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Here’s a conundrum. One of our mentoring participants tried to solve one problem and, in the process, created another. As I mentioned last week, you should try to avoid long, static [...]

A guy called Scott Myers runs a very nifty blog on writing for the big screen. He calls it Go Into The Story, and every day he posts advice about screenwriting, interviews with screen writers, [...]

I wish I had a coin for every time we’ve been asked: “But can you teach creative writing?” Here’s the way we usually answer it. If you’re writing now or trying to begin, you’ll know that writing [...]

It’s a perennial problem for writers – the long conversation which reveals essential information. The solution? Well, the short answer is: try to avoid them if you possibly can, [...]

Here’s another lesson from No Country for Old Men… When last we spoke (!) I described Lewellyn Moss’s flight from the implacable hand of Fate, Anton Chigurh. He eventually shakes off his pursuer [...]

Be aware of your connection to your character – that silver thread that attaches you to them – and you’ll write better. I believe this and I’ve seen it again and again. Consider this paragraph, [...]

In the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men, the protagonist, Lewellyn Moss, is a hunter who comes across evidence of a drug deal gone wrong in the desert. He finds an attaché case full of money [...]

Each scene in a story is linked to one that came before it – even if not directly before it. Something happens in one scene, which causes a development in one that comes after. That gives a [...]

Hi fellow writers, Trish and I have been planning our annual trip to our boat in England for the summer (lucky us), but have encountered a number of delays that mean we’ll be here for six weeks [...]

With a colleague, I’ve been devising a fairly complex story, running over ten or so years, featuring the adventures of a young man as he transitions from childhood, through adolescence into young [...]

The logic of story Our 14-day coaching programme, The Logic of Story, begins in just four short days on May 7. It explores the ways in which writers can “glue” the elements of their stories [...]

  If we read like writers, we find constant lessons – both good and bad – which will aid our writing. Here’s a lovely one from one of my favourites, Maggie O’Farrell. In This Must Be the [...]