Monday Motivation: Introduce your characters with flair – and a trumpet solo
Films have a great deal to teach those of us who write for the page. Of course, the lessons of the screen have been slowly absorbed, by a process of […]
Top Ten Monday Motivations from 2019 (Part 1)
Ever since we started All About Writing back in 2011, facilitator and writing coach Richard Beynon has been helping you start your week with some Monday Motivation, of the writerly […]
Monday Motivation: In your end lies your beginning…
There are as many writing “practices” as there are writers. Donna Tartt begins, as I believe I’ve said before, with a random scene, involving random characters, the drama of which piques […]
Monday Motivation: Instructions for writing a winning manuscript
You’ve finished your last writing project. You might (oh, joy!) have sent it off to the publisher who’s promised to throw all their marketing heft behind it in order to […]
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: […]
Writing Secrets: No need for a war or a car chase on every page
So you’re writing the first pages of your novel and want to set up the fact that Linda is as happy as she could ever hope to be with her […]
June Newsletter: Writing tips galore
Two workshops in two towns – as removed as winter is from summer All About Writing split itself in two this past week to offer writing advice on different continents […]
Monday Motivation: Three ways in which your writing could misfire – and how to fix it
Mishaps happen all the time in writing. Most of them are little niggles, easily erased during a light edit. In one chapter the stable boy has a shock of blond […]
Monday Motivation: How not to write the bits that readers skip
Elmore Leonard said: “Don’t write the bits that readers’ skip.” One reader* asks the obvious question: What are the bits that readers skip? On the face of it, it’s obvious: […]
Monday Motivation: You must obey the rules of writing, unless you don’t
Writing has rules, yes? Rules of punctuation. Rules of grammar. Rules regarding cause before effect (the first should come before the second). Rules regarding point of view. Rules regarding [...]
Monday Motivation: Should books we disapprove of be burned, banned or banished?
I think I might indulge myself and write a little meditation on prejudice, judgement and forgiveness both in life and in literature. What prompts this? Well, it was a piece […]
Writing Secrets: Excuse me, your theme is showing
Every now and again, we’re called upon to assess a manuscript in which the theme is pasted across it like a banner. I’ve set out to make people realise how […]
