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What is it that makes a character come across as a caricature, rather than a finely drawn person we can believe in? Well, clearly, two-dimensionality plays its part. If you draw your world in [...]

My golf-mad parents used to say: There’s one thing about the game. It keeps you humble. How much more is this true of writing? It’s easy to let an early success go to one’s head. We’ve all seen [...]

Story exists because of characters – and what those characters want. This was brought home to me again recently by an exercise we set in one of our courses. We asked our participants to think of [...]

We’ve had someone on our mentoring programme who has been struggling for months with a story, which just hasn’t been coming together. The main character didn’t ring true. We couldn’t understand [...]

We all know people who think themselves morally or intellectually superior for reading non-fiction instead of fiction. And recently, the numbers of non-readers have been swelled by the digital [...]

I was recently accused of being the enemy of subordinate clauses. I’d like to make this clear: I don’t hate complex sentences, certainly not as a matter of principle. But when you’re mentoring a [...]

It just occurred to me that, when I began my first book, there was no internet. And only a year later, I saw a mobile phone for the first time: a huge contraption that hung over the shoulder. [...]

Mine is the first of All ​A​bout Writing’s blogs to be featured on our brand-new website so, welcome! Please have a browse around. We think it projects a sharp new look that we’re [...]

Each morning that I sit down to write I think I won’t be able to do it. I know it’s pathetic. I’ve written five books, but when I contemplate a day’s writing, I panic. When that happens, anything [...]

In life people speak about “wanting for nothing” as though it’s a good thing. Actually, in life and in stories, it’s not a good thing at all. It means, basically, that we’re ready for death. [...]

Tears streamed down her cheeks. She wept and wept, sobbing into her sodden tissue until it dissolved and she was left hiccupping… It’s worth making the point again because I keep noticing [...]

Like love, drama can’t be hurried. As she walked into the apartment, a bomb exploded in the lounge, killing its three occupants and causing carnage. Okay, as I showed a couple of weeks ago, the [...]