

The Refusal to Change
Protagonists grow and change, learn and develop: the story is the soil in which they do this. They are the part of the tree which is...


'Being' versus 'Doing'
Some writers ask me ‘What’s the difference between the action and plot of a novel and its ideas or theme?’  In the terms described at...


Nuanced Thought and Binary Thought in Stories
In some Epics, one inhabits a binary world - good/bad, right/wrong, black/white etc. There are two ways out: the first way (the Old...


Signposts in Fiction
Have you ever read a book which, in the first few pages, fails to make it clear enough whose point of view in the story you should be...


Words, Words, Words
One of the primary channels between your shifting, ever-changing and elusive thought-world and the more fixed, slower-moving and fairly...


Subversion in Literature: Wuthering Heights
One of the most popular and highly esteemed novels in English literature, Wuthering Heights , published in 1847, sold very poorly at...


Villains of the Piece
Villains in fiction have a lot in common: of course they are generally destructive, but on close examination we find a bewildering array...


What Makes Great Stories Great
Best selling author James Patterson tells us that the most common mistake writers make is not creating an outline and assures students...