Incorporating the five senses into your writing A year ago, someone shared with me a grounding technique. We all have our methods to bring ourselves back to the present moment, and this exercise focuses on using the five senses to reconnect with the immediate environment. First, arrange yourself into a comfortable position. Relax your breathing. …
February can feel like a funny month. Its shorter, changeable length gives the impression whoever was making up the months tried to make the best of a slightly botched job. The weather is usually foul, this year opting for the three W’s: warm, wet, windy. However, the days are lengthening. The spring bulbs are pushing …
World-building appeals to me because anything is possible. Well… let me rephrase that. Anything is possible, so long as you can convince the reader it can be. I love exploring the winding avenues world-building opens. What is more surprising (and interesting) is the many branches a single thing causes. I create a world with a …
Photography was my first real creative pursuit. Most things had turned digital by the time I got the bug. The most impactful memory of film photography was the time my dad and sister turned the garage into a temporary darkroom and some chemicals from that ended up eating into my body board. Teenage me was …
Those who subscribe to my newsletter will have received one tool I use to create a memorable character. But how can we deep dive into our characters so the reader will keep turning the pages? 1. Look at the fictional characters you love and ask yourself why Writers are readers. Which fictional characters are memorable …
Read more “Ten ways to make your fictional characters memorable”
The parish of St Buryan is home to many ancient monuments. Lob a piece of granite, and you’re bound to hit one of the many stone circles, standing stones, or tombs dotted about in the landscape. The stone you picked up probably had some historical significance too! How do we know this ancient area was …
Mention Bran alongside crows or ravens, and most people will immediately think of the youngest Stark son in Game of Thrones. GRRM, like most writers, dig around in ancient history and rework old, misshapen pieces into something new. This blog isn’t about an inquisitive boy who had the misfortune to be pushed out of a …
Earlier in the year I blogged about the reasons why I wasn’t partaking in CampNaNo and why it doesn’t work for me. Yet here we are, in November, and I’m signed up to write fifty thousand words in thirty days. Let me explain… Resurrecting an ailing writing habit. I mentioned before that I have used …
It was a pleasant night to Edie Lockhart’s standards. Despite being Halloween, it was mild. A fat near-full moon cast its pale light through the beech trees. Their silvery limbs contorted into human-like figures whose stretched shadows scattered across the road. Not a breath of wind sighed through the branches. Not even an owl hooted. …
Reconnecting with nature through creativity “The wet young beeches were undergoing amputations, bruises, cripplings, and harsh lacerations, from which the wasting sap would bleed for many a day to come, and which would leave scars visible till the day of their burning. Each stem was wrenched at the root, where it moved like a bone …