Can deliberately pigeonholing a character make them less two dimensional?
Over the course of my career I have had the opportunity to attend quite a few different training courses designed to develop softer skills. From a writer’s perspective, some of the most interesting and...
View ArticleWriting Sci Fi with Scrivener for Windows
“If anyone has not tried switching to SciFi as a language (my standard modus operandi in Scrivener now) I strongly urge them to for some fun. This English translation was the brain-child of our beloved...
View ArticleWriting in the present tense
I’ve not updated for a little while because I’ve been focusing all my creative efforts on my current work in progress. I’m also caught in the middle of a debate with myself about my internet persona....
View ArticleShould I do another NIAD?
Surely you’re not looking to pass on the baton? It looked like you had us running like a well-oiled machine this year! (Matt) Never again. That’s what I thought when I finished the last NIAD. By the...
View ArticleStructuring non-fiction
You often hear people say of fiction writing that you should be true to yourself. I think that’s good advice. Generally speaking it’s easier to write what you’d like to read. However, when you are...
View ArticleTracking characters with Scrivener keywords
Quite a while ago I posted on the Lit’n'Lat forum some details on how I use Keywords in my Scrivener projects to keep track of characters and locations, and someone suggested that I also post it here....
View ArticleHow important is localisation in writing?
…or should that be localization? Books are global, and pretty much always have been. Back in the day, Charles Dickens did book tours of the US, and it’s even easier to cultivate an international...
View ArticleWhy can’t books be more like movies?
Some books have introductions, I’ll grant you. Typically they’ll only be included if a book is especially old, or has been turned into a successful movie(1). Other than that, I’m struggling to think of...
View ArticleEvery choice reflects on your characters
Each choice in a story is an opportunity to tell us something about the characters, whether it’s introducing something new, reinforcing an established position, or highlighting some deviation from the...
View ArticleSymbolism in Shakespeare
I haven’t read Shakespeare since it was forced upon me at school as part of English class, so you can probably guess my level of excitement last summer about the possibility of seeing A Midsummer...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lessons on writing from Jurassic Park
I like dinosaurs, and as a result I recently watched Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park 3D in the cinema and even more recently went to the library and checked out the book by Michael Crichton. Crichton...
View Article8Qs: Literature and Latte
Eight Questions is an occasional series of interviews that I’m including on the site. Being a naturally gifted (read: lazy) interviewer, I will be using the same eight questions in every interview....
View ArticleClik here to view.
An author’s contract with his readers
Last week I went to the library and got out a couple of classics: ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell and ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck. Both are small books of about 100 pages, easily read in a few...
View ArticleHow to write a bestselling romance novel
I stumbled across an old post I made on the interweb which made me chuckle and fits the tone of this site, so I thought I’d reproduce it here. So here it is: The Pigfender guide to writing a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
State of Emergency
I’ve clocked up a few negative experiences in my lifetime. I have had homes burgled twice. I was in the building both times and on the second occasion I confronted the intruder whilst completely naked....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Causes and cures for writer’s block.
A few days ago I was working on Chapter 19 of the WIP. I had brainstormed the chapter in my normal mind map fashion and then converted that to linear notes (basically bullet points). I sat down to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Happily Ever After
Earlier in the week I visited the library (as I am occasionally wont to do). I grabbed two Lee Childs and a Vince Flynn off the shelves and was heading to the checkout area when my gaze happened to...
View ArticleUpdate on NiaD 2013
As some of you have noticed, normally I would have announced the date for the annual Novel In A Day event by now. You may also be wondering if this lack of announcements means that we won’t be running...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Does physical comedy work on the written page?
Remember when I wrote a little while ago about how Tom Cruise helped me rethink the approach I was taking with one of my chapters? Well, I find myself needing to do it again. I was typing away, getting...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How to write a novel in a day
A few days ago I wrote a novel in a day. A whole novel, in a single day. I say “I”, but it’s only fair to point out that I had some help. Twenty-five of us got together and – over the course of...
View Article
