by Charlie Laidlaw | Apr 12, 2022 | Creative writing courses, diploma creative writing, show and tell, Writing courses
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers In my last post I wrote about “show” and “tell.” Books need both to make narrative sparkle. That requires balance and clear purpose to your writing. So let’s look at that balance in a little more detail....
by Charlie Laidlaw | Apr 6, 2022 | Creative writing courses, diploma creative writing, show and tell, Writing
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers A novel is a work of dramatic art, just like a play, film or TV drama. To convey mood or tension, a film has dialogue, gesture and music. But a novel has to conjure mood and tension from words alone. It’s in...
by Charlie Laidlaw | Mar 21, 2022 | Creative writing courses, diploma creative writing, diploma writing, getting started on writing
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers In previous posts, I’ve looked at different aspects of writing dialogue. It’s an important part of the writer’s skillset, because dialogue develops both plot and character. If your dialogue doesn’t sound...
by Charlie Laidlaw | Mar 18, 2022 | character writing, diploma creative writing, starting to write, Writing courses
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers In a recent post, I highlighted how easy it is to write clunky dialogue. The trick to good dialogue is about advancing your story or developing or reinforcing character. But every bit of dialogue should sound...
by Charlie Laidlaw | Feb 25, 2022 | character writing, Creative writing courses, diploma creative writing
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers All of us have conversations every day, some more than others. We should therefore understand how dialogue works because it’s of the everyday. But it’s surprising how clunky some bits of written dialogue can...
by Charlie Laidlaw | Feb 21, 2022 | character writing, diploma creative writing, diploma writing
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers In a previous post, I gave a glimpse into using a first person narrative. It has immediacy and, told well, provides a real connection with the main character. But, for many authors, a third person narrator is...