Category: How To and Tips
Writing Outside My Comfort Zone
I confess: I’m not into fan fiction. It’s just not my thing. I’ve always been the kind of writer who likes to create my own world and characters. As a reader, I’ve just never explored all the fan fiction out there. But I am a fan of several series. I adore Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache […]
Connecting With Writers In The Real World
Why joining a writing group is so important.. When I originally had the dream of becoming a writer it was back in the days when you could hide away in your garret with your typewriter, go under a clever pseudonym, and no one need ever know! These days the life of a writer is very […]
Planes, Trains, and Pitch Wars
Writing a novel is a bit like planning a trip to a far-flung destination. Now, bear with me–this isn’t an article on world-building or a pretty metaphor about how writing is a journey into the imagination. It’s like planning an actual trip. You do the work–you research hotels, read the guide books, make the reservations, […]
Research Tastes Better with Chocolate
For a long time I wanted to write a book that focused on adoption, but it’s such a serious and emotional topic that I also wanted balance in my novel. I love creating characters with jobs I’ve never done before because it’s part of the adventure for me as a writer, so in my novel, […]
Write Your Query FIRST for a Better Novel
Ah, the dreaded query letter. Writers bemoan, obsess about and labor over them—not realizing that this one-page document may be one of the greatest tools at their disposal. In fact, I’d argue that you shouldn’t wait until you’re finished drafting your novel to craft your query letter. Whether you’ve just started a new book or […]
Method Writing: When Imagining Just Isn’t Enough
I sat at my computer, poking myself in the throat. Not the throat exactly, but the soft pucker just above the sternum, a place called the jugular notch. As I tapped, the muscle below my ribcage tingled queasily and bile fizzled up my throat. I wrote: He doubled over, feeling as if he’d swallowed a […]
A Literary Novelist’s Blog: Six Tips
Eimear McBride doesn’t have one. Nor do Deborah Levy, Rachel Cusk and Sarah Ladipo Manyika. Anakana Schofield does, but it has only been updated three times this year. What don’t these women have? A blog. Hell, Cusk doesn’t even have a website. Conventional wisdom says these women can’t possibly have got published. But they have. […]
Does a ‘Not Good Enough’ Story Hold You Back in Life?
A ‘not good enough’ story is the one I learnt early on in life. I was 6 when I witnessed my mum’s slit wrists and two puddles of blood on the kitchen floor. She was ushered to the hospital and stitched up. News spread like fire in Azerbaijan, and later that day I found myself […]
How I Name My Characters
The first thing I do when I begin a new book is to open a folder on my desktop and give it the name of the lead character. I don’t use working titles. With over 20 books, I forget titles, working or otherwise. But I never forget a character’s story when I hear her name. […]
Courting Your Characters: Subconscious Writing
I think of writing as a courtship with my characters. I often ask them questions out loud and usually, after some wrangling, these personas will reveal themselves by page 40. By that point, if I don’t know their deepest desires and what they’ll regret most on their deathbed, I know I am in trouble, that […]
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