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Making dialogue sound natural
Whether you’re writing a novel or a short story, you are going to want to make your dialogue natural and true to real life, as it’s spoken in the real world. How do you go about achieving this, when ‘natural dialogue’ can be boring to read if you write it verbatim? As to why you should make y...
December 3rd, 2023
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Self-editing after NaNoWriMo
Self-editing is a vital part of any writing process. Having completed a write-a-thon such as NaNoWriMo, you may have a shiny new manuscript on your hands if you’ve gone the distance. Now you need to start self-editing your manuscript. You might want to call in a professional editor at some point...
November 27th, 2023
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Writing my novel with the Now Novel process
In the following months I'll be blogging about my own novel writing journey using the Now Novel process, from the highs to the lows, and how I manage to navigate them. For years, I have lived with the bare bones of a story I want to set partly on a resort in the North West part of South Afr...
November 12th, 2023
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Baring your soul: ways to write a memoir
We live in a time when baring your soul by writing a memoir has become so popular that bookshelves, literal and virtual, are awash with the genre. And importantly, they stock memoirs of ordinary people. There was a time when it was more common for only the very well-known to write memoirs. We re...
November 5th, 2023
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Mastering NaNoWriMo: expert strategies from veterans
National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo for short) is just around the corner. This can be an exciting time, a way to get a 50,000-word novel completed, or part of one completed. For those of you who haven’t done it, the task may seem a little daunting. Three veterans who have done NaNoWri giv...
October 30th, 2023
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10 key takeaways from Bird by Bird
Here are 10 key takeaways from a book that has become iconic: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by memoirist and novelist Anne Lamott. It’s been nearly three decades since it was published in 1994. In the years since it’s become something of a cult book, recommended by writ...
October 22nd, 2023
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Beyond stereotypes: portraying realistic LGBTIQ+ characters
Getting beyond the stereotypes and writing credible, relatable LGBTIQ+ characters is possible. You might want to do some research, if you don't identify as queer, and you will want to avoid the tropes mentioned below. The first kiss Back in 1991, the popular TV legal drama, LA Law was in ...
October 15th, 2023
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From trauma to triumph: using life writing to heal
As a life-long keeper of journals, I have chronicled the ups and downs of my life in sometimes minute detail. When I parted from, and moved out of my former partner’s home, I filled up notebook after notebook with a dissection of what went wrong, how we might have saved our relationship, and...
October 8th, 2023
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Unseen worlds: the omission of women on SFF 'best of' lists
SomeGuy (and there is always someone who will fall under this title) will invariably pipe up in any online discussion on gender and identity for science fiction and fantasy (SFF) writing. He’ll often say, "oh, I never see an author’s gender or sexual orientation as being relevant for fiction," b...
October 1st, 2023
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How to write a novel using the Save the Cat! method
Background to Save the Cat! Firstly, here's a bit of background on this technique for crafting a story. The "Save the Cat!" method was first created by Blake Snyder in 2005. A screenwriter and author he outlined this method in his popular screenwriting book Save the Cat! The Last Book on Scr...
September 22nd, 2023
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Interview with writing coach Masha du Toit
Watch the video or read the full transcript of this writing coach chat below: [youtube id="p8hwrNIfHPc"] Working with writers Brendan: Hi Masha, thanks for taking the time to chat to us today. We wanted to find out a little bit more about you so we can share this with the rest of ou...
September 22nd, 2023
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Researching place when you can't just get on an airplane
What to do when your character insists that they visited Calgary in Canada and that’s where part of the story takes place? Except you’ve never visited Calgary, never mind Canada. Or if your character goes to Antarctica, and insists you come with, but getting to Antarctica is way out of your pric...
September 18th, 2023
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