Myths are great. We all know them, yet we’re constantly re-interpreting and re-imagining them in the fiction we create. Writers should steal from the best, so why not take inspiration from the stories that have survived for centuries? Look in any bookshop (especially the YA section) and you’ll find plenty of fairy tale retellings, and... Continue Reading →
It's that time of year again! For the past couple of Decembers, I've set myself a writing prompt challenge. Each day a new story writing idea, and twenty minutes to write something cool. It's surprisingly good for mining out new material, and quite often the stuff I end up with goes towards uni coursework, short... Continue Reading →
The skin of my teeth, would be the answer lately. The ideas have not been flowing, and I’ve been feeling pretty blocked. I’ve been fairly busy over the summer, doing as much as I can before uni starts again. Competitions, blogs, anthologies, anything. But pretty much everything I've been working on has been for something. I've had... Continue Reading →
Writers don’t have it easy. Creating something purely from your imagination is an achievement in itself, but if you’re brave enough to send it out into the world then you have to be prepared for a lot of rejection. Of course, there’s a difference between an editor reading your work and deciding that it’s not... Continue Reading →
Writer’s block comes in many forms. Sometimes you have no ideas, or you have the ideas but not the plot specifics, or you have that but not the words. But there’s a particular type that I seem more prone to. I like to call it Between Projects Syndrome. Looks more official in capital letters, doesn’t... Continue Reading →
Pyromancer has been neglected for a few months. I had coursework deadlines, and the launch of our class anthology to organise (see my last post for updates). But now I’m starting to blow the mental dust off this project, only to find a whole nest of writerly self-doubt has been breeding in the meantime. It... Continue Reading →
So a lot has happened since that last Rewriter’s Block post. I planned some chapter rewrites. Gave the antagonist an early cameo. Cried a bit over the mess that is chapter five. And then I had something of a painful revelation. First drafts are not the final story. Quite often they’re templates, and anything can... Continue Reading →
Productive is such an ambiguous word. We writers tend to throw it around a lot. It might mean we’ve reached a daily word quota, or finished a project we’re truly proud of. It might just mean we’ve finished a blog post on time (one of these days). The word is used for so many different... Continue Reading →
You spend so much time on that first draft. Creating characters, inventing settings – perhaps even a bit of plot makes it in there. It might take weeks, might take years. And then finally it’s finished, and you can celebrate your amazing achievement. Well done! Not everyone makes it this far. Now it’s time to... Continue Reading →
This time last year I was feeling pretty uninspired, and so I invented a little 24-day challenge called the Writing Advent Calendar. Instead of buying a chocolate cardboard box, I listed as many online story prompt generators as I could find and then tried to complete one each day. That lasted all of about one... Continue Reading →
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