Naming characters, I find, can go one of two ways: either ludicrously easy or nigh impossible.  Some characters arrive in your head, fully formed, chatting away, named and ready for you to jot down.  Most however are trickier.  You wear out the ‘find and replace’ function as you flick through Maisy, Morgan, Mimi.  You eventually…

In case you haven’t been a teenager for a while, let me remind you – the teenage years can be tough.  There are hormones, important exams, the shifting sands of friendships and parents who sometimes forget what’s important.  And that’s on the good days.  On the bad days there can be challenging mental health issues,…

When I first started writing, ‘show don’t tell’ was one of the first rules I came across.  It seemed straight forward enough; don’t tell the reader what is going on in the scene, show it.  A simple rule which takes a bit of practise before you crack it.  So, rather than saying ‘he was angry’…

There’s lots of waiting involved in the publishing process; from waiting to hear from beta readers, to agents, to editors, to early reviewers until finally your readers.  It would be wise therefore to find ways to cope with the waiting.  I blogged three years ago about waiting and I like to think I’ve improved.  My…

‘Nothing will stop you being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake.’ This from John Cleese is another quote stuck above my desk, and it’s been there so long it’s starting to look a little faded.  It sums up perfectly something I struggle with occasionally and this week has been one of…

When you’re writing to a deadline, either one given or one you’ve set yourself, it can be a tricky balance between getting the words down and enjoying it.  I’m not currently in this rut, but I have definitely been there before.  When the love has gone and all you are left with is a blank…

This is one of the mantras stuck above my desk – it perfectly describes the juxta position you find yourself in when out on submission. So, in practical terms, what does ‘hoping for the best’ look like? It’s recognising the little wins along the way: a beta reader’s critique, an editor’s comments, the very fact…

There’s a lot of advice out there that says if you want to be a writer, you should write every day. Firstly, any advice that uses the word ‘should’ is advice I disregard. Secondly, writing every day does not work for me.  Early on in my writing journey I got trapped into thinking that because…

If you’ve finished a first draft or completed a round of edits, you’ll be planning a read through – a full read of your manuscript from start to finish.  Often when I am writing I keep the same routine, a series of mental signposts to tell my brain when it is Time to Write.  Some…

If you’ve been writing for a while, you’ll be familiar with getting a manuscript polished and shiny, the plot honed, the arcs soaring, with your characters feeling more familiar than members of your own family.  But here’s the cruel part: you have to move on and write a new story.  You plummet from perfectly crafted…