‘Oh no! Not Marketing again! Do I have to?’
Marketing seems to drive some writers crazy. I suppose one reason why traditional publishers developed as they did was because they were...
Seven Things You Can Do In Stressful Situations
In the lockdown situation of a few years ago, many people around the world, including many writers, found that staying at home was more...
Your Closeness to Your Story: Seven Steps to Building a Successful Work of Fiction
Most successful works of fiction go through a number of stages before being fully completed. Sometimes these stages are progressed...
Are Writers Telepathic?
Imagine a world in which human beings communicated solely by telepathy, transferring thoughts directly from one person to another. Would...
How Does Flash Fiction (or Any Fiction) Actually Work?
What’s the difference between a story and the simple relation of an incident? I ask because I get to read quite a lot of ‘flash fiction’...
An Editor's True Starting Point
A writer’s tendency is to look for things wrong in his or her writing. And many editors take this approach too: they are always trying...
The Art of Listening
One evening, many years ago, I was in a room listening to someone describe an event in their lives. This person was a known compulsive...
Making the Most of Social Isolation
The practice of writing at its best can be full of enthusiasm for life. When writers are at the top of their game, they want to play at...