I think all writers have two parts within: an editor and a creator. Often, the two work in synergy to produce writing you’re happy with. Sometimes, though, the two seem mutually incompatible. The creator, as I call it, is the part of me that’s inspired (by the muse, you could say) – that has many […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Choosing names for the male and female protagonists in a novel is, I always think, an important element of the writing process. The right name conveys the character’s personality, wishes and dreams; the wrong name could hinder character development. When I write a novel, deciding names is one of the first tasks I undertake. I […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
In my novel, Burning Embers, the male protagonist, Rafe, uses a number of terms of endearment when speaking to his lover Coral – my darling, my sweet, my love. But the most prevalent, and the most fitting in terms of her character, is ‘rosebud’. To the non-British reader, this may seem an odd choice of […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Every writer has good days and bad days: times when the words just flow onto the page, as if by magic; and times when you seem to spend much of the day gazing out of the window, tidying your desk, looking up words in the dictionary – anything but write. As William Goldman put it, […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
In many love stories – on screen, in literature, in music – there are examples of characters coming together having been in a perilous situation, faced with death. A writer knows that introducing the risk of loss sharpens depends characters’ feelings towards each other, helps them realise those feelings; and, of course, it makes for […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
If writing your first novel is hard, writing your second is harder still! The Huffington Post recently ran an interesting article on ‘One-hit-wonder authors’ – famous authors who only ever wrote one book. The authors included in the article are: Anna Sewell – Black Beauty Boris Pasternak – Dr Zhivago Cyrill Connolly – The Rock Pool […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Do you remember those ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ books for children that were in vogue in the 1970s and ’80s? The idea was that the reader, rather than the author, had some measure of say over the direction of the plot. Such fun for a child; though tricky to write, I imagine! No doubt you’ve read a […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Writing a novel is the fun bit – you let your imagination roam, you live in a half-daydream state rich with colour and imagery. Your days are spent doing what you love best in the world – playing with words, expressing your inner self, conjuring up a world that makes you fizz with longing, excitement […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I was intrigued to read in the Independent recently that McDonald’s has teamed up with publisher HarperCollins and for the next couple of weeks will be giving away a children’s book, rather than a toy, with each Happy Meal. McDonald’s has bought a staggering 9 million copies of Michael Morpurgo’s Mudpuddle Farm series of books. […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Any writer will tell you that good writing involves using a varied vocabulary, but of course in a novel certain themes are paramount and we bring these to the fore by touching on them often. A friend recommended that I try a word frequency checker as a fun exercise and one that can be insightful […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
