For those of you who don’t know, I work in a bookshop which happens to sell my books, and every time one of my books sells, I’m always amazed. I feel a mixture of anxiety, surprise, happiness and doubt. This doesn’t just happen with my books though, I make things too and when they sell, […]
Tag: novel writing
About a week ago as part of National Crime Reading Month, I attended a talk about writing Historical Crime. Three authors, Matthew Booth, J. C. Briggs and Deborah Swift spoke about historical crime and how they went about their writing. As an author, I find the writing process fascinating and I’m always looking for advice […]
Whether you’re writing a short story or a full novel, the first page of your book is your most important page. It is your first chance, besides your blurb, to hook your reader’s interest. You have got to make it count and you have to make it flow. In a few short lines you have […]
Every now and then, I judge a small writing competition on a writing Facebook group. Despite the relatively small size of the group, the volume of entries are often pretty high! I have had the opportunity to read a lot of great prose and I have learned a lot by sitting in the judge’s chair. […]
The Diary Of A Young Writer has officially reached 100 blogs! It feels like a big birthday, and to celebrate, I thought I would share with you what I have learnt so far… I can say with absolute certainty that your first attempt at writing a novel is going to suck. Sorry, but it’s true. […]
I have been looking at my old work again and my first ever attempts at writing a full length novel. To say I’ve learnt a lot since then would be an understatement, and I couldn’t help but cringe at the mistakes my younger self made which seem so blindingly obvious to me now, but weren’t […]
I was on Netflix recently and I happened to notice that the film version of Twilight has now been added to the many films and series you can watch on the platform. Over the years I’ve heard many good things about Twilight and many bad things too, I would say that I’ve watched more critical […]
Anyone remember Labyrinth? Of course you do, how could anyone forget David Bowie as the Goblin King Jareth? Labyrinth is a musical, fantasy film which came out in 1986. Jim Henson, George Lucas and Brian Froud were the main masterminds behind the production and many of the characters were played by puppets produced by Jim […]
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short) is a movement where, for 30 days in November, any writer can attempt to write a 50,000 word novel. It is the writer’s equivalent of a run and a community of fellow runners to cheer you on. Last year, I dared to participate for the first time. It […]
When I tell people that I’m an author and that I write YA fiction, I am often met with looks of wonder and awe. Most people seem to think that writing a book is an amazing feat, something that ordinary people just cannot do. It is flattering to say the least, and as much as […]