Encouraging the 'Muse'
Writers, who is it that writes? The most infamous and annoying question asked of writers is ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ It may be...
The Enchantment of Story-telling
Outlining a theory of how stories really work - a theory which exposes an underlying force or set of forces at work in fiction in the...
The Melting of Modes
Renowned Canadian academic Northrop Frye, outlines the shape of fiction in his book Anatomy of Criticism: In the second paragraph of the...
Shakespeare: Bypassing the Barriers
It was common practice in schools a few years ago, and may still be, that, in order to ‘do’ Shakespeare, the teacher would play Baz...
Symbolism in 'Brighton Rock'
Graham Greene’s novel Brighton Rock is an interesting example of an Irony, a story which draws its power from the classic patterns and...
5 Simple Golden Rules for Writers
When you think about writing your book (or story or whatever it is you’re working on) does it initially seem to you like a mountain over...
A Survey for Creative Writers
Here is a list of questions for creative writers. If you wish, you may cut and paste these into an email, answer them (one word answers...
Providing Rewards
See if you can immediately write down your goal as a writer. It might be that you want to make a lot of money from writing; perhaps you...
The Moment of Truth
Now we reach the moment of truth. Does your fiction achieve its desired result? You can only really tell this from completed works. Think...
Quality of Style
Style is the way in which a writer uses words and other devices right there on the page in front of the reader. Whereas Ideas,...