Beginners’ four faults As an editor, I know when I am reading someone’s first novel. I have nicknames for the four give-away faults beginners make: (1) Walk and Chew Gum (2) Furry Dice (3) Tea, Vicar? (4) Styrofoam. I see at least one of these in every manuscript where the author has not mastered the […]
Another Rejection Slip? Never Give Up, and here’s why…
Guest blogger Adelaide Godwin talks to Tracy Thomson about the launch next month of her new children’s book. Is this the first novel you have ever written? Yes What about when you were younger at school? I enjoyed writing but I am not sure the examiners felt the same when marking! Was your first language French? […]
Congratulations to Susan Molbeck, Second Place in the Bootcamp Writing Competition
WHY Sitting. Sitting on the Esplanade. Sitting and waiting. Waiting for what? If I knew the answer to that question I wouldn’t be here, I’d be far, far, away, beyond those blue hills I can see when I turn my head and look back towards the town; beyond the edge of that straight horizon directly […]
How to hook a reader, plot or character?
My dog got a lovely gift this Christmas, hope you do too! Happy Writing. Be it people or animals, if I suddenly care what happens to them I become interested in the story itself. It is arguably the key reason ‘Homeland’ spawned three series; the plot is terrorism the watchability is Carrie and Brody. Plot […]
Five Minutes of Flame. – When Nigella’s Twinkly Lights Go Out.
Nigella Lawson; as divisive as Marmite on a good day, but at the moment her once revered culinary abilities and the poetic descriptions of her creations are the last things on anybody’s lips. So where did it all go wrong? How could our love affair with the twinkly-lit muted scenes of conviviality turn sour overnight? […]
Mind the Gap, NLP and Me
Guest blogger Andrea Myers is a certified master practitioner of NLP and her blog focuses on mind maps and filters. Before you dismiss this as “pseudo science with quack factor stats” remember this, we learn, read and write in different ways. If we can increase our readership, or inject credible characterisation from looking at how […]