Monday 28 January 2013

Maureen says, 'Show Not Tell.'


By Maureen Lynas

Look, I'm cross. Can't you tell?
Do I have to actually spell it out for you!
Grrrrrrrrr

I once attended an excellent weekend course run by Cornerstones Literary Consultancy. Each day was split into sessions based on plot, character, settings etc. and all was well until we reached the session on ‘Show Not Tell’ Blank looks all round. Explanations were given. Examples were given. But blank looks persisted. In the end, the tutor had to say, ‘One day you’ll all shout ‘eureka’ and the light bulb will click on.’

Friday 25 January 2013

Why you have no idea what you're doing

By Candy Gourlay

First, let us all take a moment to gaze upon Harrison Ford in his prime.

Wednesday 23 January 2013

A Week in the Life of an Author (with Young Children)

By Katy Moran
Guest Blogger

Katy Moran is working on her sixth novel for Walker Books. She spent much of her childhood daydreaming, watching too much telly and writing stories. She reviews other people’s books on www.katymoran.co.uk 

I live in two different worlds. I’ve been a writer by trade for six years, and in that time have produced five books and a brace of children.

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Why I've self published my latest novel

By Diana Kimpton
Guest Blogger

Diana is the author of more than 40 books for children including the successful Pony-Mad Princess series. She also runs Wordpool and Contact an Author. There Must Be Horses is her first novel for older readers.

Websitewww.dianakimpton.co.uk

Sunday 13 January 2013

The Fine Art of Lying

by Teri Terry
The very lovely Dr Elisabeth Carter
Dr Elisabeth Carter has a BA in psycholinguistics, a Masters in criminology, and a PhD in sociology. WOW. Her recent book Analysing Police Interviews: Laughter, Confession and the Tape won the British Society of Criminology's Criminology book prize 2012. 

Thursday 10 January 2013

Writing and Patience

by Teri Terry

Hello! Remember me? Sorry I haven't been blogging much lately. Fractured, the sequel to Slated, is out soon and I've got book 3 DEADLINES....gulp. I really should name it one day, shouldn't I?

And somewhere in the back of my mind amongst all the other worries is this one: what comes next?

Wednesday 9 January 2013

You can't multi-task when you're writing a novel

By Candy Gourlay

As a young mother, I used to be proud of my multi-tasking skills.

Let's do it all. We're already tired anyway.

That was my motto.

So I looked after the kids, freelanced in various capacities, learned web design, cleaned the house, cooked the dinners, fetched, carried - why not do it all? There was SO MUCH I wanted to do ... and anyway, come what may, it was a stage in my life when I was going to be tired at the end of the day whether I did the other things or not.

But once I started writing, multi-tasking just didn't work.

You can't write a novel if half your brain is planning dinner.

You can't get into character if you're checking your emails.

You're not writing if you're tweeting.

You can't multi-task, even if it's multi-tasking about your novel.

You can't immerse yourself in a scene and work out another chapter at the same time.

You can't develop a character while trying to think of a new twist in the plot.

You've got to tackle things one at a time. Otherwise you're not doing that moment in your story justice. If you're not fully immersed, you're just writing notes about an idea.

You have to surrender to the story.

No, not just to the story, to the chapter.

No, not just the chapter, but to the moment in the chapter.

And only then will your characters come to life.

Writing is surrender.

Total surrender.

Monday 7 January 2013

Geek List for Writers : How to Create Infographics

By Candy Gourlay


Desperate to market yourself but don't know where to start? Your prayers have been answered. Welcome to our new occasional series featuring geeky tips for the hapless writer trying to make an impact in a big, bad, distracted world. 

Friday 4 January 2013

Keep Calm It's Only Novel Panic

By Emma Greenwood
Guest Blogger

Here it comes again: my regular dose of ‘novel panic’, ‘novel angst’, ‘novel just not good enough, never going to be good enough, think I'll just give up and go back to doing normal things like sweeping up peas when they fall under the table and providing clean underwear for my children’.

Thursday 3 January 2013

Who Won Our Christmas Raffle?

Thank you to all who visited our 12 Days of Christmas Blog Posts in the closing days of 2012.

As promised, we have put all the folks who kindly left us a comment into our raffle with two amazing books to win:

Tuesday 1 January 2013

Happy New Creating

 by Maureen Lynas

 As you embark on another year of creativity, all fired up with the Slushpile wish lists, I thought I'd offer up some gems of advice from the people who know what it takes to stay on the creative pathway of bumps and potholes. Authors and illustrators must show determination in the face of so many things - the learning curve, rejection, the learning curve, the state of the industry (or rumours about the state of the industry?), the learning curve, changing technologies, new opportunities and the curve of learning that must be climbed.

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