If you want people to engage emotionally with your story, you'll need to make sure your characters feel real. No matter how outlandish your plot or unusual your setting, if your characters feel real, your readers will find it easier to feel connected to your writing. There are lots of ways to do this, but... Continue Reading →
Whether you're a new writer or a more-seasoned scribbler, you've probably read a boatload of writing advice. You've also tried some of it and...found it doesn't work. No snippet of writing advice is guaranteed to work for you. You need to learn habits that allow you to write your best. It will involve some trial... Continue Reading →
With everything going on, I've not been on the ball with my shameless self-promotion. Well that stops now. During my recent writing competition blitz (or maybe spritz is more appropriate), I was fortunate to be shortlisted for the Hammond House 2024 International Literary Competition which also means I've been published in their latest short story... Continue Reading →
In my post "Taking Stock of 2024" I talked about how I'd been entering a lot of writing competitions, mostly for poetry and short stories. And I've been shortlisted for some too, which I'm pretty happy with. Recently I was thrilled to find out I've reached the semi-final in the Fabuly Writer's Challenge short story... Continue Reading →
It's been quite a year. It feels like it's been quite a year every year (or possibly every day) for the past seven-ish years. But here we are and it's time to take stock. I actually wrote a blog post in January 2024 detailing some recent changes in my life and what they meant for... Continue Reading →
A new novel idea has me in a chokehold. And as I have a very good feeling about it, I've scrapped my original plan for a new short story collection. However, I've already written a bunch of stories for said collection and I've got more floating about in old folders. To make sure they don't... Continue Reading →
Misery - Writing can be dangerous Stories about writers often seem to end up on the precarious side of things. Writing, it's implied, is dangerous. "Misery" (by the man who loves writing about writers, Stephen King) follows a famous writer who's sick of his own creation (shout out to Arthur Conan Doyle) and kills her... Continue Reading →
Ok, so writers aren't this big homogenous group who all think and act the same way, but I'm fairly certain there will be something in this list that you (or the writer in your life) will recognise. Just remember, it's all in fun! 1) We don't always want to write This may sound shocking -... Continue Reading →
New Year's resolutions - love them or hate them, they come up every year. The idea of turning over a new leaf for a new year appeals to me as a writer, a fresh start using a very visible (if immaterial) line in the sand. Perhaps it's the idea of beginning at the beginning. So... Continue Reading →
So here we are at the end. If you've followed my previous posts on writing a book then I hope you've found them helpful. If you haven't you can find all the posts guiding you through the full process: Research Characters Plotting First draft Editing This post focuses on what to do once your book... Continue Reading →
Wordland 