What point are you making? And how much do you want to cover? The writer should work with these two questions throughout the entire writing process. Too many try to cover everything, attempting to write the definitive piece. But there will never be a definitive anything. As a writer, you don’t write to explain or…
Author: samuel
What is Iambic Pentameter? (what every writer must know)
The first thing I want to say here is that, on some level, every English speaker is already familiar with iambic meter. There’s a reason that great poets have used it for centuries. It’s natural and human. The tones and rhythm resemble our everyday speaking voice, so you could find yourself speaking in iambic meter,…
How do you know your novel is complete?
The question ‘How do you know your novel is complete?’ is one I’m dealing with right now. Since the publication of my first in 2015, I’ve been working on a follow-up. To the frustration of the readers who enjoy my work, I’ve finished novels only to abandon them, because they weren’t better than The Little…
How to Write Like Kerouac.
Kerouac’s writing advice, titled Belief and Technique for Modern Prose, is more of an offbeat reflection on beat life than an instructive list that shows how to write like Kerouac. But I think that makes it more interesting, and more useful. He reportedly stuck the list on the wall of Allen Ginsberg’s North Beach hotel…
What the famous six-word story teaches us.
I referenced the famous six-word story, attributed to Hemingway, in my previous article about the difference between prose and poetry. It struck me that it might be worth spending a little time with the story here. One reason is because some may be unfamiliar with it. Another is because it teaches an invaluable writing lesson….
The best writing advice anyone has given me.
I heard the best writing advice on the first morning of my University degree, even though I didn’t fully realise until years later. Carl Tighe, pictured above, was the head professor of Creative Writing. He said that I would learn nothing in his lectures that I couldn’t learn myself through reading fiction. This turned out…
What you must know before you start writing.
Nothing. You don’t need to know anything more than you already know. Start writing. You don’t need to overthink your ideas. You don’t even need to know your ideas. If you want to, go ahead, but you don’t need to. You can meet your ideas as your letters meet the page. Decide whether it’s a…