Category: Writing AdvicePage 3 of 6
Graeme Shimmin’s thoughts on creative writing based on his twenty-plus years of experience as a novelist.
We all know it’s hard to get your book published, but did you realise that only about one in a thousand of the novels written each year are commercially published? I’ve been…
False documents are great for drawing your reader into your story. Why’s that important? Because many people have trouble suspending their disbelief in stories. This is doubly true for speculative…
Public speaking is one of the principal ways authors promote their books. But speaking to large groups terrifies many people and they do it badly. As a commercially published author,…
Here’s my selection of some of the best creative writing prompts I’ve come across in my career as a professional writer. You might think writing gets easier when you’re…
You know what happens if you don’t proofread your novel? Your writing will have spelling, punctuation and formatting errors, and will look scrappy. And then you’ll get one-star…
If you’ve decided to self-publish your book, and you want a physical book to hold in your hands – much more satisfying than an eBook – then the easiest…
I was recently commissioned to write a chapter for a new creative writing book, called The Art of the Novel. My chapter is about how not to bore…
Correct grammar is one of the critical distinctions between a successful writer and an unsuccessful one. Sadly, many beginning writers neglect it. As part of a new series…
My first commercially published novel, A Kill in the Morning came out in 2014, and working on it with a professional editor taught me about the process of copy…
I’m a commercially published author, so I’ve been through the process of writing a novel several times and know that inspiration can strike at any time. I’ve learnt…