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Being a writer sometimes demands that you put on the mask and the costume of a moral philosopher. I’ve just heard three writers doing just that in a conversation they held about the ways in which [...]

South Africa’s feature film industry is mushrooming – and, as a result, is in desperate need of good home-grown scripts. “South Africa has a booming film industry with world class technicians,” [...]

Stephen King said in On Writing that writing a story is a little like digging up a fossil. You spot a fragment of skull protruding from the rock. You carefully disinter that end of the fossil, [...]

Here’s a guest blog post by All About Writing community member Aimee-Claire Smith, who joined us on the McGregor Writing Retreat and is a recent graduate of our Creative Writing Course. In [...]

I attended the Kingsmead Book Fair this weekend, until the knives of a stiff winter breeze drove me home. But I was there long enough to note down a phrase that the moderator of a session I [...]

This month’s challenge carries an exceptional prize: three books by members of our Allaboutwriting family, generously contributed by Pan Macmillan, Jacana, and Cactus Rain in the US. The winner [...]

The other day, someone told me she didn’t need writing instruction because “I have a gift”. I’m sure she’s right and I’m thrilled for her. But what is it about writing that inspires this kind of [...]

I struggled to get the hang of friendship, as a child.  Something would always shift: I would express a liking for the wrong band, or even the wrong hairband. And seemingly, without a word being [...]

Last month, we challenged you to try your hand at memoir, by writing a seminal scene from your lives. The winners of the best two entries will receive a copy of Tracy Todd’s memoir, Brave Lotus [...]

Here’s a thing: I bought a David Baldacci novel this weekend. I’m not sure that I’ve read him before, although it’s hardly possible to avoid Baldaccis in any given airport, in any given [...]

In life, people do sometimes behave out of character – but there’s usually a reason. If you’ve ever done one of our courses, you’ll know the store we set by developing characters before you begin [...]

I’ve written about lies and liars before because writers (of fiction, at least) are, looked at from the right angle, professional liars. But there’s another way in which lies and lying permeates [...]