My Blog
How Long Should Your Book Be? A Rough Guide to Wordcount
The question, ‘how long should your book be?’ isn’t always easy to answer precisely. Exactly how long your manuscript will be comes down to a few factors. Some of those will be highly specific, but luckily some can be more generalised. The two main things to take into...
Books that Address Mental Health
It’s national Mental Health Awareness week. Because of that, I wanted to take a look at some of the books I’ve read in the not-too-distant past that centre mental health, or characters who are dealing with mental health issues. Some of these books I enjoyed more than...
I Wish You All the Best: Book Review
I Wish You All the Best plot summary Ben knew their parents weren’t likely to respond well when they came out as nonbinary. They weren’t expecting to be cast out onto the street. With no keys, no money, no shoes, Ben doesn’t have many options. They do the only thing...
How to Tighten Up Dialogue in Your Novel
Working to tighten up dialogue can feel challenging. When we’re writing dialogue, we typically want our characters to sound real. But real dialogue is a mess! It’s full of fillers, back-tracking and accidental contradictions. It’s meandering and messy, and can take a...
Charity: Book Review
Charity blurb Edith, an elderly widow with a large house in an Islington garden square, needs a carer. Lauren, a nail technician born in the East End, needs somewhere to live. A rent-free room in lieu of pay seems the obvious solution, even though the pair have...
What is Writer’s Block?
What is writer’s block? And how can you get through it? I’ve talked before about overcoming writer’s block, but today I really want to dig into where it comes from. Can you avoid it? And, if you’ve got it, how can you get rid of it? What is writer’s block? Put simply,...