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Do you find yourself over-explaining emotions or situations in your writing? In both this blog and my next subscriber-only Monday Writing Motivation mailer, I look into the power of restraint in [...]

Ever feel like your story’s missing that special something? Yes, sure, it’s good, but not quite great? Well, you might be overlooking a powerful tool in your writing toolkit: thematic [...]

Let’s fantasise for a moment. You’ve finished your book, you’ve secured an agent (you only had to write thirty-seven emails to do so), and they’ve managed to place your manuscript with a [...]

Show, don’t tell. It’s one of the most oft-repeated pieces of writing advice, yet it is frequently misunderstood. To paraphrase Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, “Don’t [...]

I’ve sometimes stressed how important it is, in creating the world of story, to use accurate details. Accuracy is really important because it lends credibility even to situations that are, on the [...]

If you’ve been trying to write, you will no doubt have been challenged to adhere to the holy trinity of writing advice: write what you know, find your voice and show rather than tell. The first [...]

“He was drinking brandy, pouring double mouthfuls into a glass that had somehow survived from his grandfather’s time, the glass tinged green and bubbled with the air of the old century. He had [...]

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 – and in two towns [...]

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 [...]