In a play, the writer has to be aware of the audience’s attention span. Putting people in comfy seats, turning the lights down low after giving them drinks, it’s not long before eyelids start feeling heavy!
Category Archives: About writing
Novelists learning from playwrights: scenes
Just because we can take our readers anywhere, should we?
Novelists learning from playwrights: voice
Both writers of novels and plays have to create characters! It’s the way we, as readers or audience members, connect with a story. After all, what would a play or a book be without characters to follow! We need to empathise, we need to sympathise, we need to hate and love them. Creating compelling characters is the challenge.
Words, vocabulary, language and terminology
Should you be sending your readers to the dictionary for every sentence you write?
Whatever the weather
The weather: cliché or clever? Here’s some hints about deciding what to do with meteorological conditions in your fiction writing.
How much should I write?
One of the most frequently asked questions is: how long should my book be? This week, we’ll look at length (keep the jokes to yourself!).
My self-publishing journey: part one
This is going to be a little different from my normal blog posts. An occasional series of blogs, charting my journey to self-publishing. This isn’t my first self-publishing adventure: I first published in 2016. But now, having done lots of editorial training, I’m going back and re-releasing my first book.
What is creative non-fiction?
Anything made up is fiction. Anything with facts is non-fiction. So what exactly is creative non-fiction and why does it need editing in the same ways as fiction?
Doing it proper: using capitals properly for people
We all know that names need capital letters. My name is Nick. See, there’s the capital ‘N’. I’m so important that I get a capital letter at the beginning of my name. That’s an easy example but it’s not always straightforward.
Genre: Does it matter?
Genre is a lovely way for your local bookshop, library or internet retailer to classify and sort books. But as a writer, does genre really matter? Does worrying about genre mean you will pigeonhole yourself?
