Tips for Writers

When people first enter our mentoring programme, they often come with grand issues, extensive landscapes and multitudes of characters. It’s good to remind ourselves that writers have achieved [...]

The instant we meet people, we start computing. We take in cues, without even realising it, and come to conclusions. Some of these we’ll adjust with time. Others we’ll confirm. It’s the same with [...]

It’s through the small details of a novel that we learn of the large issues, and from which we gain a sense of the world in which it takes place. You don’t need to explain to us, for example, the [...]

The difference between the almost-right word and the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning. That was Mark Twain, not me, but I [...]

I saw spots before my eyes as I was struck over the head by yet another “as” construction. I fully admit it, I’m an as-ist. I have developed an aversion to the word “as”. But there’s a reason for [...]

One of our mentoring participants had a thorny problem with speech tags the other day – which we were able to solve with examples from the work of another. A small group of characters were [...]

We come upon our character lying in bed (or in a restorative bath, for that matter). She sighs, overcome by the dramatic events which have lately overtaken her. Events which she then remembers. [...]

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 came as something of a revelation. But [...]

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 carrying us [...]

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 our readers have been [...]

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 an author is [...]

Details are magical. Use them well and they can conjure us to another time and place. They can also transport us into the state of mind and emotions of the characters. The way a character sees [...]