Advice for writers typically suggests that a series works best for indies. Does it make sense for the first three in the series to form a trilogy? Not always… A trilogy suggests an entity like the three-movement sonata in music, or the triptych in art. The form must be complete,[…]
Read More »Do you have a writing plan? It’s assumed there are two kinds of writers: those who have a writing plan, and those who write on the seat of their pants. I would love to write a synopsis, the theme, the backgrounds of each character, the main events of each chapter[…]
Read More »An exhibition of Breugel is showing at the Holburne, Bath, the first UK exhibition devoted to the dynasty. Not huge or cheap, but well displayed. The family tree shows the connections between the different artists. Breugel the elder, his two sons, one of Jan’s sons, two of his grandsons. According[…]
Read More »Is this how you feel about your work in progress? Advice: the punching must be on computer keys — daily. Stephen King’s biographical On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft reveals King as an avid reader, a no-nonsense advocate of writing skills, an honest, humorous, generous guide and a devoted husband of[…]
Read More »Starting out on your first writing journey? If you are just starting out to write and self-publish, whether fiction or non-fiction, put some money aside for the journey. After all, if you were about to open a shop, or offer a repair service, you’d expect up-front costs. Don’t expect the[…]
Read More »Each time I finish a short story . . . I get a tremendous sense of self completion. It’s transitory: I will be rewriting my short story soon. Although the satisfying sense has gone by my first edit, this ‘completion’[…]
Read More »Writing characters? E.M. Forster admitted that “We all like to pretend we don’t use real people, but one does actually. I used some of my family …” Perhaps you can’t or won’t do that. As a writer, you will need different resources for bringing your characters to life. You may[…]
Read More »Some few years ago I began my first writer blog: http://fictionalcharacterswriting.blogspot.com. But I didn’t want to show myself– I let my characters do the talking. Sadly, the characters didn’t live up to the image of Moliére’s group above. It was more like this on the left. I had just published[…]
Read More »Writing stimuli. What gave you that sudden idea that made you urgently scribble it down? It’s worth exploring. The power of olfactory stimuli in activating memory is well known. But it’s much harder to ‘dream up’ a smell that might affect the character in your story, than it is a sound[…]
Read More »Struggling to find the right title? A writer recently remarked that she had difficulty in thinking of titles. I thought I’d concoct a list for beginner writers allowing use for different genres. Let me know if you like this kind of post. It can be taken seriously or not. Who[…]
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