Best Selling Author Talk – Fiona McArthur

When you have an opportunity to hear an author talk, it pays to listen. Especially if that author is successful, as in some fifty published books or more – both traditional and self-published - and has won awards for her writing. Today was such a chance for me. Fiona McArthur is on the hustings (at least…

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Writing Short Stories and Using Them

Writing a short story sounds easy. Hey, it's only a few hundred to a few thousand words, not an 80,000 word opus: much more doable - yes? Errr, no. A short story still has to be a story with a beginning, middle and end. It still has to engage a reader to want to keep…

Get Your Writing Mojo Back

It happens. It’s super-annoying, frustrating and anxiety-inducing when it does, but it happens. At some point in your writing life, you will hit a period of drought. The words fail to come when you sit down to write. Ideas abandon you for a Summer somewhere else. Cleaning the tracks on the sliding doors with a…

Lessons From Joanne Rowling

Like many writers and aspiring authors, the story of J.K. Rowling is a real rags-to-riches tale with so many lessons to learn. From her penniless start, her determination by writing in a local café, her complex plots and characters, her perseverance in the face of rejection and her capacity to turn her series into other…

Researching Family History and More

One of the first experiences with writing is generated by a desire to put together a family history or a memoir. I just came across this resource and thought I'd pop it in here so I don't lose it - and can access it when I get around to doing my own family history!Hopefully, these…

How to Edit Your Own Book

When you write those two most satisfying words "The End", it is a bittersweet moment. Getting to that point could represent a couple of days if you're Stephen King or over a year's worth of sweating out characters and plots to finish your novel. But the savvy writer knows that moment of celebration is the…

Advice from an Emerging Writer Having Success

A friend of mine was chuffed to get a guernsey in a UK writing mag. He had an article published about playing to your strengths. Now, Greg provides great advice from his own experience and you can definitely benefit from that. But think about the achievement of having an article you wrote being published on…

What is Domestic Noir?

The literary world is complex. There are broad genres then sub-genres and even deeper categorisation beyond that. Within the Crime genre, Domestic Noir occupies a peculiarly feminine place. It comprises crime that usually takes place within familiar places such as the home or workplace. It often concerns itself with the woman's perspective. At it's core,…

Write Your Book and Sell It!

Highly recommend this practical program by an ex-teacher of Creative Writing, published author, NaNoWriMo winner who believes in publishing effectively and selling your written product. If you want some ideas on how to be a better writer, lifehack has some clues ... check them out.

Lost To The Craft Of Writing

But not their words which is one of their legacies. Perhaps that's one of the reasons we write, to leave a little of us in the world after we move on. This is a fitting tribute to just some of the more well known writers who passed away in 2013. We wrote about Doris Lessing's…