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Richard is flat on his back after a small operation, and can’t sit up to type. A sad state of affairs for any writer. So instead of a fresh Monday […]

“Meaning” is the thing that lies behind, or beneath, or beyond. The sighs of a lover are what we note. But the meaning of those sighs is what we interpret. […]

Point of view determines the way your reader apprehends the “reality” of your protagonist’s universe, including his own interior cosmos. A single perspective shines a light on reality from just [...]

Do you need reminding that writing is a difficult business? That there is no guarantee of success – at least the success measured by successful publication and a steady rise […]

I’d like to talk about the bad guys today – the enemies your hero encounters over the course of his journey. Of course, not every story features characters who qualify […]

We might read novels for the stories they tell – but often it’s the characters in them that linger. And so it’s worth pondering some of the most memorable of […]

I’ve always been fascinated by the relationship between readers and writers; and by the implicit contract entered into between a reader and the book – and hence the writer of […]

This brings us to up to the three hundred and sixty-fifth of my Monday Morning essays – and the last of the reprises I’ve allowed myself. It was written in […]

I find that I sometimes get so caught up in the convoluted complexities of my writing that I find myself mired, like a pith-helmeted explorer in quicksand, in my own […]

When I was at university, the writer whose new books we anticipated most was Kurt Vonnegut. He was cool. He was committed. He wrote books that straddled the line between […]

Listen up: You’re at your desk, right? Or your dining room table, or your kitchen table, or, in desperation, perched on a stool at the marble credenza in your bathroom, […]