Being direct and specific when writing can make a story, or a paragraph, or a sentence. I’ve long known that, but within the space of a week I came across two very different examples – one getting it completely wrong, the other spot on, in my opinion. Again, it was one of those reminders that feels like a mini-revelation, so I’m going to share it with you. Read more…
Happy New Year! And being a new year, let’s start as we mean to go on. Just Write. There’s a maxim to live by, eh? And although it sounds easy enough, it’s not something that necessarily comes naturally. Read more…
Science fiction does not sell as well as fantasy. Theories abound as to why this might be. One such theory is that science fiction is assumed to be hard. That means both difficult and hard as in ‘hard science fiction’. But what is hard Sci-Fi versus the soft variety, and is there a way to write that appeals to readers of both? I investificate. Read more…
I was having a conversation with @thedavidwwright (from the excellent Collective Inkwell) on Twitter last week about the excellent Game of Thrones TV series. I thought it would be worth expanding on it a bit. Read more…
After a brief discussion with Jeff Baker, I hit upon the idea of extending a comment that I made regarding back story. One could say I was inspired by what I said *laughs at own joke*. Read more…
This is one of the most difficult things I find to get right. Pacing is a skill that you can develop, but it’s very difficult to, because it can take an outsiders view to tell you if a story is going too fast, or too slow. Read more…