Writing and Editing
Imagine the scene: you’ve sat down to write, you’re trundling along through your scene, happy as a clam, when you run into a stumbling block. There’s something you realise you haven’t explained—about the world your story is set in, or your character’s backstory, or anything really—and you’re not sure you can proceed without saying at …
We live in a world of seemingly endless distractions, and it can be fantastic—whether you want to check out what your childhood best friend is up to on Instagram, look up some Pin-spiration for what to cook of an evening or catch up on the latest Twitter controversy, it’s all there right at our fingertips. …
Industry professionals give them some major side-eye, readers confess to skipping them, but what if you feel like you need one? How do you know if a prologue is the right fit for your story? First, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page (pun totally intended) about what a prologue is. A prologue …
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?"
