FOUR things you should put in a covering letter to an agent or publisher and FOUR things you probably shouldn’t
It’s not hard to find advice for would-be/could-be novelists on how to write a synopsis of their manuscript, but there’s less attention paid to the first writing sample that the … Continue reading
MONDAY CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISE because it’s a good way to start the week – first person point of view
This exercise is about exploring first person point of view (I said, I thought…etc). You can work with any fairy tale you know well, but just in case your mind … Continue reading
Quotations for Writers (and people who like quotations) RAYMOND CARVER
…all we have, finally, (is) the words, and they had better be the right ones, with the punctuation in the right places so that they best say what they are … Continue reading
London’s deadly fog
60 YEARS AGO today London was smothered in a deadly smog. It was bitterly cold and very calm: no wind blew away the toxic air. Instead it lay over the … Continue reading
DID YOU KNOW about these famous rejections?
Towards the end of a course I often remind students that there are people who go to bed every night knowing that they once held the manuscript of Harry Potter … Continue reading
Editing Your NaNoWriMo Novel THREE BITE SIZE GUIDES TO EDITING AND REVISING THE FIRST DRAFTpart 3
PART THREE (You can see parts One and Two as guest posts at The View Outside) Editing might be a bloody trade. But knives aren’t the exclusive property of butchers. … Continue reading
Quotations for Writers (and people who like quotations) JOHN UPDIKE
A narrative is like a room on whose walls a number of false doors have been painted; while within the narrative, we have many apparent choices of exit, but when … Continue reading
Editing Your NaNoWriMo Novel THREE BITE SIZE GUIDES TO EDITING AND REVISING THE FIRST DRAFT part 2
Show don’t tell is the command burnt into the heart of every creative writing student, but sometimes… …it’s ok to tell. Find out when and why in the second of … Continue reading
Editing your NaNoWriMo novel THREE BITE SIZE GUIDES TO EDITING AND REVISING THE FIRST DRAFT part 1
Despite my own less than fantastic word count in this year’s NaNoWriMo, Viki over at The View Outside has asked me to write about editing your NaNoWriMo novel. (Actually the … Continue reading
Bargain Books from Brighton Bestellers – Christmas shopping sorted
Christmas Book Sale on Saturday December 15th: 4-6pm at The Writers Room, 47 Richmond Road, BN2 3RL. Come and buy books for the barganous price of £5 from local Brighton … Continue reading
DID YOU KNOW that writing poetry can beat tranquillisers
A study conducted at the Bristol Royal Infirmary found that writing poetry can help with the emotional pain of bereavement and assist some to stop taking anti-depressants or tranquillisers. Of … Continue reading
DID YOU KNOW the offical new word for 2012 is…
OMNISHAMBLES. Chosen by the Oxford University Press. Created by Tony Roche – part of the brilliant writing team that produced the television political satire The Thick of It Copied by … Continue reading
WIN a copy of A GOOD CONFESSION result
Drum roll. Nervous shuffling of feet. It gives me great pleasure to announce….oh wait, apology first…so sorry for the delay in revealing who has won a hardback copy of A … Continue reading
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 