Writing and Editing
How to write descriptions your readers won't want to skim... We know it when we see it. A character enters a room and spends paragraphs noting the location of each piece of furniture. Pages devoted only to describing every dish at a feast. The dreaded purple prose. We’ve all come across excessive, unnecessary or just …
A little while ago I wrote about the dangers of head-hopping in writing, and mentioned that it’s a technique (or, depending on how you look at it, a mistake) often confused with the third-person omniscient point of view. Which kind of begs the question: what is the third-person omniscient perspective? And is it something you …
Head Hopping (verb) – The practice of moving from one character’s perspective to another in the middle of a chapter or scene. Widely considered to be poor writing practice, although it does have some staunch defenders out there as well. If you’re thinking that it sounds a lot like a third-person omniscient perspective, you’re not …
... and how not to. Today's blog post is a guest post from the wonderful Eric Sparks, I was fascinated by his extensive insights into marketing when I was researching my post on self-publishing and I asked if he would be kind enough to guest-write a post dedicated to the topic. Marketing is often highlighted …
I’ve had a few people ask for my take on self-publishing. I haven’t got a clue why; as somebody who’s never published anything, I’ve got zero personal experience to speak from, but it is something that I’m interested in. As an aspiring writer and editor, I feel like this is an area I should make …
This week I'm delighted to be publishing a guest blog post written by the utterly fantastic Meg Trast, owner and editor at Overhaul My Novel, LLC and author of "Write That Book You Keep Talking About". Meg here shares some of her hard-won wisdom on the process of beta reading, including what it involves, what …
I am not a naturally organised person. Ask my family, my friends or my long-suffering partner whether I’m good at keeping things tidy and they’ll all tell you (once they’re done laughing) that no, I am not. My clothes are frequently scattered on my bedroom floor, my shoes kicked off in any number of places …
Continue reading "Messiness and Creativity – Does One Lead to the Other?"
We’re all busy, it’s pretty much a fact of life. Our to-do lists expand to fill the available time, and no matter how many jobs we tick off there are always tasks jostling to take their place. I feel like I never have enough time for everything I want to do, and I’ve got next …
Almost anybody who’s done a lot of reading can give you an example of an opening that hooked them right away, and we all know how important it is to grab a reader’s attention right off the bat. But what is it that makes a strong opening? In my opinion, a great opening needs to …
The internet is packed full of methods guaranteed to get you an outline of your exciting new story idea, and I reckon I must have tried almost all of them in trying to get my current story up and running. On the spectrum of plotter to pantser I am firmly on the plotting end; before …
Continue reading "From Idea to Outline: My Three Steps to Story Planning"
