Back at the start of the month, I wrote about how I was starting Nanowrimo, the write a novel in a month project. I had spent October getting organised, #preptober, had a strong premise, a great midpoint to work towards and thought I was all set. The first couple of weeks were good. I was
How I write books
Write fast! How I wrote 15k in a week – Nanowrimo week one
It’s been one week of Nanowrimo and I thought I’d write down how I’ve been getting on because, for the first time, I think I might actually complete this! Last time I tried to write a novel in a month, I got to the end of week one and realized it was going to be
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How I write books
Prepping for Nano – How to Avoid a Saggy Middle
In my last post I wrote about why the first sentence is so important. Once I’ve got that done, the next thing I concentrate on isn’t the opening chapter, or the first hook, or character development, it’s the middle. The ‘boring, saggy, middle’ as I used to call it. I ALWAYS have a problem with
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How I write books
Prepping for Nano – the first sentence
I’m doing Nanowrimo this year. For those that don’t know, Nanowrimo happens in the month of November where you write a novel in a month. Yep, that’s right, you write a novel in one month. Nanowrimo actually stands for National Novel Writing Month and although it sounds mental, it’s actually a lot of fun and
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Writing
When it’s OK not to write. AKA: Treat Your Story Like a Stress Ball
In my last post, I wrote about what to do when you don’t want to write. Those days when the muse just isn’t with you and I shared my top five tips for getting words onto the page. But there are days when it’s more than okay not to write anything. When you shouldn’t write
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Writing & Creating Help
How to get over the fear of editing
I got a comment on one of my Instagram posts the other day, lovely writer friend @thisbusybooklife posted that she hadn’t written in a while and needed to back to editing her first draft. ‘How do you get over the fear of getting started?’ she asked, ‘I know different people have different methods …but just
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Writing & Creating Help
How to write :: getting over the fear of the blank page
Fear of the blank page, or writers block, or blank page anxiety, whatever you want to call it, is something I don’t suffer from too often. And no, it’s not because I’m super confident and have wonderful self-belief, (ha! If only) it’s because years ago, I was a part of a writing boot camp. There
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How I write books
Writing a book :: writing a brilliant logline
A logline is the first thing I concentrate on when writing a book before writing anything else. Not the characters, plot twists, or a particular scene, but the logline. And it’s not easy. As this blog is now up and running, I thought I’d write about the process of how I write a book. I’ve