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!
Tag Archives: 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.
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?
Suddenly, the editor deleted my words
A client recently asked me if I ever have an opinion on certain words. I don’t. Words are there to communicate a message – to tell a story. I do not sit with a dictionary ticking off the words I love and scratching out the words I hate.
Except one.
A Very Sweary Dictionary
When I’m editing or proofreading, I’ll use a variety of tools and reference materials in order to get things right. Along with spelling, one of the biggest things to watch for is hyphenation, closing up or opening up of words.
