Writing Advice
Writing Science Fiction: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing a Sci-Fi Novel
Do you dream of writing a great science fiction novel? If you’re a fan of the genre, then you know a well-written sci-fi story includes excitement, adventure, a fascinating and memorable world, and some truly unique characters and relationships. But you might also be hesitant. That’s because the best sci-fi novels don’t just entertain. They…
Read More10 Writing Strategies for Becoming a Master Storyteller
Are you afraid that your storytelling might be falling short? Maybe you’re a brand-new writer and know that with more skills or experience you’d have more confidence as a storyteller. Or maybe you’re a little farther along in your writing journey and you’re looking for ways to spice up your stories, introduce more variety, or…
Read MoreHow to Start a Novel: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Great Novel Openings
Wondering what’s the most effective way to start your novel? The first few lines and pages of your novel are critical to get right. There’s a lot for you to achieve. From hooking the reader to establishing your story world to setting up the ending — in this article we’ll look at why it’s so…
Read MoreGuest Post: My Hero’s Journey Into Being a Writer
This is a guest post by Rhiannon Elton, author of the Wolflock series. A personal account from an author who has battled her demons and come out on top. Introduction to the Protagonist’s World I was born with a galaxy of libraries in my eyes. But it took a long time to transform them into the…
Read MoreThe Novel Writing Checklist
We’ve put together this checklist to help you decide whether your novel is ready for submission to agents, or for self-publishing. It’s just a guide, don’t take it too seriously! Details on each of the checkpoints can be found below. You can get a PDF version here. Great core concept Is the central idea unique…
Read MoreHow to Do a Thorough Self-Edit
This is a guest post by Krystal N. Craike, the Writing Pirate Congratulations! You’ve finished the first draft of your novel. Pat yourself on the back. Open a bottle of champagne. You deserve it! But the work isn’t over. Now you need to edit the darn thing. And editing is a word that can strike fear…
Read MoreCracking the Pace of Your Novel
On a basic level, there are two kinds of pace. On the large scale there is story pace. This is controlled more by the balance of different types of prose sections in the larger story structure. On a smaller scale, there’s the pace of a particular paragraph. This is the pace controlled by things like the sentence length…
Read More12 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block
Writer’s block can be incredibly frustrating – here are some ideas for smashing through! Writer’s block can present itself in different ways. We may be struggling for inspiration and ideas. We may be paralysed by the desire for perfection or the fear of not being good enough. We may be stuck on a particular point…
Read MoreThe Secret to Writing the Perfect Synopsis
This is a guest post by Ali Harper, author of The Disappeared (HarperCollins). Unsurprisingly, every novelist I know hates writing synopses. Of course we do. Writers are creative beings and we’ve just spent the last god-knows-how-long trying to imagine something that wasn’t there and having conversations with people who don’t exist. We’ve grown a germ…
Read MoreWriting the First Draft of Your Novel
Plough on, keep looking forward, don’t hesitate By far the most important piece of advice you can follow when writing the first draft of your novel, is to plough on through, and not hang around editing, polishing and tweaking. It can be tempting to redraft the first few chapters several times before you have even…
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