WRITING EXERCISE: No regerts
<LE SIGH> Where does the time go? All those things you planned on doing (like writing your novel – natch), all those things you wish you’d appreciated, all those things you wish you’d said – or didn’t say… Things pass us by. Life sideswipes us. It’s okay. It happens to the best of us. Don’t […]
The Writers’ HQ Wall of Fame: April 2019 Edition
We’re a quarter of the way through 2019 and it’s hiiiiigh time for another Wall of Fame to showcase all the seriously impressive achievements of our resident WHQers, because – as is a universally acknowledged truth – WHQers are the best dang writers in the world. (No, honestly, you guys are smashing it.) So […]
WRITING EXERCISE: Start at the end
Here’s a quick ‘n’ dirty game to spark off a brand new story idea: 1) Grab a novel from your bookshelf 2) Flip to the very last page 3) Copy down the very last line of the story 4) Detach it from its narrative context and come up with a brand new premise 5) Don’t […]
Storycraft #6: Ramping Up The Action In Literary Fiction
AKA adventure time for lit ficAKA how conflict doesn’t have to be all FIGHTING AND EXPLOSIONS! Here’s a question we get a lot: “I’m writing literary fiction and nothing really happens – my characters are mostly just standing around talking to each other and thinking about the past – how do I inject a bit […]
Storycraft #5: Sowing Story Seeds
How to engineer a big satisfying payoff for your story with some subtle seeding…
Storycraft #3: The Magic Of Scene Summaries
Organise your shit, overcome the overwhelm, and finish your dang book.
WRITING EXERCISE: Forbidden words
For today’s exercise, writing is hereby FORBIDDEN. Wait, what? Only kidding. But what would you do if fiction was illegal? What would you do if you were no longer allowed to write? <shudder> Getting the cold sweats just thinking about it? Yeah, us too. Thankfully, our literary freedoms haven’t been curtailed (yet) but that brief flash of outrage […]
Storycraft #4: Suplots Ahoy
How to build a glorious, complex web of subplots to enhance your story…
If Women Wrote About Their Bodies The Way Men Write About Women’s Bodies
Lads. Lads. LADS. You know what we’re talking about. And yeah, #NotAllMen yada yada yada, but #YesSomeMen. Some published men. Some men who seem to think we spend our entire day charting the movement of our tits and gaze at ourselves in the mirror at every given opportunity. For most of us possessing boobs, our […]
Storycraft #2: Narrative Voice
Nailing narrative voice is the key to telling a great story – but sometimes it takes time to find it…