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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 [...]

A piece of writing is like a set of dominoes. Overset one aspect and you overset all those that follow. We come across this problem a great deal in our mentoring programme. Each scene follows [...]

“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 [...]

If the yearning to write is in your blood, then to stifle or ignore it is a crime. Our writing programmes – both face-to-face and online – encourage and shape that yearning to help you tell the [...]

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” – Pablo Picasso There’s a certain point at which writing skills must melt away and become part of your being, [...]

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 [...]

Are there secrets to good writing? You know all the platitudes as well as I do, the ones that insist that it’s mostly a matter of sweat, and very little of inspiration. The idea that persistence [...]

I am not qualified in any sense to make the following statement: Mathematical models in the field of physics and cosmology bear a truly remarkable resemblance to the reality they purport to [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

Authenticity matters a great deal to some writers. Take Gregg Hurwitz, for instance, author of the Orphan X sequence of thrillers. He’s really good on lethal hardware. Here’s a paragraph on the [...]

Your goal for 2019 was to write more. Now’s your chance. We’ve just entered the last quarter of the year, and 2020 is beginning to peek over the horizon. We’d hate for you to [...]