Blog posts about creative writing.
By the time I started typing I already had the novel set out in my mind. I typed quickly, I typed furiously and the words just flew onto the page.
In July 2013, I decided to abandon the novel I had been working on for a couple of years.
I began writing with great enthusiasm during NaNoWriMo in November 2011. At that time, I had completed the Open University course “Start writing fiction” and had just enrolled in a BA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck University. I was an avid reader and knew a bit about writing.
At first it was easy. Continue reading “A writer’s confession: why I abandoned my novel.”
I started writing during NaNoWriMo in November 2011. The words just flew onto the page. 50,000 in a month. Easy! But come December, I had lost my steam.
I have been writing a novel for 3 years. It is a great story. I know the characters well. The finished product is clear in my mind.
I started writing during NaNoWriMo in November 2011. The words just flew onto the page. 50,000 in a month. Easy!
But come December, I had lost my steam. I started going back and fiddling. Now some of the early chapters looked pretty good. But I lost my forward momentum. And I got finally bogged down about two-thirds of the way through. I guess I hit what is often known as the “soggy middle”.
Now, all the standard advice goes like this: just finish it. It doesn’t matter what sort of mess you have written, you can knock it into shape during the editing stage. Continue reading “5 year writing project: get a novel published”
Occasionally I write non-fiction, often of a medical variety or about a health service topic. I had a short piece published recently in Pulse Magazine, a weekly publication for doctors. The topic was Burnout. The question I had to answer, in 200 words, was this:
One of my salaried GPs seems to be suffering from burnout. How should I approach the issue, what advice should I give and what are my duties as his/her employer?
Clichés are all around us. They may slip by unnoticed – but once you tune-in to clichés, you find them everywhere. And the more you notice them, the more irritating they become.
Do you speak in clichés and, worse still, do you use them in your writing?
A cliché is a well-worn phrase that has become meaningless through overuse. Clichés are all around us. They may slip by unnoticed – in our speech, in our reading or in our writing. But once you tune-in to clichés, you find them everywhere. And the more you notice them, the more irritating they become.
In my everyday language, here are the clichés I find myself using:
The Six Minute prompt was a weird photo of a truck and a construction project on the edge of a lake. After a few seconds of peering, I made out a biblical quotation. I groaned. The seconds were ticking away. What was I going to do with this?
When I visit the Six Minute Story site, I always choose a random prompt. This is like a dice game. I have no idea what Lady Luck will throw my way.
Once the prompt appears, I have six minutes exactly of frantic typing until I am locked out of the text box and can write no more. Continue reading “The Cement Delivery”
Ruth Livingstone 