CLARENDON HOUSE PUBLICATIONS

I am going to tell you the simple secret formula that lies behind every success in business and in Life.   I’m going to tell you right here, without any long, frustrating pre-amble about who I am, why you should listen to me, or what you need to do next. (You can find all that out later, if you want to.)   Once you have read the simple formula - and it is very simple indeed - you could, if you wish, drop this article right there and go off and succeed by applying it. That wou

A portal is defined as a recognisable object or symbol which has the unexpected attribute of transporting a reader’s or viewer’s attention into a totally different framework. Examples include the TARDIS, Lewis’s wardrobe and Tolkien’s Ring. Examples also include works of fiction and works of art themselves, since a work of fiction or of art itself transports its audience (if it is successful).   By ‘framework’ is meant a set of references which amounts to a genre or world-vie

What creates ‘appeal’ in a fictitious character?   Is it cute looks? Except in movies or a theatre setting, the looks of any character are limited. Surprisingly few works of fiction contain anything but the most superficial descriptions of the way their main characters appear physically; normally, appearance is referred to in passing, and with only one or two key details. This lack of description is in itself interesting: the gap or void it opens up invites reader contributio

Picture successful fiction as a kind of solar system: around a central star which is the theme or governing idea of a piece of work orbit planets which represent the images, characters, objects and events in a story.   Remove the governing idea, and everything else in the story flies off into the void; remove the planets and you have an idea, floating in space but without life or motion. Some writers have fewer problems coming up with images - protagonists, villains, events,

Writing fiction tends to begin with images. Writers pick up images from other books, from films, from life, and these manifest themselves in the imagination (‘Imagination’ could be called a ‘nation of images’) until they seem to take on a life of their own. They want to escape; they press themselves against the doors of a writer’s mind, urging their way towards freedom.   What usually happens next is that, if a writer gets the time to open those doors, these images pour out o

Often a question arises on writers’ forums: ‘How should I use the backstory of a character?’ This goes along with questions about whether or not a backstory should be fully developed or be only partly known by the writer.   Answers range from ‘Yes, have a filing cabinet full of information about your character so that you can bring it out whenever it becomes relevant’ to ‘No, just make it up as you go along.’   It can only be properly answered if it is seen in relation to a d

As writers, we have probably heard the advice ‘Show, don’t tell’. It’s worth closely examining why this advice is prevalent and why it is so popular. We might also discover why it doesn’t always apply.   We can imagine a spectrum with pure ‘Telling’ at one end and pure ‘Showing’ at the other.   If you want to communicate information to a reader ‘telling’ is a quick, efficient way to do that in a short amount of time. Relaying information is sometimes part of what story-tellin

In How Stories Really Work , the term ‘Irony’ is used to describe a whole genre of fiction. It has very particular characteristics in comparison to the other three basic genres, Epic, Tragedy and Comedy, and knowing what these attributes are is a powerful thing when it comes to understanding fiction as a whole.   Irony, though, is also used as a a specific writing technique within its own and other genres. It is a storytelling tool used to create contrast between how things s

Independently publishing your book can be a daunting process, but there is hope. Of all the data and requirements you’re bombarded with, about 85% of it is now possible to handle very easily through online publishing, as you will discover. Though you are entering a marketplace in which literally millions of books are published in various formats around the world each year, the good news is that there is plenty of good news.   The job of a publisher, though, is to turn a good