writing

VAL MCDERMID JUDGES THE 2ND "CRIMEBITS" PRIZE FOR BEST OPENING TO A CRIME BOOK Ends on Thu, Mar 13, 2025 11:59 PM MAKE YOUR FIRST PAGE COUNT... Building on the successful book CRIMEBITS selected and introduced and judged by LEE CHILD, published as a paperback in the UK and USA November 1...

New blog post by Katie-Ellen Hazeldine The Stories in Our Stars: The Zodiac for Writers We are now in Pisces Season. But what are its stars, what’s the ancient story behind it all, and what does it mean for writers? Time to go fishing with Pisces. Traditional Associations...

I am not a poet, but I had a thought. So, if I may: What passes as presence is really clicks, neverending. What passes as content is merely echoes, reorganized. What passes as writing is merely content, masquerading.

New blog post by Claire G What Came First, the Chicken or the Egg? Bear With Me! Okay, this is probably a weird analogy but this is how my (bird-brained!) mind works. So, in terms of the title question, I’ve thought long and hard about this and, with my limited scientific knowledge, I’ve...

I really connected with this teaching of writing:

New blog post by Jake E Dems the rulez Once again, I find myself writing about an argument I stumbled upon on X (Can’t they agree on anything over there?) and I just had to offer my thoughts on it in case anyone was interested. The argument in question? Writing rules, do they have a point...

Our monthly micro-writing contest One Perfect Sentence kicks off this Friday, and I’m looking for prompt ideas… if you’d like to make any suggestions, please list them below! :) p.

New blog post by mickleinapickle One Perfect Sentence Posted on behalf of Peter Cox… The prompt this month was to complete “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” in a novel way. In this, you manifestly succeeded In fact, this was arguably the best OPS contest we’ve run so...

Writing is always full of self-doubt, but the first book [Torch] is really full of self-doubt, and it was much more of a struggle to keep the faith. By the time I wrote Wild, I was familiar with that feeling of doubt and self-loathing, so I just thought “Okay, this is how it feels to write a...

Writing is so difficult, that I often feel that writers, having had their hell on earth, will escape all punishment hereafter. Jessamyn West

“If you show someone something you’ve written, you give them a sharpened stake, lie down in your coffin, and say, ‘When you’re ready’”. David Mitchell

New blog post by Claire G More Haste, Less Speed? What Do We Mean by ‘Pace’ And Why Is It Important? We often hear that books are fast-paced, slow burn or ‘saggy in the middle’. In a nutshell, pace is the speed at which a story unfolds (note that this is not the same as the speed at which a...

The only problem with Haiku is that you just get started and then Roger McGough

I just read this blog post by Chuck Wendig (link below) and it sounds like a fun/cool thing for us to do too. List 5 things you’ve learned writing a now completed novel/novella. It doesn’t have to be things about the book, it can be things you learned about yourself, or some interesting tidbit...

“Writing is medicine. It is an appropriate antidote to injury. It is an appropriate companion for any difficult change.” Julia Cameron

Make understandable misunderstandings happen, hook sentence at end of paragraph, and most importantly, personify abstract concepts. state the story idea in one sentence, two max. scene outline -each scene must move the story forward Dialogue: excites, has white spaces (no more than...

New blog post by Jake E Writing as a job Recently, I came across a fiery argument on multiple social media platforms around the topic a writer compensation. On the face of it, it shouldn’t be a hugely controversial topic – work should be paid for – but as with anything opened to mass criticism...

New blog post by AgentPete Welcome to Publishing Year Zero “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” wrote authors’ rights activist Charles Dickens as A Tale of Two Cities began its epic unfolding. He could easily have been...

Hello everyone and happy new year! I just wanted to share with you this doc that was posted in my screenwriting group. I know it is more tailored for screenwriting but I found it very useful for my book as well, it builds drama and covers the who, what, why and opposing forces thereby enticing...

Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are. The job of your voice is not to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences. In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your heart, your soul. Meg Rosoff