Its been a thrilling, tortuous and questionable journey, but you’ve finally made it. Your protagonist is walking off into the sunset with their sidekick, love interest or deepened sense of self, and you’ve typed the two most satisfying words ever:… Continue reading

Two weeks ago, I broke down the ten ways you can increase your word count. This week, I’m listing the top five ways you can trim your manuscript. A thin first draft may be the product of underwriting and a… Continue reading

For this week’s blog, I wanted to delve into some of the smaller, weirder tips and tricks that have helped me with my own writing. These tips focus on productivity, organisation and the minimising of physical discomfort when writing. As… Continue reading

Confession time, I’m an underwriter. I write my first drafts fast, so they tend to resemble orange concentrate. They’re strong, sugary, and if sculled, they’ll make your eyes water. However, my second draft is all water. This draft is about… Continue reading

How to build a character profile For some writers ** I’m looking at all you pantser ** the idea of creating a character profile may seem counter-intuitive, boring or even unnecessary. “Won’t my character just reveal themselves during through the… Continue reading

It takes a long time to write a novel. It takes self-discipline, passion, courage and lots and lots of coffee. Some days you’re on fire, exceeding your daily word count painlessly, hours disappear as you wander the woods of your… Continue reading

Some writers have no problem coming up with ideas. They’re the folks that take notebooks to dinner parties and groceries stores (!) because they’re always on the hunt for inspiration and potential material. Other writers get an idea, as in… Continue reading

Some authors find titling their book easy. Others struggle with the process. I’m definitely an “other.” Recently, I went through the surprisingly drawn out process of coming up with a title for my manuscript. Over the past four years, my… Continue reading

I have been away from all of my current projects for a week. This time was spent travelling and hanging with family and friends during Easter. Oh, and I moved house. Again. You know, for something different! Anyway, breaks in… Continue reading

Whenever a group of writers get together, there’s a series of questions and topics that inevitably come up. I refer to this phenomenon as The Writers Interrogation List. I’ve blog about this topic previously; you can find those posts here… Continue reading