The Horror! THE HORROR! A Writing Exercise on How to Scare Readers
(Horror fiction) shows us that the control we believe we have is purely illusory, and that every moment we teeter on chaos and oblivion – Clive Barker Here is an … Continue reading
A Not Very Serious Exercise: an extract from Back to Creative Writing School
Far better to write twaddle or anything, anything, than nothing at all – Katherine Mansfield This is an extract from an exercise on writing lipograms. You might want to mention … Continue reading
A Cliché Killing Writing Exercise: an extract from BACK TO CREATIVE WRITING SCHOOL
EVERY SATURDAY for the month of January I’m going to share some exercises from my popular writing guide Back To Creative Writing School – I want it to be a creative kickstart … Continue reading
Description Writing Exercise: an extract from BACK TO CREATIVE WRITING SCHOOL
EVERY SATURDAY for the month of January I’m going to share some exercises from my popular writing guide Back To Creative Writing School – I want it to be a … Continue reading
Bargain price of £4 for a few more hours…(then it’s back to normal £6.99)
Back in March I cut the price of my popular paperback guide from £6.99 to a straightforward £4 and wrote this on my Amazon page. HUGE PRICE CUT because creativity … Continue reading
START THE WEEK with a Creative Writing Exercise
A very straightforward creative writing exercise …all you have to do is write and keep on writing until you’ve managed to incorporate all the words on the scrabble board. To … Continue reading
Creative Writing Exercise Number 2 from the Archives
THE BLUE MAN OPENED HIS EYES AND SAID…. I took the photograph in Mill Cove House in Castletownbere, West Cork in 2010. The art gallery and cafe are surrounded by … Continue reading
Help! I’m looking for a writing group somewhere in France that wrote to me…
I have a ton of reasons why I didn’t respond immediately. The organiser of the English-speaking, English-writing group dropped me a line sometime around December 5th – 8th. I can … Continue reading
DO YOU KNOW where the word spam comes from?
An actor named Kenneth Daigneau won a competition to name the new tinned meat product. His suggestion is supposed to be a blend of spiced and ham. Then, in the 1970s, the … Continue reading
FREE WORLDWIDE — popular creative writing ebook: offer ends Sunday July 5th
From today until Sunday July 5th BACK TO CREATIVE WRITING SCHOOL is free to download from Amazon. Thirty exercises to set your imagination free and it won’t cost you a … Continue reading
A simple writing exercise that packs a punch FROM THE ARCHIVES
I’m recovering from two total replacement knee operations and everything is going well. A bionic new me will be sashaying out in the summer, maybe even doing a bit of … Continue reading
Five Tips for writing flash fiction plus one inspirational exercise that will deliver a plot to your keyboard
I originally wrote this post for the Hysterectomy Association when I was writer in residence of their annual writing competition earlier this year. Flash Fiction goes by many names: micro … Continue reading
I’m not a poet, but I’ve read enough bad poetry to recognise what poets shouldn’t do…
I’m not a poet. In fact, one of the exercises in my guide to creative writing* is called the I-don’t-want-to-wrie-a-poem poetry exercise. The fact that I’m not a poet makes … Continue reading
5 Top Flash Fiction Tips for Writers – Hysteria Writing Competition
FLASH FICTION goes by many names: micro fiction, sudden fiction, short short stories, skinny stories (no fat allowed) and postcard fiction. I gather in China it translates to a palm-sized … Continue reading
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 