It was a joyful shock to the system. After many years of being aware but not entire confident of my writing style, I had a sudden realisation during my last piece of coursework. In other words, for the first time I experienced the sensation of being totally at ease with the way I write and…
Author: janed
How to Write Fiction Like an Ancient Egyptian
Note: as written in the credits of my favourite programme Ghost Adventures, this article is for entertainment purposes only (see below for references). What do you think of when I say the words: ‘Ancient Egypt’? Perhaps you’re imagining the Great Pyramid of Giza, stately, protective cats; maybe even the vibrant hieroglyphs on the walls of…
What I Keep in My Writer’s Notebook
My writer’s notebook is ‘pulchritudinous.’ Wait. What? I just found out that this is another word for ‘beautiful’ and just had to squeeze it in somewhere. Who would’ve known there was such an ugly word for something so pretty? Anyway, I digress. This post is all about what I put in my notebook, not any…
How to Be a Better Creative Writing Student
Note: this post is written for ALL creative writers dedicated to self-improvement, even if not an enrolled student. Unlike many of the ideas I get for posts, this one wasn’t a sudden inspiration. On three separate occasions: while looking over my textbooks, during a workshop and then in the discount aisle of a supermarket; I…
10 Fine Websites for Writing Tips
As creative writers, we’re well acquainted with the more familiar websites for writing tips, from Writer’s Digest to Write to Done. There are however, hundreds of other websites offering equally good advice, many of which (in my opinion) offer more original insights than the top dogs. Here are ten of my current favourites to share!:…
How to Create a Homegrown Writing Retreat
Let’s face it; our lives are busier than ever and sometimes our writing productivity and goals fall by the wayside. Writing retreats are a fabulous way to rediscover the trail, but are often expensive and require travel. Yet what if there was a way to create the same experience in our own backyard; expending less…
Should We Write What We Know?
After reading Andy Weir’s Artemis (2017), I revisited the maddening maxim that’s haunted me for years; the sentence written on the blackboard before the professor’s even turned around: Write what you know. Or even more confusingly: Don’t write what you know! The reason why Artemis stimulated this age-old debate is because; while I didn’t think…
Writing Folk Horror.
I thought there was room to squeeze in another Halloween special before the magic and mischief begins:D and what better than an article on the hottest creepy sub-genre of recent times. Now largely undefined by location or tropes, ‘folk horror’ was originally used to describe a particular genre of British films spanning from the late…
10 Halloween Creative Writing Exercises to Chill and Thrill.
“Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!”– Dracula (1897) I think I could possibly be Halloween’s number one fan (no pun intended:D) and as the leaves change colour and the apples drop ready for a steaming, autumnal pie; it’s the time of year when the ancients believed the veil between…
Fiction Writers: Expectation vs. Reality
After watching some expectation vs. reality style videos on YouTube, I was mightily inspired to write something similar about fiction writers in general: 6am: A Pact to Wake up and Write Early Expectation: What a beautiful day! I’m inspired to write jewel-like prose almost immediately on a stolen napkin! (I’m a creative, thank you, not…