Writing Tips

Writing Self-help Part 3: Finding Your Voice

Writing tips

You may be an excellent facilitator, good with blogs, and effective with one-on-one clients – but writing a book is another whole way of reaching an audience.

Writing Self-help Part 2: The Mix of Content

Writing tips

The content of your self-help book will likely contain a range of ingredients, a mix of material, so it's important to understand the role of each ingredient.

Writing Self-help Part 1: Clarity of Purpose

Writing tips

The self-help genre, also known as personal development, is as popular as ever with readers, and also with writers. The more you understand about the genre, the better.

The Value of a Mentor

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A writing mentor can help you understand your work and your practice in new ways, and help you navigate the often tricky emotional terrain of writing a book.

Are You Paying Attention?

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One of the keys to success for a writer is an ability to pay attention to the macro as well as the micro, to the mundane as well as the sublime.

Story Design

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Theme. Plotlines. Characters. Backstory. Point of view. The artistry in developing work for publication lies in understanding how these elements work together to create your story design.

Vital Organs Part 3: The Central Event

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The central event is the one event the book cannot do without; it is central to and creates the story. Without it, the book collapses like a house of cards.

Vital Organs Part 2: The Major Dramatic Question

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To develop your work and create a strong story structure, it is crucial to understand the major dramatic question that lies at the heart of your story.

Vital Organs Part 1: Story Essence

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Where does the real story lie? What is the essence of your tale? What are you really trying to say? What is it about?

Endings

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When you are crafting your ending, think about whether you have said what you wanted to say. Are there any loose ends? Are there story questions posed that aren’t answered?

Point of View Part 3: First or third? First and third?

Writing tips

The key to choosing point of view is understanding the relationship you want the reader to have with the characters and events of the story.

Point of View Part 2: Degrees of Distance

Writing tips

Varying point of view distance allows you to control the relationship between the reader and the story to evoke specific responses.

Point of View Part 1: Using multiple points of view

Writing tips

When you choose multiple points of view, be mindful of the types of relationships you are building between the reader and the characters, and their purpose.

Listening to the written word

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Listening to the written word helps us understand the effects we create through word choices. Read your own work aloud. Edit with your ears. You'll ‘hear’ things that you may not ‘see’ on the page.

The function and roles of subplots are important principles to understand, but there is no golden rule. That’s what makes the creative endeavour of writing fiction so alluring and at the same time so terrifying.

Scene and Summary

Writing tips

If scenes are the building blocks of story, summary is the mortar that holds the scenes together, and occasionally the keystone piece that supports the structure.

What Emojis Tell Us About Writing Good Dialogue

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Recently I’ve been prompted to consider why a fat, pink heart may say more to us than the word ‘love’ or ‘xx’, and what this tells us about writing good dialogue.