Welcome back. Well done for coming so far. That proves you’re developing as a writers. Writers stick with their writing. You now have three characters you’ve written about – the child, the grown-up and the person in disguise. Perhaps you based them on people you know. Or maybe you completely imagined them (everyone works in […]
Welcome back. (A small aside – I can see the figures for each page of this blog. Most people don’t make it this far. Well done for keeping going. You’ve already proved something. Keeping going is the main virtue.) In this Lesson we’re going to look at suspense and how to create it. This isn’t […]
Welcome back. I have already given you my definition of a story – A story is about someone dealing with something that isn’t where it should be. And you have begun writing the nothing draft of a story. You have two characters who have found something. You have another character (the one in disguise) who […]
Very often, people start writing stories but stop after a page or two. There’s nothing wrong with that if what’s been told is a complete story. There are types of short story that are very short. You can find them online as ‘flash fiction’. The Amy Hempel story, ‘Housewife‘, is just one sentence long. But […]
Welcome back. A story needs four things, and I’m going to tell you what they are. But Let’s be clear – I’m going to be making some strong statements about how stories work and what they they need. Yes, there are exceptions. There are always exceptions. I know this. And you can spend your time […]
I have to things to say to you: There are no short cuts. and There are no wasted hours. So, let’s begin. What do you need to start writing? Well, you’re looking at these words on a phone or computer – and you could use that. But for lots of reasons, I believe it’s better […]
Do you want to learn about writing? You’re in the right place. This is a free writing course for complete beginners, or those who have written a bit but want to go back to the start – because they know they need to get better. Now is exactly the right time for you to give […]
But right now a lot of people, and I’m guessing that includes you, are going to have a lot of spare time – or potentially spare time. You can use this positively. You can learn to do something you’ve always wanted to do. But I suspect that a lot of you are going to go back to the novel you’ve already dreamed about or half-started or abandoned midway.
HIDING DIALOGUE The English playwright Harold Pinter was famous for his dialogue. This is what he had to say about the reaction to his work: We have heard many times that tired, grimy phrase: ‘Failure of communication’… and this phrase has been fixed to my work quite consistently. I believe the contrary. I think that […]
BACK TO THOSE THREE MODELS OF DIALOGUE I am going to give you three models of dialogue, to help you think about what’s going on when people speak to each other on the page. (If you’ve read the Starting to Write – Lesson 4: Writing better dialogue, you’ll have seen a version of what follows. You can […]
tobylitt 
You must be logged in to post a comment.