Full-time employee by day, aspiring novelist by night? Then you’ve come to the right article, my friend! That’s how every author who ever nabbed a publishing deal started out. Yup, even your absolute favourites. I’m talking the real heavyweights. Charles Dickens? Factory worker. Douglas Adams cleaned chicken sheds. JD Salinger became Entertainment Director onboard a cruise … Continue reading Real Life v Fiction

The number one question put to any novelist: Where do you get your ideas? Dipping the nib in the old brainbox, is the honest, if uninspiring, answer. There’s a myth that novelists possess some kind of inky alchemy. The truth is, novels start developing either one of two ways. They’re either driven by plot, or … Continue reading Imagination in Ink

Think about your favourite books and, sure enough, it’s your favourite characters who take centre stage. For all the most original, fascinating plot twists, without a strong reaction to indelible characters, would we really care to turn (or scroll) the pages alongside them? Characters are at the heart of your story and the engine behind … Continue reading Creating Characters – The Real Storytellers

Photo by anna-m. weber on Pexels.com For most of us, it’s a condition easily treatable with a quick sip of honey and lemon or the kind offer of a Strepsil. Finding your voice sounds like some kind of pompous affliction writers complain about to somehow validate literary prowess. While the whole issue of Voice sounds … Continue reading Finding your voice as a writer

Ah! The Muse. That lovely, literary sprite who flutters helpfully around our shoulders, filling our eager, little minds with wonderful ideas and standalone characters, which appear out of the blue, in glorious, black ink! Except, it doesn’t quite work that way, does it? And, believe me, if it did, there would be a lot more people … Continue reading Music as The Muse