Houses can be an absolutely central part of any story. Hell, they even form a sub-genre of their own through the haunted house story! But are houses just the locations through which your characters move? Are they nothing more than sets? Or can you actually use houses as part of your character design? Can houses […]
inspiration
Mary King’s Close: Exploring the Underground City for real!
Mary King’s Close is a fascinating attraction in Edinburgh, and while I’ve never been much of a fan of the paranormal TV series Most Haunted, I did watch a ten year old episode at the weekend purely because the team were in the Close! I visited the Close myself in March 2012, and it inspired the narrow closes […]
Should writers use Pinterest?
The ever helpful Kristen Lamb has a post over on her blog about why writers should be using Pinterest. Pinterest, for those who don’t know, is a service by which you can create a ‘board’ and ‘pin’ images that you think are interesting. You can create boards for almost anything, from showing off your own […]
Inspiration behind Population, One
I haven’t done an ‘inspiration’ post for a while, so I thought I’d do one about my most recent Friday Flash, Population, One. (If you haven’t read it, do so now, for there are ‘spoilers’ ahead!) Now, my dad happened to tell me about a photo he’d seen online for a town whose population was […]
[Guest Post] Tony Noland on Ideas
Last week, I threw open the doors of the Blunt Pencil (sounds like a pirate tavern, doesn’t it?) and invited Beth Trissel to talk about the importance of research. Today, I’m pleased to welcome my very good friend Tony Noland. I’ve been kicking around the concept of a series of posts intended to explore the […]
Looking for Conflict
Writers are forever being told that good stories rely on conflict or drama. “There is no story if the protagonist has to problem to solve!” cry the experts. Apparently the world isn’t full of enough conflict, and we need to inflict yet more arguments, high stakes and the like on our lovely readers. Hell, I’m […]
