Writing Secrets: That complex, difficult, miraculous process
I once read about a study which compared the happiness levels of those who had children to those who were childless. The general levels of happiness were higher, apparently, among […]
Monday Motivation: The supreme improv writer – GRRM
Germaine Greer once interviewed Luciano Pavarotti at his Italian villa. She was ushered through into the presence of the great man on the terrace where he was having breakfast. He […]
Writing Secrets: What writers need most of all
A friend of mine once found herself seated beside a doctor on a flight. “And what do you do?” he asked expansively, after treating her to a half-hour discourse on […]
Monday Motivation: This is a Walther PK380 and it’s aimed at you
Authenticity matters a great deal to some writers. Take Gregg Hurwitz, for instance, author of the Orphan X sequence of thrillers. He’s really good on lethal hardware. Here’s a paragraph […]
Writing Secrets: A life full of troubles? Great, use them
We all know (or we should) that no story can exist without conflict. But not everyone recognises why this is so. Discussing the elements of story recently, we were asked: […]
Monday Motivation: Pluck from your dream the luminous image
I was recently given a Garmin watch which records, as well as your heartbeat and the number of steps you take every day, the patterns of your sleep. It gives […]
What screenwriting can teach novelists and short story writers
Writing for the big screen (and the little screen) is very different from writing for the page – but the skill sets overlap. Two of the biggest of these overlaps […]
August Newsletter: Sharing the joy of writing
Sharing the joy of writing This month, we’re celebrating you, our writing community, by giving you a week filled to the brim with free offerings. Festivities begin on 12 August, […]
Love among the ruins: the winners of our post-apocalyptic romantic flash fiction challenge
Post-apocalyptic is the new normal, it sometimes seems. And the introduction of heady doses of sex into science and fantasy fiction – think Game of Thrones and The Handmaid’s Tale, […]
Writing Secrets: Choose a character you can embody
“I’m just so happy,” one of our mentoring participants told us recently. “I can’t tell you how happy I am. The writing’s flowing and … it just feels right.” We […]
Monday Motivation: Fixing what you get wrong
The New York Times has been running an interesting series of articles which compile the answers that older readers give to the question: what life advice would you give to […]
Tune In: August/September Flash Fiction Challenge
All About Writing’s latest writing challenge offers the winner a literary assessment on 5000 words of writing worth R 2750 / £ 150 or a voucher to the same value […]
