On the week that my novel The Breaking of Liam Glass comes out – a crime satire about the role of the press – here’s a very topical and thoughtful piece from Emily Bell in the Guardian asking…
From Line of Duty to Jack Reacher… …crime is the thing nowadays – but the challenge is to find a new way to tease and entertain the myriad crime fans. One well-travelled path is to…
I wouldn’t have thought there was anything that writers could learn from Andy Murray, but today I read Barney Ronay in the Guardian on what he calls Murray’s “on-court savvy” – a “supremely un-British skill”.…
Whatever your story, it’s well worth spending a little time and effort speaking to the best experts in the area – from divorce to the side-effects of digitalis. Their knowledge can solve plot problems, enrich characters, generate dialogue and create unexpected twists. But how do you get them on your side?
Sad departure of Ray Bradbury. He who should always be revered, not least for standing up for the value of books and writing. Read about his advice to a young would-be writer – A man…
Newspapers tell us that women are better at it than men. Men tell us they are just as good really. Neurologists tell us that there’s no such thing – is multitasking the answer to our creative problems?
I managed to get to three of the biggest exhibitions in town this January – Canaletto, Gaugin, Cezanne – and took time off to read a great novel. It wasn’t easy. There’s always a reason…
Many writers put aside time to write over the holidays. It can be a great idea, and it can also be a quick way to get writers block! The problem is that squeezing all your…
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Here’s a screenwriting tip that will make your life so much easier. And before I get to it, just a word about difficulty. Many screenwriting books seem to want to make screenwriting hard – and…
A true story can be a massive elephant trap. I know, I’ve fallen in more than once. Like pebbles straight out of the sea, true stories seem so gleaming and fresh and full of potential…
It was great seeing so many people last night at Euroscript for the conversation I had with Linda Aronson (writer and guru!) – she was in good form and full of useful advice on all…
Here’s a tip that will work for just about every script, novel, short story, short film, movie or TV series.
Having a problem writing a drama script? Do you find it’s full of wonderful character development but somehow it just doesn’t come together? Or you like it but your story isn’t getting across to the people who read it?
Back from holiday, ready to get back to the writing and everything slowed down. I felt ill, my back hurt, I was lethargic, my head spun, my brain felt full of fog. I had a hundred reasons for why I couldn’t get down to it.
What is it about research? I know that every minute spent on research is worth an hour doing anything else. Talking to people, in person, on the phone; reading books; checking out web sites; watching documentaries – it’s all part of the job. And yet something stops me.
The more I write, and the more I work with writers, the more I am sure it’s the same. You need to work on your skills, and equally you need to work on your mental game. The trouble is, very few people teach us how to do this.