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
MONDAY CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISE because it’s a good way to start the week: finding your own words
Edna O’ Brien writes prose as if she were a poet. It seems as though each word is carefully selected, chosen not just for its meaning but also for its … Continue reading
MONDAY CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISE because it’s a good way to start the week: using a writer’s notebook to create thumbnail sketches
First read this poem by the Polish poet Wislawa Szymorska THE ONE TWENTY PUB The bomb is primed to go off at one twenty. A time-check: one sixteen. There’s still … Continue reading
MONDAY CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISE because it’s a good way to start the week TURNING FACT INTO FICTION
Anyone who survives beyond the age of twelve has enough fictional material for the rest of her life. Flannery O’Connor Take an event from your own or a family member’s … Continue reading
MONDAY CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISE because it’s a good way to start the week: POETRY
This exercise comes from the poet Julia Darling who felt that often we write too literally, too logically or self-consciously, when some of our best work comes from imaginative leaps … Continue reading
Monday Creative Writing Exercise because it’s a good way to start the week: psychological horror
PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR can take a magnifying glass to the conflict that exists within us – the battle between good and evil – as in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and … Continue reading
MONDAY creative writing exercise because it’s a good way to start the week: creating a character
Three pairs of red shoes: three characters Describe what she looked like when she first tried these shoes on. Where was it? What was happening around her? How did the … Continue reading
NANOWRIMO – an insight for first timers
GUEST POST FROM VIKKI THOMPSON I am very grateful that Vikki has come across from her own blog at The View Outside to give newcomers like me a taste of what … Continue reading
What’s the worst thing a student could do in a creative writing class?
I came across Cathy Dreyer humorous example of epistolary fiction in the summer when I discovered her blog Write a Novel In 10 Minutes Flat (a title that has its … Continue reading
MONDAY creative writing exercise because it’s a good way to start the week. DESCRIPTION
This a great exercise for the days when you have no time to write. When you’re in the kitchen preparing dinner you can jot down ideas while the pasta is … Continue reading
MONDAY creative writing exercise because it’s a good way to start the week: How to scare your reader
Horror writing comes in many flavours. Subgenres range from the psychological to vampire and cyber punk (think gritty low life in a futuristic high tech society), but first, last and … Continue reading
A new word a day writing challenge to fire your imagination
Over at WRITING SO FLUID website Michelle Goode – script reader, editor and writer – is running a word a day prompt for October. She is also providing lots of … Continue reading
Scriptwriting can help solve plot problems in your novel and short story
Different writing disciplines aren’t locked into tight compartments. If you’re writing a novel I think it helps to read poetry for the richness of the language and the way it … Continue reading
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 