A generally excellent piece of advice for writers is to write about what you know. It makes sense. How can you describe the atmosphere of the crowd at a football match during the taking of a crucial penalty unless you
To fully engage readers in your story, you need to help them not just to ‘see’ your world, but to be so wrapped up in it that all their other senses are involved too. So, for example, if your characters
Endings to stories: don’t make them too long. Once the goal has been reached and the purpose of your story fulfilled, tie off loose ends quickly or simply leave them to your readers’ imaginations. You know the story of Cinderella?
Are you in the process of writing a Christian book for children? Once you have decided on your protagonist’s key goal, work towards strengthening everything that takes them there (one conflict after another), and avoiding/removing anything that doesn’t serve to move
Do you write Christian books for ten-year-old children? Two stories regarding ten-year-old girls have profoundly moved me over the last couple of weeks. The first was the news from Nigeria that Boko Haram are using girls as young as ten
Between the beginning and end of your novel, if your main character hasn’t evolved (‘moved on’ if your prefer!), your story probably lacks dynamism. It may not be true to life, either, because as human beings every event we go
This morning I read Jesus’ parable of the seeds and the sower, and as I reflected on being good soil and bearing fruit, my mind wandered to the parable of the talents. However many we have been given, we need
I have been working my way through a pile of unsolicited manuscripts over the last week or so. Some have a lot of potential! However, many have one major flaw; the lack of “showing” and lots of “telling”. It’s a shame, because stories where readers are simply
Christmas is a great time to people watch, and get some tips for when you are creating characters for your novel. This Christmas, if you are meeting with family and friends, take a few moments to observe tell-tale signs that
If you write novels for 8-14s, do you need to include quotes from Shakespeare plays, make a passing reference to the Spanish Inquisition, and have your protagonist quote Scripture? We all use passing references to people, places and events we are familiar with
