‘Once Upon A Time’ to ‘Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive’. How and why did story writing change so much? And what can we learn from it? Traditionally, word of mouth was the only way to communicate and share stories, but with the advent of writing implements and machines, stories were recorded […]
At the beginning of this year I set myself the task of reading more books considered ‘classics’ in order to widen my literary knowledge and improve my writing skills. After asking a friend and colleague for book recommendations, I have made it to and finished the modern classic and short story, ‘Heart of Darkness’ by […]
When I was in high school and studying English Literature, we read books like ‘Of Mice And Men’ and ‘An Inspector Calls’. One day that I remember clearly, a student asked the English teacher why we were bothering to study the sentences in such detail. This student was sure that writers would not and did […]
Ok so maybe some of these ideas are not so ‘novel’, but being an author doesn’t mean you have to write novels and huge epic trilogies all the time. Some people just don’t take to writing the longer stuff and that’s ok, because it doesn’t mean that you’re not a writer. Or perhaps you do […]
Outlet Publishing and their team have kindly asked me to help judge their short story competition, and even though I haven’t written a short story myself, yet, and I’m certainly no expert. I am an avid reader and I have been through the writing and publication process, so I do feel in my humble opinion […]
A warm hello to everyone! Since this is the first Diary of a Young Writer blog of 2017, I hope you had a happy Christmas and a great New Year. Despite 2016 being a pretty bad year for a lot of people, I can actually say that my 2016 was pretty good, though that’s only […]
Q1) Briefly, how would you describe ‘Phoenix, Book 1 of The Peradon Fantasy Series’ to someone who hasn’t read any of your previous work? Phoenix is a Fantasy tale with various elements of magical realism wound in. It centres around the land of Peradon, whose four realms became separated when those with differing abilities warred […]
Q1) Briefly, how would you describe ‘In the Depths of Darkness’ to someone who hasn’t read any of your previous work? In the Depths of Darkness follows a group of outcasts blackmailed into joining the oppressive Earth Alliance army, only to discover they’re the test subjects for an advanced neural Chip that will make them […]
I have recently read George Orwell’s essay ‘Bookshop Memories’ – the cynic in me was delighted. I’ve been working in a second hand bookshop part-time for the past couple of months and even though I haven’t come across all the types of customers Orwell describes, it’s safe to say I had little trouble imagining them. I can […]
Have you ever heard a friend, a family member, or even perhaps a stranger wishing out loud that they were more creative? Or maybe you’ve heard some of these excuses: ‘but I’m not creative like you’ or ‘I’m terrible at drawing’ or ‘I don’t have the time to play a musical instrument?’ Yet, these are […]