Making Time
The difference between finding time for your writing and making time for your writing is that when you are just finding time, you are...
Finding Time
There are two different approaches to getting more time to write: finding time and making time. Finding time is the lesser of the two....
On Writing Books
’I want to do something splendid… Something heroic or wonderful that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead… I think I shall write books.’ ―...
Two Ways of Writing Stories
If the truth about stories is that they are like icebergs, with 80% of what makes them work lying beneath the surface, then we can use...
Momentum, Mystery and Morality
Plot Power comes in many forms. Emotion, character qualities, the fact that your story is in a genre - I’m not going to deny that these...
Recognition
I’ve explained elsewhere that deep attraction comes when you give a reader the feeling of being drawn into an emptiness or gap or loss or...
The Iceberg of Fiction
As a child, I grew up in the ancient kingdom of Elmet on the edge of the Peak District in South Yorkshire, where I walked in the green...
An Outline of Fiction
In the world as it appears, there is an almost infinite pool of attention swirling around in the minds of potential readers, being drawn...
What Powers a Protagonist?
When working on a protagonist, you are building a construct, not a person. By all means, assemble whole filing cabinets full of...