Inspiring the Uninspired
Notebooks, notebooks, notebooks. How many have we filled? And how many have we bought and not used yet?! As writers, notebooks are so important. They're great for jotting down observations and inspirations, for keeping ideas safe until you're ready to grow them, for moving your novel forward. As I writer, I'm obsessed with notebooks and… Continue reading Places All Writers Should Keep a Notebook
For the past couple of weeks I've been focusing on query letters, and they've been the subject of my previous two blog posts. So now we've discussed things to include in a query letter, and things to leave out, I thought I'd share my step by step approach. Please note, as with my synopsis writing… Continue reading Writing a Query Letter – A Step by Step Method
This week I've been spending a lot of time on query letters. They're an essential part of your pitch to an agent/publisher, because it'll be their first impression on who you are, and what your book is about. I'm by no means an expert on this subject, but I have been doing a lot of… Continue reading Things to Include in a Query Letter
Writing a synopsis is often dreaded by writers. While some love it, others loath the process of condensing down their story into a page (or less). I use a step by step process to write a synopsis, and I still find it difficult. I've been working on my synopsis for novel 2, Vanishing Act, this… Continue reading Things You Need to Know to Write Your Synopsis
Edits. Edits. Edit. Editing a novel is a long process, and it can be all too easy to become disengaged. Maybe a new exciting idea has formed, and you want to work on that, instead of the novel you've read through already 100s of times. But you have to stay loyal to your work in progress. Finishing… Continue reading How to Stay Motivated During Edits
Recently, I've been craving particular writing environments. A book shop in Edinburgh, a cute tearoom in a historic village, a bench by the sea... It's so easy to think of these places as the perfect writing environment, and sometimes I even find myself thinking I'll wait to write until I'm there, so that I have… Continue reading The Perfect Writing Environment
Social media. It's fair to say that this area of the internet has the good, the bad and the ugly. I'm only here to focus on the good, but within a very specific part of the social media world; the online writing community. So, why do I believe that, like me, unpublished authors should be… Continue reading 10 Reasons Unpublished Writers Need Social Media
Writer's block. We've (probably) all been there. The words won't come, the ideas fall flat and your motivation falters to a halt. How to combat it? There are plenty of ways. One is simply to write anyway. You could try freewriting, or find a great prompt or go for a walk. And you could also… Continue reading 4 Reasons to Read When You Have Writer’s Block
I have always adored this quote from Ibn Battuta. Let's see it again: “Traveling—it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” - The Travels of Ibn Battutah As somebody who loves to write and loves to travel, this has always been something I think is entirely true. And I know that not everybody… Continue reading Travelling: It leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.
Writing time can be sacred, and it's not always easy to enjoy uninterrupted time. When I'm in need of dedicated writing time, I head to the nearest library. Here's five reasons why you should too. 1. Surrounded by published novels There's nothing more inspiring than being surrounded by published works. Imagining your own book sat… Continue reading 5 Reasons to Write in a Library
