Search

Here’s a three-finger exercise for you: what are the sinewy fibres that link conflict, character and climax? The question arose as I pondered my strategies for our latest foray into […]

I’ve been puzzling over a small challenge I’ve given myself: to turn a recent experience I’ve had into a short story. The nature of the experience is not in itself […]

Some critics have called Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina the greatest novel ever to have been written. Be that as it may, I want to devote today’s rumination to a single conversation […]

Our local is just a short walk away from our boat in Priory Marina in Bedford. Local cinema, that is. (Our local pub is even closer.) Yesterday evening we took […]

Without conflict, there is no story, right? It’s a truism, and one we should all know. Something disturbs the balance of life, which is where a story begins. What new […]

I’ve been wondering why conflict is that absolutely essential element of drama that we’ve always argued it is. We’ve said that conflict creates uncertainty, uncertainty creates suspense – will he [...]

We’ve been talking about conflict at a weekend workshop in what must be one of the least conflict-ridden towns in the United Kingdom. Stow-on-the-Wold is a lovely Cotswolds wool town, [...]

Our focus as we wrap up 2024 is the art of the short story and in particular the new call for submissions from Short.Sharp.Stories. Here are the replays of our […]

Stories play out in all sorts of locations. You might think of those venues for drama as a stage, where characters collide, declare their love or spit their vitriol. The […]

Creating compelling characters can feel like an impossible task, especially when writing characters whose experiences and personalities seem far removed from our own. In both this blog and my [...]

I’ve been dabbling in a little mystery writing inspired by life in the marina – and it’s denizens. This exercise has given me renewed faith in many of the writing […]

In my next free subscriber only Monday Writing Motivation, I draw the parallels between creating compelling characters and vetting presidential candidates. Who knew that creating the next great [...]