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Corona has narrowed our focus, as I noted last week – but it has also slowed us down. As events have speeded up, so our subjective experience of them has slowed glacially. We keep reminding [...]

Not everyone you encounter – or create – has a dome-like head, or eyebrows that bristle comically, or sports a distinctive portwine mark on her cheek, or is invariably accompanied, like Mr Krook [...]

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 [...]

We don’t allow ourselves enough time to be bored. The modern world encourages us to fill every moment – and our phones encourage this. If you’re standing in a queue, it’s important that you don’t [...]

So the year has begun. And now your creative intention is staring you in the face, and it has a ferocious expression. It seemed easy enough a couple of weeks ago. If you took any notice of my [...]

Holidays are approaching. If you’re very lucky, it may give you time to write. You’re not usually expected at work and you’re not called upon (barring emergencies, of course) to summon the [...]

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 her [...]

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 [...]

I once read about a study which compared the happiness levels of those who had children to those who were childless. The general levels of happiness were higher, apparently, among the childless. [...]

George Sanders, winner of the Man Booker in 2017 for his Lincoln in the Bardo, and author of several books of astonishing short stories, makes an important point about detail in fiction in an [...]