 – Esme Taylor
When I was little I wanted to be a writer. My head was always full of detailed stories about fairies and far away lands. I remember telling my primary school teacher that I was going to write books when I grew up. Her reply? She told me it was a lovely dream, but that’s what […]
Protected: Understanding Your Characters
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Why you should try NaNoWriMo
November means National Novel Writing Month. 30 days of frenzied writing activity happening across the globe as hundreds of thousands of writers commit to putting 50k words on the page! I love NaNoWriMo. I’ve been doing it for a decade and by now my writer-brain sees the changing colour of the leaves, and the feels […]
Creating Unique, Relatable Characters
By exploring your character’s reactions to more generalised scenarios, you’ll be better equipped to comprehend how and why they’re going to respond to your specific plot points. Not only this, but it’s not just what they do, it’s how they do it.
How to START writing a novel
You know that old saying – everyone’s got a book in them? So many people want to write a book, but never will, and if you’re a writer then I’m sure you’ve had someone tell you that they would LOVE to write a book too, but they just don’t have time. So, what makes the […]
Finding the Joy in Writing
It’s no secret I struggle with editing. But to find the joy in my writing, I have to ask the right questions and honour my need to create.
On being a ‘good enough’ writer
This certainty that we are not good enough bleeds into our writing. It makes us question ourselves, convinces us that we are terrible writers, and can eventually prevent us from putting words on the page at all. So what can we do about it?
New Goal: Kindle Top 100
Okay, I’m going to be honest here. Last year when I quit my job to become a writer and writing coach, and then I re-read the Spy Thriller that I wrote for fun in 2016 – I never expected to publish it. But here we are. It’s out there on Amazon Kindle for a reasonable […]