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There’s a distinction that writers need to make before they become great. It was a point I made in a university course I taught recently – and I think it […]

The dough of a particular variety of wholewheat bread is almost liquid. It slips between your fingers, it makes unexpected lunges for the edge of your working surface, it resists […]

Fights, or action sequences, which involve many peripheral characters, are difficult to write well. We have a tendency to rush them. We give the results of the clash, rather than […]

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 like-minded souls for the weekend of 7 to 9 June. […]

Writers are God, we rather fatuously proclaim. We can do anything – bring characters to life, destroy them at will, have Fate take a hand in the affairs of men. […]

Every now and again, a character has a realisation which changes everything. It hits him between the eyes and forces him to view things in a completely new light. Since […]

What draws us to write about our travels? What is it about travel writing that is so beguiling? We, at All About Writing, receive almost daily queries from members of […]

George Sanders, winner of the Man Booker in 2017 for his Lincoln in the Bardo, and author of several books of astonishing short stories, makes an important point about detail […]

One of our mentoring participants sent me this quote recently and it resonated: “Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you’re a writer. But […]

Writing has rules, yes? Rules of punctuation. Rules of grammar. Rules regarding cause before effect (the first should come before the second). Rules regarding point of view. Rules regarding [...]