Jo-Anne Richard’s blog

What is a “darling” anyway, and why should it be murdered? I was asked this in a workshop recently, and it brought me up short. We are used, as writers, to being told to murder our darlings, but [...]

There are times when you just have to let go of a project. Last week, I spoke about having faith; putting in the hours even though your manuscript is a horribly defective creature which looks [...]

In a Creative Writing class I was teaching recently, I suggested that, if you’re not sure of an aspect of your writing – like which point of view would be most effective or how to structure your [...]

We don’t allow ourselves enough time to be bored. The modern world encourages us to fill every moment – and our phones encourage this. If you’re standing in a queue, it’s important that you don’t [...]

So the year has begun. And now your creative intention is staring you in the face, and it has a ferocious expression. It seemed easy enough a couple of weeks ago. If you took any notice of my [...]

You might have noticed that I’ve avoided all mention of that R word this new year. Deliberately so. I don’t want to remind you of last year’s determination to run five k’s a day. And I certainly [...]

This new year, make the decision to see the world differently – through a story-teller’s eyes. If you can do this, then every day, every trip to the supermarket, can feed your writing. [...]

One of the reasons Dickens was such a great writer is that every character we encounter on his pages is vivid. He gives us just enough about each, no matter how incidental they may be to the [...]

Readers are clever. They pick up the subtlest clues and don’t need the point hammered home for them. Last week I spoke about the subtle way Barbara Kingsolver leaves a trail of clues for us to [...]

A woman in her late 40s has lived for some time entirely alone in a forest hut as a conservation ranger. A man travels through her area of the forest, one she is ambivalent about, but is [...]

We were recently approached for help with a writing project in which the writer wished her sole protagonist to be a true psychopath, who enjoyed killing. I’m not saying this hasn’t been done, but [...]

Writing can teach you as much about yourself as it can about the craft. Over the past weeks, I’ve been sharing with you the advice of a few of our mentoring participants – those who are writing a [...]