Fiction Writing Tips
I really wish I could write like that: Can I perfect my own writing style?
Regular readers will be glad to hear that the much-anticipated writing buddy system is finally bearing fruit, so to speak. We’re both about a week behind our timetable but a few days ago I sent the next chapter of my novel over to Katrina and have started work on the following one.
Writing this novel is [...]
Creative naming might okay in books, but …
I’ve been having fun using the Behind the Name site to generate names for characters recently. When I wrote my first chapter for my Bratislava novel, I needed a Slovak girl’s name, a Korean boy’s name and an English girl’s name, and after plugging that information into the website and clicking a few times to [...]
Will writing poetry make my novels more beautiful?
As I was driving along the coast today - inspired, perhaps, by the fantastic view over the Indian Ocean to Rottnest Island - I was listening to some new music on the radio. I’ve got no idea who the band was, and that doesn’t really matter - the point is, as always I was paying [...]
Writing while I prowl the classroom
Recently, I haven’t been too good at being one of those writers who always has a notebook to hand and can get some writing done whenever a spare moment presents itself. When I was living the travelling life, I was much better at this, and wrote things on buses or in queues or while waiting [...]
On not writing down your ideas
Something Louise Doughty said at the Perth Writers Festival earlier this year has really stuck with me, and still disturbs me a little bit. I hope time hasn’t altered my memory of what she actually said, but it was definitely something along the lines of being a writer who doesn’t collect her ideas on random [...]
Resolution: Choose one thing to write
I’ve got a square Post-It note on the pin-up board above my desk that’s a little bit overflowing with writing-related paraphernalia. Luckily, though, since one of my cats developed an obsession with drawing pins, she’s managed to pull down a lot of the stuff I didn’t need any more (along with some sharp pointy drawing [...]
My dilemmas of first or third person voice
As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve started out writing this second novel using three different first person voices. When I wrote my first novel, it started out being in first person but then I rewrote it in third person (limited). All I keep thinking is this - why couldn’t language just have one possibility for voice, [...]
Should creative writing be studied?
Sometimes I really regret that I didn’t study creative writing at university. I was really encouraged to write throughout primary school, and in early high school a couple of teachers were also quite complimentary about my writing skills. But as university choices loomed ever closer, and I was able to get good grades in other [...]
Stuck for a character’s name?
Remember how I’m the queen of procrastination? Well, not long after I discovered the Titlescorer website, I read a post on the Writer’s Technology Companion blog about a website that generated random names that you could use for your characters. I checked it out but was disappointed to see it was only going to spit [...]
Characters who grow and have flaws
Earlier in the week I mentioned the Men With Pens post that reminded me I have to make characters that my readers will care about, and the Men With Pens gang mentioned there would be more character tips to come. True to their word, the latest post is about making your character flawed, and it’s [...]