Category: Creative writing tips

Last week we took a look at writing your final page before you’d written the beginning (or at least, got very far into your novel).

But what if you find yourself going over and over the ending and getting frustrated, because you can’t seem . . .

Do you:

start writing at the beginning of your novel?
write the ending first?

I know it sounds crazy, but there is some merit in having the final page all sown up before you’ve written the bulk of your novel . . .

Good Morning Writer Friends!

Ready for another writing tip? This time you’re going to have to do some work! 🙂

However long ago school was for you, I’m sure you will remember at least some of the novels you studied for English. We dived into Graham Green’s Brighton Rock, amongst others, for O levels (yes, I really am that old!). I read An Inspector Calls when . . .

Good morning Christian writers! How fictional is your fiction? Strange question? 🙂

I would venture to suggest that as regards fictional worlds, there are three types of novel:

1. Those that are firmly rooted . . .

People read novels primarily for entertainment. Young people are particularly discerning – if the book they are reading doesn’t hold their interest, they will put it down. So, especially because we are writing Christian novels for a reason, we need to keep our readers gripped . . .

I thought this week it was time we had some fun!

Here’s your exercise for this week: come up with 10 brilliant titles for novels for the age group you write for. 🙂

I know you . . .

This week: a writing exercise!

Choose from the following. Write about your first:

Home
Trip abroad
Best friend
School
Night away . . .

All fiction will bring out emotions in our readers. There are lots of ways to do this, but one of the best ways to engage your readers is to show them how your characters are feeling, rather than tell them. This allows our readers to discover the emotion for themselves . . .

Some books for children can last. How many of you read novels by Enid Blyton or Patricia St John when you were younger? Children are still reading their novels and enjoying them now, fifty or more years after they were first published!

However, if either of these authors . . .

Here’s the idea . . . at some point in your story, you need to surprise . . .