Writing Secrets: What subtlety can do for your characters
What is it that makes a character come across as a caricature, rather than a finely drawn person we can believe in? Well, clearly, two-dimensionality plays its part. If you […]
Monday Motivation: Sink your hooks into your reader – fast
I’ve spoken before about the implicit contract a writer strikes with her reader – a contract that includes such clauses as: I promise to tell a full story, paying proper […]
Writing Secrets: Writing makes us humble
My golf-mad parents used to say: There’s one thing about the game. It keeps you humble. How much more is this true of writing? It’s easy to let an early […]
Monday Motivation: Imagining yourself into some else’s shoes
In a thoughtful article recently in The New York Times, Dara Horn took a few well-aimed swipes at billionaires who devote significant fractions of their fortunes to research into… immortality. [...]
Writing Secrets: What characters want
Even seasoned writers sometimes forget about what characters want. The more we work with writers and their stories, the more I’ve come to realise that “wanting” is the very essence […]
Monday Motivation: ‘Mission Impossible’ and the meme of the ticking clock
Idly in search of ideas that might amuse and instruct you, I found myself watching one of the interminable Mission Impossible movies, in which the utterly and impossibly intrepid Ethan […]
The best life is a creative life
Our reason for being – to make the world a more creative place We exist to animate your creative life. We see it as our purpose in life, so we’re […]
A monkey wrench, a fit of depression and a first edition of Bleak House
Thank you all for the wonderful entries to the December/January challenge. We asked you to combine a monkey wrench, a fit of depression and a first edition of Bleak House as […]
Sign up for your ticket to a scriptwriting adventure
Film and television are so much part of our world that we can’t imagine life without them. They entertain us, inform us, educate us. They inspire us, terrify us, enrich […]
Writing Secrets: Story can’t exist in splendid isolation
Story exists because of characters – and what those characters want. This was brought home to me again recently by an exercise we set in one of our courses. We […]
Enter our writing challenge to win a R1000 course voucher
All About Writing’s latest writing challenge offers a gift voucher worth R1000, to be redeemed against any of our courses or programmes from our flagship online Creative Writing Course to our [...]
Monday Motivation: Grow into your writing
I sometimes feel that I’m like Spronkie – one of our cats – who spends those portions of each day that he isn’t sleeping, circling our house. I’m not sure […]
