Things No One Told Me About Being A Writer

This one’s for all the new, innocent, writers out there. Before I officially started writing the first draft of my first novel, I had no writer friends to warn me about the perils of being a writer. I dived into it with no idea of what was heading my way, so through my own experiences, […]

Useful Tools for Writers

When I first started working on my novel, I struggled a little as I was unprepared in terms of knowing what tools I may need to make the creative process run smoother. So to save some of you the hassle of having to run around in the world wide web searching for which sites, software […]

What I’ve Learned About Writing A Novel In One Year

It has been exactly one year since I started writing my first novel. I am currently 50,000 words into my first draft (which is roughly 49.5k words more than any other story I’d ever started and abandoned) and have another 45 to 50k-ish to go. In 365 days there’s a lot to learn and discover […]

Music & Writing

When I first started writing I did it in perfect silence. Alone with my thoughts with only the sound of the keyboard click clacking, quiet worked for me. But then I started to experience prolonged periods of being stumped, the words stopped flowing and it became too silent. I’d read that listening to music can […]

Believe in the Write Stuff

I’ve always had trouble believing in myself… Or more specifically; that I can really do this writing thing. It took many, many years for me to really have a go at it. The novel I started working on last September is the one that has finally stuck and I’ve finally hit the 50k mark on […]

Overcoming ‘The Block’

“Nothing will work unless you do.” Maya Angelou To be clear, I don’t exactly believe in such a thing as ‘writer’s block’. There’s no invisible wall that surrounds our minds and creativity, or invisible handcuffs that prevent us from getting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard)… But even I am guilty of using ‘the […]

Writing a Novel: The Rules

“Beware of advice – even this.” ~ Carl Sandburg How many writers out there have read through (or at least skimmed) dozens of books about the art of writing; looking for guidelines, rules and loads of other bits of advice on how to write the best book in the whole entire world, before finally putting […]