How can we make verbs work harder for us? Writers are often told: ‘get rid of was’, and ‘ban -ing…
Writing book blurbs is hard. Ask any author pitching to agents on the traditional publishing route, and 99% will tell…
My By the Letter newsletter includes short stories, author interviews, book reviews, writing tips … and what I’ve been up…
Character backstory is critical to a reader’s understanding of our characters. But there are ways to do it without bogging…
The WHY, WHO, WHERE, WHEN, WHAT and HOW of scenes In editing my current WIP, I found I had snippets…
The draft is done. Yay! Now it’s time for editing. When I read that someone’s manuscript is with their editor,…
Updated October 2022 I’d never heard of beta readers when I (poorly) published my first books, a fantasy trilogy. If…
This post appeared in my August 2021 newsletter’s writers’ corner. For regular tips, and much much more, take a risk…
(And a free downloadable guide) This post first appeared in my June 2020 newsletter’s writer’s corner and again a year…
This post first appeared in my May 2021 newsletter’s writer’s corner. There’s a post like this, sometimes with downloadable guides,…