Category Archives: Articles

Outlining an article or story using clusters (or mind mapping) is a great way of organising your thoughts, knowledge and ideas when you’re still in the planning stage. The concept of clustering isn’t new but many writers struggle to understand … Continue reading →

Following on from the previous article (Critique Objections 1 to 5), here are the next five objections many beginner writers make when receiving a critique of their story. 6. If I Take Your Advice It Won’t Be My Story This … Continue reading →

Learning is an often painful process. You have to leave the comfortable and familiar behind in order to gain new experiences and that often means admitting mistakes and adopting new methods. Generally speaking, we don’t like doing either of those … Continue reading →

There are countless mistakes, traps and pitfalls waiting for the unwary novice writer but with a little time and effort many of them can be avoided. Listed below are what I consider to be the top four. There are more, … Continue reading →

Fictional dialogue is a strange beast. It has to sound real and natural in the reader’s mind, but in reality it’s nothing like the live, everyday dialogue that we all use. For a start, much of the talking that people … Continue reading →