At the second edit stage of my work, this is how I deal with the depressing ‘rule’: Kill your darlings. I come to an expertly crafted sentence that makes me gasp with pride. Then I let a tiny whisper of doubt come forward. Does it truly fit the flow? Not really? No need for murder by Delete. I cut out the […]
Show your darlings kindness Read More »
Tolkein, as a young man falling in love with language, liked the euphonious sound of the words cellar door and because of that, when he wrote the Silmarillion in middle-age, he called one of the principal characters ‘Selador’. If a character’s name doesn’t jump out at me as soon as I’ve shaped a character, I
Choosing characters’ names Read More »
Let me offer this thought. The symptoms of the struggle to write are things like: Discovering those early morning starts aren’t working for you.Resisting sitting down to write; resistance that shows up in the form of doing anything, but anything – cleaning the dishes, the car, the cat – just to avoid your notebook or
Symptoms vs Causes Read More »
When you write a book, you reach another person’s mind. Not just another person, but a complete stranger, someone who doesn’t know you or what you stand for, or what your experience is or how you can help them. And then they read your book and enter your mind. That’s kind of scary. Are you
The scary thing about writing a book Read More »
As we read, we constantly, unconsciously, analyse the internal logic of the flow of words on a page. Your reader will do it. Your agent, or publisher will do it when they read your one-page summary and decide if it’s worth going further. One of the most interesting bits of my job is to interrogate
Your book’s internal logic Read More »
A writer I love working with (if you’re reading this, you’ll know who you are) has been working on the Golden Thread of her story. It’s a concept of Jennie Nash’s, of Author Accelerator. Imagine that your manuscript is a tapestry with a pattern. The golden thread is your awareness of what your story is