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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 up the bestseller [...]

I recently spent a delightful hour chatting about all things writing with Tony Park, best-selling author of 18 novels set in Africa, and six non-fiction works. Our virtual Masterclass was set up [...]

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 [...]

Stephen King wrote one of the best books ever published on writing. My bet is that you’re one of the thousands of aspiring writers who’ve read On Writing, and profited thereby. So there’s no [...]

New writers often ask whether they ought to be writing “for an audience”. It’s a complex question because, deep down, we all hope to be read by someone other than ourselves. But when you start [...]

A friend of mine once found herself seated beside a doctor on a flight. “And what do you do?” he asked expansively, after treating her to a half-hour discourse on his many achievements. “I’m a [...]

I tend to advise new writers against using the god-like omniscient point of view when they start writing. Using a distant narrator who comments on all the characters, and can see and understand [...]