I’ve just watched the movie ‘The King’s Speech’ and thoroughly enjoyed it. For me to enjoy a movie is in itself a rare and wonderful thing. I don’t as a rule watch movies and my taste is limited. I loved … Continued
I’m updating this post because I’ve just read an article about the ‘10 writing rules we wish more science fiction and fantasy authors would break‘ As if happens, the articles reverberated with me because I’ve just finished reading a Jack … Continued
Everybody’s got a novel in them, so they say. And as I’ve mentioned before, the novel writing business has become an industry in its own right. Everywhere you look you’ll find another course on how to come up with plots, … Continued
I’ve finally had a chance to watch ‘Hogfather’ the movie – based on Terry Pratchett’s book. After I’d watched the first episode (the second will be on Saturday) my other half said “I didn’t hear much laughter.” So true. I’ve … Continued
Like most authors, I’ve belonged to my share of writers’ critique groups in my day. Authonomy was one but there have been others. There are certain difficulties with being a member of these sites and those difficulties will inevitably affect … Continued
Before I left the rat-race to become a full-time author I used to work in IT, designing, building and testing web sites for large corporations. The basic techniques I used for them will work just as well for smaller sites. So, if you’re ready, let’s begin.
There’s a lot of websites in the world these days and we’ve all had our share of experiences in navigating our way around them. I’m no different to any other user – I go to websites looking for stuff and if I don’t find it – I don’t stay. What are the things most likely to turn me off?
Should you write a prologue? I don’t know – it’s your story. I can tell you what I think and if that helps, hey – I’m chuffed. But I’ll tell you two things up front – one, I don’t usually like prologues and two, I’ve written one myself.
I’ve become a tad introspective about the Rules of Writing. You know the ones, my authorial friends; thou shalt not use adverbs, thou shalt minimize adjectives, thou shalt not reveal Back Story in the first chapter, thou shalt mesmerize your audience from the first word.
If your hero is up against a villain, better make sure that villain’s powerful. Sure, you need conflict to make a story. Or should I say, an interesting story. But the writer of a post iI just read used Voldemort and Sauron as her two examples of good villains.