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How to build an audience of early readers
This is a guest post by Dominic Tarn. No one wants to publish a book only to be greeted by the deafening silence. Understanding how to build an audience of early readers will ensure people spread the word about your book: 1. Start marketing early They key to it is to start marketing early - the e...
December 27th, 2013
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5 classic fantasy books to read
Most lovers of fantasy fiction are well-acquainted with such classic works as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz and C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. But what are some of the lesser-known but important wor...
December 5th, 2013
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Character posture: How to describe characters' bearing
When we think about describing a character, we often think of listing items like hair colour, eye colour and body type. Character posture is important too: How we bear ourselves tells others a lot about us. Here are tips on using posture to bring out what makes each of your fictional charac...
November 14th, 2013
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How to write a crime novel: 4 tips from Raymond Chandler
If you want to learn how to write a crime novel, studying the masters is a good first step. Read on for 4 takeaways from Raymond Chandler's fiction that will help you become a better crime writer: Raymond Chandler was one of the great crime writers of all time, and his ascent from humble beg...
October 22nd, 2013
Read post...The best crime novels: 10 must-read books
Writing great crime fiction means reading the best crime novels? Below are 10 crime novels that will give you a good reading foundation: Defining what we mean by 'crime novels' Most aficionados of crime and mystery fiction could quibble about the differences between crime and mystery fiction. Th...
October 21st, 2013
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Novel writing tips: Guest interview with published author Caroline Sandon
1. When did you first start writing? I started writing when I was about five, usually poems for my father’s birthday cards, it progressed from there. At eleven I won a national poetry competition and this fuelled my ambition to become a full time wr...
October 11th, 2013
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Top ten romance novels: Books to inspire you
In order to write great romance novels, you need to read great romance novels. Below is a list of successful top ten romance novels spanning subgenres from classic literature to contemporary. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is the original chicklit novel as Elizabeth Bennet attempts to navig...
October 8th, 2013
Read post...Why write a novel? Twitter tells us
Why is writing a book a dream for so many people, and so satisfying for others? There are a number of reasons... https://twitter.com/kseniaanske/status/385290609684008960 Writing a novel can be therapeutic: You get to talk about feelings that you might not ordinarily and get everything off your c...
October 7th, 2013
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Writing feedback: How to get helpful critiques
One of the challenges for us all as writers is getting good feedback on our writing, especially early in our career. You can get feedback for free or you can pay for it, and you can get it from peers or from professionals. To get feedback on your writing: Join an online writing group or foru...
September 23rd, 2013
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Writing memoir: Three things to learn from Anne Lamott
Anne Lamott wrote one of the most beloved writing book of all times, Bird by Bird, but she has also had great success as a writer of memoirs. Writing memoir often means writing about family and other real people. Lamott's honesty and self-deprecating humour are instructive to any writer ...
September 17th, 2013
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Silence your inner critic: 8 ways to write in peace
So often beginning writers (and even established authors) tell themselves 'My writing is bad'. If you tend to criticize yourself to a creative standstill too, you're in good company: Even the great authors have suffered from self-doubt. The good news is that there are ways to silence your inner c...
September 3rd, 2013
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Turning notes into a novel
Most writers don’t sit down on day one of novel-writing and begin spinning a tale; generally, they’ve been outlining and making notes for a while. Turning notes into a novel, a publishable manuscript, can seem daunting. Despite this, the tips below will help you develop your notes into a book. Ho...
August 1st, 2013
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