How to fix a plot hole
I’ve had this great question: I have bought your book, Nail Your Novel, and it has been really helpful. I was having a blast. Loving my characters, villains, setting, plot. But after 70.000 words I...
View ArticleRevision and self-editing: masterclass snapshots
Yesterday I was teaching a course for Guardian newspapers on advanced self-editing for fiction writers. My students kept me on my toes and I thought I’d explore their most interesting questions here....
View Article‘Hidden forms that tell a story’ – The Undercover Soundtrack, Stephen Weinstock
You can’t read much about writing advice before you trip over an essay about story structure, and how it works invisible magic on the reader. My guest this week has used sophisticated musical...
View ArticleAnd then there were three (NYNs)… Do you find plot more difficult than...
Phew, the plot book is ready. It seems to have taken a marathon of effort; much longer than the characters book. So much that I’m wondering if this tells me something about the nature of plot. In...
View ArticleThree diagrams to make your plot a page-turner
I’ve had this question from Elizabeth Lord: I have just finished your book Nail Your Novel and found it extremely helpful for the rewrite phase of my novel. You mention graphs as a way to see where...
View ArticleI wish I’d written… Five novels that make me raise my game
Sometimes I put a book down and am left a tad envious. These are books that, although I finished them several months ago, still make my green eyes … greener. …….. Night Work by Thomas Glavinic,...
View ArticleHow to write a gripping, unforgettable plot – video podcast guest spot with...
Think of all the kinds of novels we might write … from a sensitive character study to a sprawling epic to a nailbiting thriller … are there any common factors they all have? There are. They’re my...
View ArticleConflict in every scene? Disasters in every act? Yes and no
I’ve had an interesting question from Ben Collins. I have read that each part of a novel should contain a ‘disaster’ and that every scene should either contain conflict or be deleted. Is this too rigid...
View ArticlePace and story structure: a blueprint for keeping the reader gripped
I’ve had an interesting question from Josephine of the blog Muscat Tales: Can you talk about pace? How to speed up/slow down the action/plot – and when? Is there a general blueprint for this or does...
View ArticleHow to outline a novel – post at Ingram Spark
Do you outline a novel before you write it or do you dive straight in? That’s the source of one of the great divides between writers, the ‘planners’ v the ‘pantsers’. To complicate matters, some...
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