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Verbs, we were taught at school, are doing words. We began to think of all verbs as busy little words, virtuous and strong. We never learnt that some verbs are busier than others, and some just [...]

It’s a delicate tightrope we walk. On the one hand, if we provide too much information, we run the risk of turning a suspenseful story into a ho-hum record of events. Restraint in feeding your [...]

My name is Jo-Anne and I’m a dash-aholic. When you mentor a number of manuscripts each month, you begin to notice that every writer has certain habits – little tics which begin to irritate the [...]

I’m reading an exceptionally deft and intriguing Nordic thriller written by a distinctly unNordic former inhabitant of the East Midlands, Will Dean. It’s true, though, that he’s since married a [...]

One of the participants in our Creative Writing Course responded to a dialogue exercise recently with a scene containing a domestic argument between newlyweds. It was riveting – and raw. One half [...]

“The Palazzo Falconieri stands on a promontory on one of the smaller Italian lakes…” So begins a novella by Luke Jennings called Codename Villanelle. It’s a thriller, and it could just mark the [...]

Explore the mysteries and the craft of creating story in that most charming of Cotswold market towns, Stow-on-the-Wold. Join a group of eight or ten like-minded souls for the weekend of 21 to 23 [...]

When new writers are “using all their senses” to show us a person or landscape, they often neglect smell. And yet, it’s the most evocative of our sensory experiences. Emotions and memories are [...]

Writing’s a real life changer Adalbert Ernst was passionate about English, but became an anaesthetist. It was during a period of burn-out that he realised he’d been “robbed of something [...]

I’ve been accused of being a cold fish, of imagining that a logical or intellectual argument is the right response to an emotional crisis. Well, it’s not for me to say whether the accusation [...]

Some excellent responses to our June/July challenge. Remember, we asked you to play devil’s advocate with regard to some belief you hold dear, and write a conversation in which a character argues [...]

Enjoy a bit of literary fun with All About Writing and Slow Life when we present our Creative Saturday writing workshop at Casa Labia in Muizenberg on 4 August. Be inspired by the cry of gulls as [...]