What words would you put in your writers’ Room 101? Are you an exponent of the “said is dead” campaign? Would you ban all adverbs, ruthlessly? My leading candidate for the dictionary naughty corner is “could”. It seems harmless. I even put it in the title of this post, but as a former print editor, […]
My new reading list is too long for every book I’d like to re-read, but one book of writing tips that I often come back to is How Not To Write A Novel. If you’re embarking on a Nanowrimo project, now is a good time to dig into a short book that could make a […]
Literary awards and book prizes are an essential ingredient of the modern publishing industry. A gong on the cover can turn a mid-list novel into an international best-seller, ensuring plaudits (and bonuses) for everyone involved. The novel might even merit a Wikipedia entry. But are lit prizes a sign of quality, a tribute to fan […]
Uploading your mind to a computer is a sci-fi trope that’s almost as old as the electronic computer. Yet the more I write about AI, the more I think that it’s never going to happen. The reason: embodied intelligence. Consciousness uploads are also a notion that gets transhumanists and some sci-fi fans extremely agitated. From […]
It’s five years since Blood River‘s journey began, from a notebook in the Borneo rainforest to Amazon Kindle ebook. It’s a roller-coaster tale of supernatural survival horror, and you can buy it here. I’ve no idea how Blood River will fare with reviewers and readers, but it’s been an experiment from day one. It’s become […]
Most authors only publish their notes and sketches when a series hits the big time, but space opera author Alastair Reynolds has given away a treat for fans of his Revenger trilogy. If you haven’t read the Revenger novels, they’re an intriguing, swashbuckling trio of far future adventures. Though they feature solar sail ships, weird […]
The best novels are packed with dialogue, scene, action, interiority and world building in every scene. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be lucky to get two layers of storytelling into any new scene in your first draft. Three years with my MA writing group have taught me that this is very common. Almost every […]
How do you turn a collection of story ideas into a coherent 100,000-word novel? Novel planning was one of the most daunting tasks I faced as a first-time novelist. As a journalist, I’d got used to writing a few hundred words without an outline, or jotting down a few ideas for a thousand-word article or […]
Blood River has taught me that bringing characters from my imagination to the page isn’t always easy. Writing courses spend a lot of time on character description but very little on character visualisation. Characters develop as their stories and the world they live in emerge through your writing. There comes a time when you need […]