Thoughts & fiction from a blonde writer
The creative process for producing any kind of art is both magical and messy. It doesn’t matter whether you paint, draw, play an instrument or write, your art will sometimes surprise and delight you and other times it will cause mess, confusion and creative suffering. Magical and messy moments for a writer usually occur on […]
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When one of my favourite bloggers contacted me to say she had a cracking guest post up her sleeve, I was so excited I did some high leg kicks and cartwheels in the garden. Sadly there is no photo evidence of this great celebration. Rita Bhatha from www.butismileanyway.com not only has a great blog but she […]
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In my experience there are different types of first drafts: The Gushing First Draft. There are stories which will quite simply gush out of you. Words will pour onto the page and before you know it there will be a rough manuscript staring back at you. If you are reading this and are new to […]
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This is a simple and effective method for stopping procrastinating, whilst working on a creative project. If procrastinating was an Olympic sport I would be proudly leading out Team GB and securing a gold medal. So, I am always on the lookout for something to stop me from putting my bookcases into alphabetical order, combing […]
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On those dark and gloomy days when it feels like the world has turned away from our work, we can always rely on our pets to make us smile again. Pets play an important role in the life of a writer. So, I have given some thought to the job description for a writer’s pet. Here […]
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If you have never rolled your eyes at a minor character, who has ideas above their station, and then found yourself shouting, through your laptop screen, “will you stop being such an attention grabbing minor character!” – you haven’t lived! Some minor characters are born into your story knowing they are never going to be centre […]
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Once you have written a few first drafts you realise there are some things you don’t need to waste valuable time and energy worrying about. The first stage is simply an outpouring of words onto a page. Nothing else. Here is a list of 28 things you don’t need to worry about whilst writing your first […]
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Welcome to my weekly blog series – Author Interviews. I love this series! Saturdays got a LOT better for me once I started interviewing some interesting and inspirational authors, over a virtual cuppa and biscuit. This series is all about spreading writer love! It is about sharing literary journeys, writer learnings and author experiences. Speaking […]
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If you read my post about writers needing to learn how to heal themselves from creative pain, you will know that I recently experienced an awful strain of Writer’s Block. For weeks I was hard work; I wore a glum face, I stopped working on my second draft, I questioned my creative abilities, I did […]
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First chapter obsession is a known form of literary hell. Sadly there is no escape. There are five stages and they might go something like this…
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