Occasionally scenes write themselves. Most don't. As authors, we know this, and in the 'most don't' category, there are many sub-categories. So, for this blog I'm sharing the different dilemmas we encounter while writing scenes. 1. The scene we thought was perfect, until continuity raised its head. I can think of two recent examples with …
Anything you read helps your work in progress
Sometimes I choose what I read carefully. For example, I read H.G. Wells and Ray Bradbury when I worked on my first dystopian novel. My assessor got me to read Joe Keenan as she wanted me to hone in on the farcical elements of my first book. But when I'm reading for pleasure, whatever style …
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Four writing rules my editors taught me
I learnt a lot with my first novel. I had various drafts of Drama Queens with Love Scenes assessed before I contacted publishers, and through that process I learnt the first rule I still stick to. 1: Find the right word. When my manuscript came back from my assessor, she often had a word circled …
Looking back at my Writer’s Notebook – Part Four
I'm still not even halfway looking back at my old notebook... But I'll make this my last musings on its contents. One thing that's surprised me straight away is that I originally was going to title the last in the Angel and Actors series novels, Drama Queens and Demonic Beings. So glad I didn't. There …
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Looking back at my Writer’s Notebook – Part One
I filled my first writer's notebook. My friend, Brett, gave it to me as a present for my birthday over ten years ago. It also came with a lovely pen on which he engraved 'The pen is mightier than the sword'. Inside the notebook, he wrote an inscription of which some of the lines are: …
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Writing Tips – Guest Post by Ari Meghlen
Today's guest blogger is a bit of an enigma. We know Ari Meghlen's avatar from her Twitter site as she shares daily questions for us to consider under the hashtag #TheMerryWriter. She is working on several books yet hasn't been published. But she has flash fiction pieces on her website, as well as a wealth …
The cliff hanger
Do you round up your chapters or add a cliff hanger? This was a question posed by someone using the #writingcommunity hashtag on Twitter. My answer is that I initially rounded up chapters until an editor made me stop. Her reasoning was that if you round up your chapters into neatly self contained stories, then a …
Plotting love affairs and break ups
One WIP has been submitted, one is on the back-burner and one I've just started plotting. I'm taking my time with this. With my other two works in progress I found I plotted too quickly, then went back and tried to expand them. One of them paces well, so I changed my mind and submitted …
Stories should have conflict.
Today's blog was sparked by a tweet from Kev St John (@Kev_away) He had given his work in progress to a Beta Reader who didn't like one character because she wasn't a good friend. He couldn't believe this response. This character is supposed to be a bad friend. That was the point. I had a …
Everything old is new again, in my writing.
I'm currently working on the second draft of my fantasy novel, Winter Masquerade. As I'm ironing out its shortcomings I'm finding the problems are the same as I originally faced with my first novel, Drama Queens with Love Scenes. At the moment my new work is novella length and I've been trying to find ways …
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