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 […]
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.
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 […]
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.
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?
Despite the tough times that we’re all going through at the moment, I was reminded earlier today that I wouldn’t give up my opportunity to write – my love of writing – for anything else I could have in the world. I remember that I used to see people moving into their new houses and […]
The process of writing a novel is not something that can simply be taught. People can advise and suggest ways for you to get started or to keep your motivation going or even how to celebrate when you finish. But they can’t write the book for you, nor can they tell you what is best for the story you are trying to tell. All of that has to come from you.
One of the biggest challenges we face in this commercial, rat-race of a world is recognising when we are successful. A lot of the time we neglect to see our own success in favour of identifying it in others. We look around at our friends, family, work colleagues and beyond and think that we don’t match up – when, really, they’re all doing the same and believe you are more successful than they are!
We writers can be a mysterious bunch to other people; coming up with random ideas in strange places, for plots and characters that are so different to our current lives and personalities. But this is what I love the most about being a writer; the freedom of imagination. Most especially at the very beginning of […]
One of the most common reasons I see aspiring writers give as to why they are still ‘aspiring’ and not yet ‘writers’ is that they don’t have time to write. I said this for many years. I still say it on occasion. I spend some days thinking ‘I need to make time to edit the […]
