I love being on holiday. It’s great to be somewhere new, with different food, climate, scenery… but to some extent it doesn’t matter where I go because the thing I most enjoy doing on holiday is working my way through an enormous pile of books. As I...
Nanowrimo is less than one month away. So if you are intending to take part, do you spend October planning out your novel in meticulous detail, or do you wait for 1st November, switch on the PC and see if inspiration strikes? Last year – which was also the first...
The aspect of writing fiction which is perhaps hardest to grasp when you are starting out, is that you have to choose someone to tell the story – and that person might not be you. In fact, it may well be easier if it isn’t. I was walking in the mountains...
You’ve probably heard the saying, “Truth is stranger than fiction.” Creative writing tutors, in their wisdom, caution against justifying an outrageous plot twist by saying, “but that really happened!” My favourite writing book, How NOT...
My agent told me that in her experience, writers don’t tend to do much writing in the winter months, but are far more productive in the spring and summer. I found this really surprising. Surely it’s easier to hunker down when the weather outside is cold and...
