Gluing the Reader to the Page
A working piece of fiction has to attract attention and hold it. The things that we have been accustomed to calling ‘characters’ must...
Are You Writing a Love Story?
Writing romantic fiction can be tricky: there are obviously very successful models out there, and many find it all to easy to fall into...
C. S. Lewis’s ‘Voyage to Venus’ Opening Chapter -A Case Study
Voyage to Venus or Perelandra as it was originally called, provides in its opening chapter a perfect example of an author progressing...
Effective Fiction
Effective fiction depends upon a) using words and symbols in a language the reader can understand in a way which he or she can grasp,...
More Comfort for Rejected Writers
Just thought you’d like more examples of famous works which had to go through the Wall of Rejection first: From a rejection slip for...
Three Tips for Coping with Rejection as a Writer
​1. Read the list below of works that met with rejection long enough to kill them, except that they persisted.​ 2. Always have something...
Agatha Christie's Secret
Agatha Christie has sold more books than any other author on the planet, with estimations ranging from a hundred million to two billion...
Teaching 'Macbeth'
In the early 2000s, while teaching English Literature to a group of 14 year olds, I performed an experiment in two parts. Firstly, using...
How Narnia Became a Fully-Fledged World
In class at school, in 1971, I sat next to a girl I’d never spoken to and had no real intention of getting to know. During a reading...
Who is the Hero of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'?
​ The opening line of the novel is a telling one: When he was nearly thirteen my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow....