Books are home for me. It is for that reason that I’ve carried them with me, from city to city, across decades, in boxes and crates, piled in corners, double-rowed on bookshelves. Coming to the end of a long phase of work on my own novel, I have felt the need for that certain sustenance … More On returning to old books
If you’re a pantser like me, revising your manuscript might pose some interesting challenges. For instance, my current MS started as a kind of futuristic/Western/fantasy novel. After a while, the world and the story shifted into focus, and I found myself writing something very different to what I had started. I love having an organic … More A pantser’s guide to manuscript revision
Whenever I finish a manuscript, I have it printed and bound and add it to the pile beside my desk. There are four novels there now, in various states of completeness. I’ve been thinking recently about how they got there. Because, for as long as I can remember I’ve been writing, and for probably the … More On failing to write a novel for twenty years
I was thinking today that editing a book is a bit like doing archaeology. It is painstakingly slow, requires patience and attention to detail, and you have to take care not to break the things you might wish to preserve. When I edit, I’m sifting through layers of text that are formed from my own … More On editing and archaeology
‘Write drunk; edit sober’ is Hemingway’s oft-quoted advice. I drank my way through the first book I wrote. Not the work I did in daylight hours; that was fuelled by multiple forms of caffeine and slabs of Cadbury’s pop-rock chocolate. But the stuff I wrote at night. My night-time routine always involved wine. I didn’t … More On writing and drinking
Are you one of those many writers who dream of writing full-time? (Yes!) Do you sometimes resent the time at your paid work that takes you away from what feels like your real work, i.e. writing? (Yes! Often!) Do you nonetheless need to keep working because of, you know, the fact that writing doesn’t pay, … More Dear Writer, don’t give up your day job… embrace it!
Here are eight things that I have learned over the past few years about how to push a writing project through from concept to completion: 1. Work on multiple projects While this might not work for everyone, I find it helpful to have multiple projects underway at different stages. I generally have the following on … More Eight tips for writing from first draft to finished manuscript
Last week I read an interesting article by Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords, on what he expects to be the big publishing trends in 2017. Smashwords is an online platform for distributing independently published e-books. As such, the article has a strong focus on the year’s forecast for the indie book market, and in … More The price of books
What I want to say tonight is this: Every writer needs an angel, crouching near them as they work, batting away disturbances and doubts, and whispering for now, this is enough as the words bleed onto the page. I imagine mine is a scrawny thing, pot-bellied, scruffily feathered, and no bigger than my tea-cup. But … More Angel
The thing about a break is it gives you a new perspective. I’ve been thinking about where I was when I started when paper met pen in August 2015, and how much I’ve learned since then about writing, about the process of pitching and dealing with publishers, and about the book community more broadly. Learning … More The Blog is Back
