Thrushbeard was the first full story I actually finished. It's a bit under 32,000 words, so novella length. When I went to write the second draft, I decided to turn it into a full-length novel. Which means draft two isn't a revision, it's a total re-write. Even the names of the main characters have changed. …
I’ve got two stories going at the moment, Calypso and Nightingale and they’re both going very, very slowly. There are a few reasons for this but one of the key ones is that, (having been out of full-time work for nine months) three months ago I started a new job. A very demanding new job …
I’ve had a bunch of world building advice and ideas land in my lap recently and wanted to share the bounty. First up, World Anvil – it’s a site MADE for creating worlds, and they’ve got a challenge running throughout July to build up lore and background that is a great place to start thinking …
I recently came across an article - How to Improve your Writing: the 7 drills by Mason Engel and made some notes. The first thing that comes up is the ever-present advice on improving your writing. Write a lot, read a lot, repeat. This is all well and good. It's solid advice, especially when you're …
A couple of weeks ago, my writing group gave ourselves a collective week off and, instead of putting our latest 2,000-odd words up for feedback, we tuned in to the 2020 Tolkien Lecture from Pembroke College at Oxford. It was a great presentation, a flowing, ninety minute conversation between six highly regarded authors and an …
I've been watching another YouTube video on writing, specifically on the five main mistakes made by 'amateur' writers, also known as aspiring writers. I'm not sure which is less depressing. The first one listed was Point of View, or rather the constantly changing nature of point of view in some early stage stories. I've slipped …
I was sent a brilliant quote in an email newsletter recently. The author of both the newsletter and the quote is a guy called James Clear: "Slow and steady often wins because it keeps you motivated. Take on manageable challenges and you'll get frequent signals of progress. Bite off more than you can chew and …
It’s what you’re told, time and time again, when you’re thinking about getting into writing as more than just a pipe dream. You have to write every day. It needs to be a habit, a compulsion. The challenge, of course, is creating the habit. Frankly, when it comes to this sort of thing, I have …
I’ve been noting books and bookmarking online courses around writing and storytelling for a while now, and, given the current situation, I may even get through some of them. One I’ve already made a good start on, because it’s brilliant, is the Pixar in a Box course on Storytelling, provided free by the Khan Academy. …
I’m reading Dan Pink’s book on the power of timing at the moment. Who’d have thought it would be a brilliant source of writing advice? This is a long quote, but it’s one I need to keep well to hand as it’s inspirational as well as a handy reminder of the ways of humans: “…at …
The DNA of Stories 