Hiring an editor can sometimes seem to be a bit of a minefield, full of do’s and don’ts. It’s super important to have a proper editor look over your work, so I’ve thrown open my blog to the brilliant Sarah Fox to give you 8 crucial things to consider when you think about hiring an […]
writing tips
21 Easy Things Writers Can Learn From the Design World
It’s often easy for writers to get stuck in the mindset of only ever learning from other authors. Whether it’s the interminable round of online courses, reading blogs, or listening to podcasts, writers educate themselves by following other writers. Often, it’s absolutely the best way forward. But writers can learn from a much wider range […]
3 cool ways that weather rocks your fictional world!
Weather is quite possibly the most common conversational topic, at least in the United Kingdom. It also contributed to one of the most widely quoted opening lines; “It was a dark and stormy night” But can weather do anything else to your fiction, other than setting the scene, or giving characters something to talk about? […]
What do interesting houses say about your characters?
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 […]
Can death play a positive role in your storytelling?
Think of Death for a moment. Did you picture a tall guy in a hood with a scythe? Or Neil Gaiman’s funky Siouxsie Sioux character from The Sandman? Or was it a more sombre abstract notion of pain and loss? Death can be, and is, all of these things, and much more. But it can […]
Should you boost the roles of minor characters?
Most people watch the guitarist or the singer at a live gig. The drummer, and often the bassist, get a lot less love. They’re a lot like the minor characters in your stories. They’re important to the plot, but not the stars of the show. This is post 3 in my series based on the serialisation […]
