On several occasions recently (lecturing writing groups and chatting online) I was asked about my writing process, about anything from using pen and paper vs typing to ideation. And it hit me that a lot of it is inter-connected. I’ve talked about the tools I use and where I sit on the plotting-vs-pantsing scale, but […]
Writer Tip
The Art and Craft of Writing (or, the worst and best advice you’ll ever get as an author)
I’ve recently been invited to talk to a few writing groups, about the experience of transitioning from a reader, to a budding writer, to a published author. This column comes as a result of thinking about that journey, from the advice I gave and the questions I answered, plus a few interesting discoveries on the […]
Milestones (or, the art of blogging as a key to a successful author platform)
In a twist that should surprise no one, last week’s post was the 200th post on my blog — and that milestone went past to the sound of crickets. I thought I’d take a moment to speak about milestones (besides putting in a big, actual, stone at the side of the road — for that […]
More from FutureLearn: Classics and Literary
I’ve mentioned FutureLearn before, as an excellent resource for no-stress, free-time further education. I’ve had the chance to do some more courses over the past few months, and thought I’d share my experience. Classics The first course I’ve done at FutureLearn was about a complete virtual model of ancient Rome (see here). It was an […]
Conversations in My Head: Things I’ve Learnt from Reading
Whenever I’m reading a book, I have this silent conversation with the author in my head. This is particularly true for indie authors I’m reviewing, but most authors are ‘targeted’. Sometimes, there are more people in my head. So if you’re feeling like someone is walking on your grave, it might be me, reading your […]
How to Murder. (Your darlings.) (In prose.)
We’ve all heard the advice to writers to “murder your darlings”. While I’ve been killing characters in entertainingly gruesome ways, the advice relates to prose. I’ve recently went through an extensive exercise of tightening my prose (for a particular submission), and thought I’d share my experience and lessons I’ve learned — both good and bad, […]
Screenwriting
In my continual quest to improve my writing, I’ve taken a look at screenwriting. (It has nothing to do with a possible deal for a movie adaptation of Murder In Absentia, about which I’m legally not allowed to talk just yet). Screenwriting is an interesting medium of storytelling, one with both similarities and differences to […]
Rory’s Story Cubes
A review of something other than books (for a change) but that is still intimately related to storytelling and storytellers. I’ve picked up a set of Rory’s Story Cubes (specifically, the orange “Original” set and the green “Voyages” set) a few years a ago as something to do with my daughters. This was before I […]
11 (and a half) Tips for Fiction eBook Creation
Do you want professionally looking ebooks to delight your readers? Of course you do! Following my post about the best tools I found to create and produce books and on how to best use InDesign, here are some 11 specific, highly-useful tips about how to create ebooks to the best effect! First, let’s be clear […]
14 Tips for using InDesign for Fiction Authors
Do you want professional looking print and ebooks to delight your readers? Of course you do! Following my post about the best tools I found to create and produce books, here are some 14 specific, highly-useful tips about how to use Adobe InDesign to create print-ready PDF files and ready-to-upload ePubs for the best effect! […]
