What advice would you give to writers? That’s what somebody asked me on Sunday, and I’ve been thinking about it since then. 1. Don’t listen to advice – that’s the first thing I’d say. If I’d been given any advice before I launched into what people now call my writing ‘career’ (which makes me laugh: […]
Approaching rewrites in the right way Over the last couple of years I’ve discovered that January is rewrite month. There are a several reasons for this: it’s when most of us decide to finally, finally, send out that novel that’s been sitting around for ages, and it’s when that indie publisher decides to go for […]
Rushing to judgement When I finish working with a coaching student, or teaching a class, I’m quite often asked, what is the one piece of advice I wish writers would remember? ‘Don’t give up’ springs to mind, but much more important, to my mind, is ‘don’t rush to judgement’. It’s the judging, more often than […]
So much to say The problem with only blogging twice a week is I have to save things up! 1 – Take this from Publisher’s Weekly back in September – Last week’s announcement of the Sobol Awards—in which online submissions from unpublished fiction writers compete (for an $85 fee) for thousands of dollars in prizes […]
Bling writing I’ve rejected a couple of examples of this recently, as an editor, and I think it’s both a growing trend and a sign of immaturity in the writer’s psyche. I’d define bling writing as the process of throwing brilliant effects at a story until it scintillates like a disco ball. Some writers are […]
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