The Author as Translator
A revelation about my fantasy series: I’m the author as translator. Put another way, my characters don’t speak English… …
A revelation about my fantasy series: I’m the author as translator. Put another way, my characters don’t speak English… …
For me, the hardest part of writing fiction is fixing the prose that defies editing.
In my head, my prose powers forward with the energy of Hemmingway and the tight, sparse economy of George Orwell. It has the lyrical description of Hardy, the sparking dialog of Chandler, and the tight plotting of Agatha Christie. …
Abigail Perry’s Seven Key First chapter Questions are touchstones. They apply not only to opening chapters, but to every chapter and every scene in the novel.
We’ve looked at opening chapters before, but Perry’s seven questions, from a presentation in 2023, takes a different approach.
…
I realise I have two common themes in my fiction: abandonment issues and the feisty heroine. This feeds directly into to character flaws and the imperfect hero. …
The question every author has to answer: where’s the conflict in every scene? As we all know by now, without conflict there is no story. But what makes a thoroughly engaging story is some kind of conflict in every scene.
…
Nothing adds to a sense of place like fully immersive description. Be it fiction or non-fiction, a richly detailed description can transport the reader to a location as real as the one they are reading from.
…
Working hard to complete Book Three, I’m building on the foundations of a Dirty Draft. But what exactly do I have to work with? And how do I get from ‘dirty’ to ‘clean?’
…
In trying to write better characters, it’s taken me a while to define want versus need. Writing coaches bang on about these all the time, but what do they mean and why are they important?
…
A question or an obsession; how do I write a strong opening chapter? How do I hook the reader and keep them turning the page? I spend more time on opening chapters than anything else. Here’s my compilation of tips from writers and coaches from the last three years.
…
Book One stalled for a while because I didn’t know how to handle the revelation of misbelief. In my defense, I didn’t acknowledge the place of misbelief in story telling.
…