Jo-Anne Richard’s blog

This is the second in a series of blogs requested by our community. The series will offer fundamental, easy to follow and very practical advice in twenty essential aspects of writing.   Join [...]

This is the first in a new series of blogs requested by our community. The series will offer fundamental, easy to follow and very practical advice in twenty essential aspects of writing.   [...]

Many people tell us that, when they first come to our Creative Writing Course, we ruin reading for them. I usually say they should be so lucky. They’re learning to read like writers and, after a [...]

It just occurred to me that, when I began my first book, there was no internet. And only a year later, I saw a mobile phone for the first time: a huge contraption that hung over the shoulder. [...]

“Hey Audrey.” Jane appeared in her office doorway. “It’s Friday. Shouldn’t we reward ourselves with a drink?” “Great idea. Giles at 6?” “Perfect. I’ll see you then.” I keep discovering little [...]

Reading and writing creates a two-way exchange. It’s a matter of trust. The reader must trust their imagination to the writer, who in turn must trust and believe in their readers. This is a [...]

People always talk about stand-up comedians and their timing – but you seldom hear people comment on the excellent timing of writers. And yet timing is essential to making a piece of writing [...]

Say you’ve set up a mystery in your novel. All through her life, a young woman has tried to get her father to talk about her long-lost mother. He has resisted and she has lived with the mystery. [...]

As a novelist, you shouldn’t be too kind. We all know Kurt Vonnegut’s exhortation to put your characters through hell, but do we always heed it where our own beloved characters are concerned? I [...]

If you want to be reminded that characters are the most important part of a narrative, go and read (or reread) George Elliot’s Middlemarch. I have just done exactly this and was struck by how [...]

Tears streamed down her cheeks. She wept and wept, sobbing into her sodden tissue until it dissolved and she was left hiccupping… It’s worth making the point again because I keep noticing [...]

Thinking works best when lying. I wrote last week about how too much thought can be a bit of a cheat. It’s a little too easy to use a character’s thought process to explain things to the reader, [...]