You will never be finished… I wrote the final chapters of my fourth novel this weekend, an enterprise that’s been in the works for four or five months. This isn’t a long time by any means, but as those of you who write will be aware it’s a process that often seems like a Herculean […]
Tag: advice
Writing is an activity of the body, not the mind
Writing is an activity of the body, not the mind I was halfway through writing my first novel when the pandemic hit. March 2020, and suddenly I was told to go home from work and not come back. I was elated; it meant I had all the time I wanted to sit at home and […]
Writing the other vs. writing others
Writing the other vs. writing others A few weeks ago there was story in the news about a home chef who was attacked by a journalist and woman of colour for the crime of writing a book on Asian cuisine. The journalist in question (a feminist, no less) ripped into the author, incensed that a […]
Keyboard dyslexia: real or imaginary?
Keyboard dyslexia: real or imaginary? I started writing three or four years ago. During that time, I’ve written four novels, two collections of short stories, a children’s trilogy, and much else – good and bad alike – in between. All told, I’ve written over a million words at this stage. And yet, I don’t know, […]
Writer’s block and what to do about it
Writing out the block I used to wonder how anyone could get writer’s block, and I never engaged with literature about the topic for fear I might, somehow, catch it — as though by association a psychological trip-switch would be set. And let’s face it, what else is the block but a mind-trap? In my […]
Most Common Mistakes in Fiction Writing
Sone things come up again and again while I’m editing. Here are the five most common mistakes that I find while working on fiction. Look out for them in your own work. Five most common mistakes I find in editing Misused adverbs of time: tonight/tomorrow/yesterday When narrating in the past tense, you can’t use the […]
How to Edit Your Own Work
I’m going to give you four or five steps to help outine how to edit your own work. For those of you who’ve been in self-publishing for some time, none of this will be new to you, but if you’re just starting out, this guide may help you get off the ground. I am a […]