NEWS
Here you will find news and views on our three courses, why you should consider enrolling, and updates on absolutely everything!
More showing and telling
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....
Show and tell
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...
Dialogue tags and other stuff
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...
Some dialogue don’ts
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...
Writing dialogue
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...
In the third person
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...
The weight of words
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers You’re writing a book, and one of the first things to learn is that every word carries weight. Some will have more weight than others, and you have to decide whether a particular word is necessary or not. As a...
Past tense
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers Writing in the past tense is the construct used in most novels by most novelists. We expect it; it doesn’t jar with us and, frankly, it’s easier. It allows you, the writer, to manipulate time – to move...
Writing in the present
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers Some books use the present tense, others the past tense. Both have advantages and disadvantages. However, before putting pen to paper, it’s best to decide what tense to use because changing tense once you’re...
Purple prose
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers It’s the writer’s job to paint pictures in a reader’s mind, and the temptation is to describe things in minute detail. Wrong. The reader wants to be told some detail, but not everything. After all, your...
Starting at the beginning
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers Every book has to start somewhere, but don’t let the start of your book read like a starting gun. Yes, you can be provocative or shocking, but too much action right at the start can be dizzying. We really...
Writing that first line
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers I like first lines, although I probably take them more seriously than many. Because, for me, the first line is the one sentence in any book that its author has agonised over the most. If that first line jars,...