It is that time of year again! Time to sit at the keyboard and hammer out fifty thousand words (or get as close to it […] Read More
Category: How to Write
The great Stephen King once said that a notebook is a great way to capture bad ideas. He might be right. He’s definitely right about […] Read More
Stand at the typewriter and bleed, said Mr Hemingway. There’s nothing else to the writing process, right? If only it was that simple really. This […] Read More
This is a question that comes up a lot. It’s almost a reflex question following a writer’s answer to “What do you do?“. It’s a […] Read More
You are stuck. Everything has been planned and worked out. You know where the story should be heading, but nothing is happening. Your characters won’t […] Read More
Okay, you’re stuck. The essay is due and you are helplessly stuck. You don’t even know how to start. There’s nothing but you and the […] Read More
Starting a fresh new project can be daunting and scary and challenging and exciting and a few other things. Having completed my re-re-re-rewrite of my […] Read More
Each of the characters in Umbrella Academy is lonely in some way. Each of them fights an internal conflict. The reasons for their isolation and the reasons for their internal conflict are linked to the various mysteries in the series.
Learning from the Challenge NaNoWriMo is at its halfway mark! This 50,000-word novel writing challenge can be a tricky thing to beat. I’m not here […] Read More
Many, many, many drafts The Silent Symphony is progressing well. I’ve just finished rewriting Chapter 24 of 33, and I believe that I am on […] Read More
Latin words and phrases in English writing – the final round This time we look at some slightly unusual Latin terms. They might not be […] Read More
More Latin words and phrases in English Writing Welcome to Part 2, where we discuss more Latin words and phrases you might encounter (or need […] Read More
Latin words and phrases in English writing. There are many Latin words and phrases floating around in everyday prose and academic writing. Understanding what they […] Read More
More than a wink The semicolon is a stifling little piece of punctuation. In fact, it makes some of us uncomfortable. If you’ve only used the […] Read More
Let’s eat, grandma! Commas can be tricky things. In this post, I will give you a crash course in using a comma in your writing. […] Read More
How to Write a Successful Backstory Few stories start with a backstory, unless it is a dull info-dump. Page one, chapter one, you find characters […] Read More
Creating Tension in Your Fiction There’s a lot of advice out there about creating tension in your writing. As far as I can tell, quite […] Read More
How Not to Start Your Story Lessons from the Pilot Episode of Altered Carbon I went into Netflix‘s cyberpunk extravaganza, Altered Carbon, as blind as […] Read More
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