I have long advised writers to cherish all of their writing attempts and to have a file – whether offline or online so that they can dip into those past realms of creativity
Leave a CommentThe Creative Posts
Writing tip of the week 33 – Frustrating isn’t it? You finally found the time to write but now, there’s a block on fresh new ideas. You sit there, you stare at the screen, you type a couple of words…
Leave a Commentby Annette Young I had an in-depth conversation yesterday with a friend who was thinking about writing a book. When I asked her what…
Leave a CommentThinking of setting up as a freelance writer? Read this first. It’s important that you develop a strong business approach….
Leave a CommentSomeone asked me the other day why I write. It’s not a simple answer, it’s complex because it is such an integral part of me. When I tried to explain that I couldn’t halt the sway of characters or ideas that popped into my mind, that I lived and breathed my role …
1 CommentAnger is a great emotion to use in fiction, you can use it to bring the characters to life and to progress your story….as long as….
Leave a CommentCharacterisation is all important…find out more in the weekly tip.
Leave a CommentBe protective of your writing space and time. You may have limited time in which to write anyway so when the opportunity arises, guard it…
Leave a CommentWriting Tip. How real are your characters to you? To be able to bring characters to life so that the reader connects with them on a deep level, you must believe in your creations and, more than that, care about them.
2 CommentsAnnette Young When I became a full-time writer…a million years ago, I never (for a single moment) imagined that my former teaching role (for creative…
Leave a CommentWriting tip of the week 29. It’s easy to let self-doubts overwhelm you when you first start learning the craft of writing. Stay true to your goals and remember that to write well..
Leave a CommentWriting tip of the week 28 is here. Idea generation is important….
Leave a CommentHere’s another great writing tip from the editor of the Creative Competitor……….
Leave a CommentFor this writing tip, let’s talk about how to use editing to help your progression rather than halting it or hating it. For many writers, editing is a necessary evil but it can help if you consider it the polishing up stage rather than being distracted by the red….
Leave a CommentI think many writers are afraid to feel these moments, to engage fully with them because guess what?They hurt. I’ve often sat and cried over my laptop as I’ve watched and orchestrated the life going out of my character’s eyes. I learned (the hard way) that to be able to capture a scene
Leave a CommentHere’s a quick writing tip – if you write on a part-time basis, you will forever be trying to find the time for your writing and nothing is more frustrating than having a day off so you can indulge your creativity and then the words will not come. The best way to avoid this is to prepare your…
Leave a CommentMany people dream of becoming a writer and it’s understandable. The prospect of becoming a published writer or to make money from the written word is enticing but, let’s not kid ourselves, like everything worthwhile in life, it takes hard work to make creative writing a success story…
Leave a Commentby Annette Young
When writing a murder mystery story, you have to create far more than an engaging story, after all, your aim has to be to ensure that readers keep turning those pages, and to do so, you have to think about what they really need from your creative endeavours. When a potential reader chooses your book, they will be looking for a number of things – good characterisation, drama, a strong storyline and one written convincingly. They also want to be plunged into a mystery that grips them from the opening pages and where the drama escalates in a convincing way, and where the plot deepens through a series of revelations.
Leave a Commentby Annette J Young
A murder mystery story takes many forms. It requires forethought and careful planning to tie all the threads of an in-depth plot together. Each aspect is important. Many people focus on the murderer but what of the victim? You have to understand their importance within the story too. In my own novel, I decided that the victim would die right at the start of the book, my aim was to create impact and drama hooking the reader from the opening pages. Compassion for the victim and for those who were left behind were built into the story so that the reader could share the sense of disbelief and grief.
Leave a Commentby Annette Young
I’ve long been a fan of crime novels enjoying the cat and mouse game of murderer versus crime solving sleuth but as a writer, there are important steps to take if you wish to create a killer with more than a dash of evil. When I write, I strip back the layers of characterisation and then replace them but emphasise those darker, alternate aspects so that my character is capable of committing my chosen crime. So instead of the character having reason, logic and empathy, there may only be a deeply rooted need to murder someone whether for pleasure or for some perverted sense of justice. I create a clinical sense of logic and reason – relative only to this character’s goals.
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by Annette Young
We live in a disposable society – do you know that?
People rarely want to work hard and climb the ladder towards the top of their chosen field, it’s all too easy to take shortcuts these days. With the onset of digital publishing, writers are a little like that too. I’m all for the great opportunities that companies such as Amazon have brought to the writing world, but it doesn’t mean that those who wish to jump onto the publishing band wagon should not provide high quality material. Real writers- who have words running through their veins, have worked exceptionally hard to learn their craft and to earn their publishing stripes. They are proud of the work they produce and they market it with pride – and rightly so. We’ve probably all read some books that really should not have been published and that’s a shame.
Leave a CommentLove writing? Take a top tip from the professional tennis players and develop…
If you are a huge fan of writing, you can gain much by watching professional sports people…
by Annette Young
I make no secret of the fact that I love to travel and, I suspect, there’s a whole lot more travelling to do in the future, it really is a case of ‘have laptop will travel’. I get to work in the most amazing of places and literally fill my senses with the most glorious of views. When I wake up in the morning, the sun is shining in through the window, the birds are singing and yet there is such a relaxed feel to the air. Life is certainly less frantic in Spain than in my native England, it’s easy to fit into the pace of life here – even for a workaholic like me. The trick is to absorb life as it unfolds around you and to use it to fuel future writing goals.
Leave a Commentby Annette Young
I believe we all yearn to write a novel at some point but now, there are even greater reasons for actually doing so. Writers can now get their novels published easily, self-publishing is acceptable and why not? There’s thousands, no, millions of fantastic novels that get turned down by traditional publishers. When you consider that J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter book was turned down by 12 such publishers, you can see that self-publishing really is a writer’s new best friend. Unlimited opportunities and potential for the creatively minded.
Leave a Commentby Annette Young
When writing fiction, one of the trickiest elements is being able to create the solid building blocks of good characterisation. Even if you are eager to dip into the writing process, you shouldn’t bypass this stage because you will only end up performing an awful lot of re-writes. Failure to consider these building blocks will certainly impact your ability to create characters that seem real. If they don’t act naturally, are not compelling or believable, then you will certainly lose that connection with the reader.
Leave a CommentBy Annette Young
The advice given to new writers is often to carve out a niche area and stick to it and they are right…. to a degree. But I remember when I took my first serious steps towards writing, I didn’t know what niche area to focus on – freelance writing or creative writing, frankly, I wanted to do it all. I was brimming over with ideas and just loved the experience of writing and learning. I tried to focus on just one project, but it was impossible.
Leave a Commentby Annette Young
It’s all too easy to give up on your dreams in life – whatever they may be. Achieving any desired goal is…well, hard work and it takes dedication. In creative writing terms, the road to publication may seem a long and arduous one filled with little traps to keep you from succeeding. You can be forgiven for having self-doubts and wondering if you will ever learn all of the essential elements necessary to write well. Each technique after all needs to be effortless and it has to be fluid.
Leave a Commentby Annette Young
Creative writing can be a wonderfully relaxing pastime but more than that, it can be therapeutic too and used to enrich your writing in ways than you cannot imagine unless you connect with your buried emotions. We all have moments of sadness and emotional pain – whether through grief, relationship breakdowns or simply moments when life frustratingly goes wrong. Trapped emotions can be damaging – we can remain stagnant if not careful.Life throws a myriad of obstacles and often unwarranted events in our way and this pain can intensify and remain trapped within.
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