I love a good rabbit hole. I fell into this one with a mouldering duke and came out with the chills. Back in 2015, for the first time ever, I started writing with the barest bones of a partial outline. For me, that was a list of six scenes with a short paragraph explaining what... Continue Reading →
5 Ways to Bring Autumn to Life in Your Writing
There is an excited buzz at this time of year. Everyone on Twitter has changed their name to something spooky because Halloween has its own version of Advent now, NaNoWriMo is on its way, and Christmas is just around the corner. I don't write blunt how-to posts. The idea here is to get you thinking... Continue Reading →
3 Truths About NaNoWriMo
I tried to make a shit sandwich with these three truths, but only the filling was palatable, so here’s a sandwich made of poo bread. Try not to get your hands dirty. An entirely fictional person said to me, “I’ve been living under a really big rock. What the hell is this NaNoWriMo thing?” Talking... Continue Reading →
That Which We Call a Rose
When I started the Not The Same River project, there were no websites to help me find interesting names. It was the year Eastenders arrived on the telly. The year Roger Moore stopped pretending to be James Bond. The year the wreck of the Titanic was found. The year of Live Aid. The year we... Continue Reading →
NaNoWriMo: Day 21
NaNoWriMo 2016, I completed you. I'm still going though. Since finishing book 3, I've written six scenes for book 4. Hoping to get at least one more in today. If you've written more words in November than you have all year, well done. If you've won, well done. If you're still going, well done.
NaNoWriMo: Day 19
So I typed these words today. The end of part two came a bit faster than I thought it would. It leaves me somewhere between a tiny pickle and extreme happiness. I've only written 43.5K words, leaving me 6.5K short of the NaNoWriMo target. This in itself is not a problem. Book four is ready... Continue Reading →
Day 20
I hit 50K on day 18, but couldn't validate until today, so there you have it. I'm officially a winner. The very best thing to have come out of this year's NaNoWriMo is that on most days I've been able to ditch my old school ways. I've barely written with a pen for the last... Continue Reading →
Day 10
So, it's day 10, and I've hit the halfway mark. Twenty five thousand words. Two new characters. Lots of questions to delve into. A ghastly tour around an abandoned mental hospital. Menace on the underground. An unexpected comedy crush. The return of some favourite but relatively unexplored characters. I'm having heaps of fun, especially as... Continue Reading →
Film Tips: Back to the Future
This post contains ancient spoilers! I was twelve when I first saw Back to the Future at the cinema. I still love to watch it. It has a great concept at its heart, plenty of conflict, lovable characters, lots of rich detail, a satisfying resolution and a sense of the excitement to follow. There are... Continue Reading →
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