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What The Hobbit characters teach us about character development
If J.R.R. Tolkien knows how to do one thing, it's create characters that readers love. Luckily, he also knows how to create wonderful worlds and engaging plot twists, too, but it's the characters who really stick with you after reading one of his books. In the first book in his history of Middl...
April 23rd, 2013
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5 ways using morning pages will help you finish writing a book
'Morning pages' is a concept popularized in Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way. Using morning pages is a system Cameron describes as something that will 'provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand'. Here are 5 ways writing morning pages daily wil...
April 22nd, 2013
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Who Chekhov was, and why modern writers should care
Anton Chekhov. The short story writer named by nearly every great Western twentieth century writer as a significant influence, who shaped the modern short story as we know it, was this nineteenth century Russian writer. Writers of every genre should be familiar with the work of Chekhov because o...
April 16th, 2013
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What is purple prose? Definition, examples and how to avoid
What is purple prose? It describes sentences that are too mannered and stylized. The Oxford English Dictionary defines purple prose as 'writing that is too elaborate or ornate'. How can you distinguish between good writing and purple prose? Read tips to avoid purple prose in your o...
April 11th, 2013
Read post...Editing tips from Raymond Carver
There are at least two versions of Raymond Carver’s collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. This gives us a unique opportunity to compare the writer’s original work with the edited stories. What lessons about editing are there? Read on for editing tips from Raymond Carver ...
April 9th, 2013
Read post...Tips from Ernest Hemingway's short stories
In novels such as For Whom the Bell Tolls and A Farewell to Arms and short stories including “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” American writer Ernest Hemingway explored such themes as restlessness, war, loss and death and became an enormous influence on...
April 2nd, 2013
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How to copyright your novel: Protecting your IP
Wikipedia aka ‘Big Brother’ tells us that copyright is a legal concept, giving the creator of an original work, exclusive rights to it. It could be images, poems, audio recordings, designs, movies … and your book of course. From your point of view, if you consider the blood, sweat and sometim...
February 15th, 2013
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How to write a book proposal: Compelling pitches
Knowing how to write a book proposal or pitch is crucial for hooking publishers' interest. The tips below will help you craft a better proposal: 1. Learn the elements a book proposal should include Your novel's elevator pitch is like a logline. It should give publishers' editors a fast, cl...
February 6th, 2013
Read post...Top 10 writing contests: Prestige and prizes
One of the best ways to get recognised as a writer is to enter a writing competition. Of course you are not guaranteed to win, but if you do you will be able to use that to add to your credibility once you are ready to publish – it is also great practice! The Writer’s Digest: This well-...
January 17th, 2013
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Tips from the Masters: Lessons from Charles Dickens
Emulating Charles Dickens’s writing style has been attempted by many, and only partially achieved by few. It is mostly known to be old-fashioned, outrageously imaginative, wordy and sentimental. His popularity is probably most attributed to the fact that he wrote in installments, keeping hi...
December 7th, 2012
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What is good writing? 10 Best Twentieth Century Poems
Ladies and gentlemen, here it is: the 10 Must-Read Twentieth Century Poems! Are you ready? In descending order, we have... 10. Queen Anne’s Lace – William Carlos Williams This Modernist writer utilized vivid imagery expressed through deliberately casual, everyday American English. “Queen Anne’s L...
November 14th, 2012
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Great dialogue: 10 tips from movie dialogue pros
Great dialogue involves your reader or viewer in a conversation completely. Read 10 tips from movie dialogue pros, from Hitchcock to Mamet and others: 1. Make written dialogue visual like movie dialogue In beginners' dialogue, characters often read like floating talking heads in a void. Th...
October 11th, 2012
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