Symbolism in My Stories

Symbolism is the use of words or images to represent specific ideas or characters in stories. We can use symbols to communicate an overall theme of what you are trying to convey in the story or small gestures that can help a writer give meaning to a character or place within a story. I don't...

Speed Networking…for Writers?

Writing can often be a solitary profession, for most writers this can be an enjoyable part of the process; to get to spend hours a day in your own head, allowing your weird thoughts to take shape. But still, once you have published a book you now have to find readers and meet publishers to...

Use of Visual Aids in Writing to Show Progress

"There is nothing to writing, all you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." - Hernest Hemingway. One of the hardest parts of writing is not being able to see any form of progress. You can write and edit and re-edit for years and never feel like you are making any real headway....

Could the 5am Club Elevate Your Writing?

One of the main stumbling blocks to becoming a published author is not skill or desire but time. Robin Sharma‘s popular book, The 5am Club explores how people in any field of study or work could elevate their morning routine in order to give them more time. It may seem simple, just wake up at...

Hotel Writing

When I have the chance I love to write in hotels. Whenever I get to travel, wherever I am, one of the first things I do is find a little nook in the hotel room where I can write. Wherever I travel I find inspiration for my stories and hotel rooms are the perfect place...

Neil Gaiman’s Funny Hats

Neil Gaiman is an imaginative and creative English writer. He has written stories for adults and children, comic books and TV programmes. Examples of his work you may have read or watched are, The Sandman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Coraline and Good Omens with Terry Pratchet. Life is always going to...

What I Learned as a Stage Manager for a Play

A great way to become a better writer and enhance your craft is new experiences. When we gain new and varied experiences we develop a richer source of inspiration to glean from for our art. Recently I had the opportunity to be a part of my first play at Sterts as the stage manager for...

Dead Time and Audiobooks

I have started listening to audiobooks. Audiobooks are a fantastic way of filling in time spent completing chores, like dishes, housework or taxing kids back and forward to see their friends, or maybe your commute to work if you have one. This is 'dead time' as Stephen King calls it in his book On Writing....

How Learning Languages Helped me to Write!

It took me a long time and a variety of techniques to make any significant progress in Spanish. Only when I became consistent in my learning approach did I start to really understand the language. This is what my journey to learn Spanish taught me about writing... Learning a little every day is far better...