Endings in 'Star Wars'
In finishing your story, you are trying to do two basic things: 1. Make the ending seem like the consequence of everything that has...
The Doctor and the Sensorites
As we have seen, in Doctor Who’s third broadcast story, ’The Edge of Destruction’ Hartnell’s Doctor, proud and arrogant, who began as a...
Caging Unsuspecting Readers
Master authors use every trick in the book to capture and hold reader attention. What is known as ‘great writing’ or even ‘good writing’...
12 Ways to Increase Tension
Even the simplest story is driven forward on the back of the basic questions ‘What will happen next?’ and ‘What is really going on?’ They...
Master Authors and the Four Key Questions
Successful stories ask readers four key questions: ‘What will happen next?’ This question forms the basis of even the most primitive tale...
A Short Checklist for Independent Publishers
Are you interested in independently publishing a book? What that means is getting a book into the hands of readers either through...
Tough Advice for Writers
If you are really serious about wanting to make a living from writing, there are five hard-hitting bits of advice that you probably need...
C. S. Lewis on How to Write
In 1954, C. S. Lewis wrote in a letter to Cynthia Donnelly about the role of Christianity in his or anyone’s writing: 'We must not of...
'Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction'
‘The Edge of Destruction’, first broadcast in February 1964, is a curiosity. This is partly because David Whitaker, the script-writer,...
'V for Vendetta': Epic or Irony?
It’s peculiar that V’s mask from Alan Moore’s classic graphic novel V for Vendetta has become an iconic representation of the ‘Anonymous’...