To Hell With It All but only if…Colum MCann QUOTES FOR WRITERS
To hell with grammar, but only if you know the grammar first. To hell with formality, but only if you have learned what it means to be formal. To hell … Continue reading
Don’t waste time trying to perfect your beginning – says novelist Elizabeth Enfield QUOTES FOR WRITERS
The beginning has to anticipate and reflect what happens in the rest of the book and often you don’t know this until you have reached the end of the first … Continue reading
Ray Bradbury’s Definition of Plot QUOTES FOR WRITERS
Remember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinationsRay Bradbury Photo by Josh Hild on Unsplash
Our stories are as unique as snowflakes – Donald Maass QUOTES FOR WRITERS
…We may have dens with trophies on the mantles, but when we tell the stories of our lives, we relate the meaning of things that happened and describe how we … Continue reading
What makes a good plot? It’s all to do with the implicit promise that lies behind it – John Mullan QUOTES FOR WRITERS
Plot is not just a sequence of connected events (in this sense, every TV drama or novel equally has a plot). It is something rarer: the unfolding of a hidden … Continue reading
Planning doesn’t take the fun out of it – bestselling crime fiction author Sophie Hannah QUOTES FOR WRITERS
The biggest lie uttered by writers about planning is that it somehow limits or stifles creativity. This is absolutely untrue. Planners simply divide their writing process into two equally important … Continue reading
Where Agatha Christie found her plots QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
Years ago I got my plots in the tub, the old-fashioned, rim kind — just sitting there thinking, undisturbed, and lining the rim with apple cores. Agatha Christie
Why you need to know the end of your story when you write the beginning – Edgar Allen Poe QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
Nothing is more clear than that every plot, worth the name, must be elaborated to its dénouement before any thing be attempted with the pen. It is only with the … Continue reading
Come up with an orginal story idea in three easy steps – a creative writing exercise to start the week
I came up with this writing exercise when I was on holiday recently and overheard someone say that the first idea isn’t always the best idea. The exercise worked for … Continue reading
You have to follow what the book needs says E.A.Bucchianeri Quotes for Writers (and people who like quotes)
…The Book is more important than your plans for it. You have to go with what works for The Book – if your ideas appear hollow or forced when they … Continue reading
Proof that writers are generous souls….
….and that the internet can be a warm and cuddly place even when we are talking about technology. This is an introduction to a long, long, long list of resources … Continue reading
Sometimes the less the writer knows about his story the better says Dermot Bolger – Quotes for Writers (and for people who like quotes)
Sometimes the less we know about what will happen in a work of fiction, the better off we are. Because the more we know about what happens next, the more … Continue reading
READING LIKE A WRITER – flashbacks
Flashbacks in literature are scenes within the chronological narrative that reveal events before the story began. In a novel the ‘now’ of the story might be about two old friends … 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 