Writing Secrets: Your worst nightmare can be your greatest gift
“See what you’ve already written as raw material.” This is the kind of advice writers dread… “What do you mean? Thousands of words of deathless prose – raw material?” Yet, […]
Monday Motivation: The truest joy of creation
Here’s a thing: in our bookshop in Wigtown, south Galloway, we have, at a rough estimate, some five thousand books. They’re all second-hand, of course – and they fall into […]
Take the next leap on your writing journey in 2019: Mentoring applications now open
Tackling a book-length project can be a terrifying journey – unless you have someone to hold your hand and keep step with you. Our Mentoring Programme is tailored to each […]
Writing Secrets: Life is full of stories
Random events occur in our lives all the time. We make choices, we react to them, they are followed by unconnected occurrences, with no links to what came before or […]
Monday Motivation: The portals of the imagination
Salley Vickers is a one-time lecturer in Shakespeare and the nineteenth century novel, among other things, a remedial teacher and a psycho-analyst specializing in helping people who are [...]
Writing Secrets: It’s not only words which can offend
Someone I know recently had a fall-out with a relative – over words that seemed to her trivial. For a time, she couldn’t understand it at all. After all, what […]
November Newsletter: Don’t lose your writing fitness
Don’t lose your writing fitness Daily writing is to writers what exercise is to athletes. Stop, and you’re in danger of becoming stiff and stilted. You lose your flexibility and […]
Monday Motivation: Don’t asphyxiate your story with your beliefs
Novels are, first and foremost, stories. Their first job is to intrigue us, involve us, surprise us, jolt us, shock us – and entertain us. The best novels of their […]
Writing Secrets: If being a writer takes magic, here’s the spell
“I need to discover whether I’m a writer or not,” one of our participants said, at the start of our new Creative Writing Course. She said it in hushed and […]
Monday Motivation: Writing the sentence that lingers on the tongue and in the mind…
Oscar Wilde was at dinner with a group of friends when one of them delivered a little off-the-cuff bon mot of wit and elegance. Oscar exclaimed, “Oh, I wish I’d […]
NaNoWriMo: 8 tips for if you’re stuck or overwhelmed
Fifty thousand words in just thirty days. It’s a huge and exciting challenge. Getting stuck? It’s a problem that most of us encounter from time to time. Here are a few […]
In just fourteen days we can make you a better writer
It’s a hard, lonely process growing your writing discipline… Oh shut up, you old killjoy. We don’t believe that. We’d much rather you had creative fun among like-minded companions, guided […]
