fantasy landscape

Who Holds the Key?

What do you think is the most important element of every story? What is it that makes a novel worth reading, for you?

Is it:

The plot?
The setting?
The length?
The author’s…

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forest in the autumn

Two words or one: Part II

Last week we looked at the quote from Thomas Jefferson: “The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”

We talked about cutting unnecessary words… However, there is another side to this quote:

Sometimes you need…

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Thomas Jefferson

Two words or one?

A writing quote for you this week:

“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.” – Thomas Jefferson

What do you think? (Bear in mind that Thomas Jefferson was …

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writing

How could you write 500 words a day?

Following on from last week’s post (you can check it out here if you missed it), I was contacted by writer-for-a-reason Heather, who told me she did a challenge of writing 500 words a day, and did so for 18 months!

Heather says, “It was a challenge by…

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distracting image

Keeping Going Despite the Distractions

What keeps you going with your writing when times get tough?

I find that having a plan, being disciplined, and getting back to the plan as soon as possible helps.

I try to write an hour a day, but of course that’s not always possible…

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Is my story good enough?

Is My Story Good Enough?

Dear Writer Friends,

Today’s creative writing tip has come up over and over again in our Write for a Reason writing groups… is my writing good enough? Is my story good enough? …

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cake with icing

Metaphors and Similes

Metaphors and similes – what fun! We all get these two mixed up – but it doesn’t matter what we call them – as long as we use them!

But just for the record, metaphors are things that…

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dragon

Creative Writing Tip – Personification

Today’s creative writing tip is all about personification.

Personification is the attribution of human characteristics to something non-human. That could be an animal, or something non-living.

First, let’s take a look at personification of animals (also called anthropomorphism). We might like to include animals in our stories who think, talk, feel human emotions, have a conscience…

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tiger roaring

Onomatopoeia

Today’s creative writing tip comes from our Monthly Programme – we have been talking about various literary devices to embellish our stories and give them a bit of added interest …

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