I stood before the open wardrobe and ran my eyes along the desultory collection of clothes huddled inside. Moving out was the perfect opportunity to get rid of my junk. There was stuff in here I hadn’t worn in years and couldn’t remember buying. I was going to have to be systematic and ruthless. Jonah… Continue reading Addled Chapter 4: Little Miss Ouseburn
Jonah’s red and rusting transit van was a treasury of sweet wrappers, empty crisp packets and assorted fluff and sticky stuff. I was surprised. His flat was an oasis of order and cleanliness. I shot him a questioning glance as we drove into town. ‘Not me,’ he said. ‘The text writing bitch?’ He chuckled and… Continue reading Addled Chapter 2: Popper Originals
Writing a synopsis is one of my least favourite activities and I’ll do almost anything to avoid it. But a well written synopsis is essential if you want to sell the book you’ve been working on for months/years. A synopsis is the sales pitch for your novel and it’s designed to entice an agent or… Continue reading How to Write a Synopsis
Creating dialogue is one of the most enjoyable and the most challenging parts of writing. Dialogue isn’t like real speech. If you write dialogue to resemble real speech you’ll end up with something unreadable. If you don’t believe me, record a conversation between your friends or family, then transcribe it word for word. It’s a… Continue reading How to Write Dialogue
Description is the bedrock of storytelling. Good description brings a scene to life and makes it vivid in the reader’s imagination. This is achieved by following one of writing’s sacred rules: Show, Don’t Tell If you write your story by showing the reader what’s happening rather than just telling them, it’s more involving. It draws the… Continue reading How to Write Description
At the heart of every successful novel are good characters. And by ‘good’ I don’t mean a character who never does anything bad, is kind to small animals and children, and never swears. Well written characters bring a story to life and give the reader someone to care about, root for, or even love to… Continue reading How to Write Characters
The hardest part of writing a novel is the opening. As attention spans shrink and a million distractions pull at our minds, it’s harder than ever to get people to sit still long enough to read to the end of the first page, let alone the first paragraph. An average novel is between 80,000 to… Continue reading How to Write Opening Lines
A selection of recommended Fiction books for anyone on the path to awakening and self-knowledge. These are some of the novels I’ve particularly enjoyed that centre around spiritual themes or the quest for self-knowledge… Peter Carey – Bliss Harry Joy recovers from a heart transplant convinced he has died and is now in Hell. He… Continue reading Fiction Bookshelf
Jessica Davidson 