Category: The craft of writing

The dark thunder of the synopsis gods

Last week’s Feedback Friday was all about synopses, so we’ll talk synopsis in a moment … except that first, obviously, we need to deal with…

Harry 22 March 2024

0 Comments

One week of hassle – walking the Talk V

Today I am wearing: Gleaming leather boots, in blackSilk pantaloons in duck-egg blueA ruffled shirt worn open to mid-chestA tattoo, only somewhat visible, of a…

Harry 8 March 2024

0 Comments

The comeliest daughter – walking the Talk IV

Today, I put on a pair of deerskin breeches, a red coat with tails, and a kepi, adorned with a fistful of white ostrich feathers.…

Harry 1 March 2024

0 Comments

Walking the Talk – part three in a series

An odd topic this time: the author’s note. I’m currently writing a note for The House at the End of the World and realised that it’s a…

Harry 23 February 2024

0 Comments

Walking the Talk – part two in a series

For Feedback Friday last week, we wanted to look at whether your characters are multi-dimensional. We asked: does your character have physical sensations? Memories? Characteristic…

Harry 16 February 2024

0 Comments

Walking the Talk – the first in a series

As you know, I’m a writer – or I used to be. But a little while back, I had the idea of making the Writers…

Harry 9 February 2024

0 Comments

The golden thread

Here’s a challenge that we all experience, a challenge that in some ways grows larger the more imaginative and effortless you are. The challenge is…

Harry 10 November 2023

1 Comment

The wise woman and the fool

This email is something of a follow-up to last week, so if you didn’t like last week’s missive, I strongly suggest you ditch this one…

Harry 31 March 2023

1 Comment

A 1948 Rolls Royce Silver Wraith

Super-quick housekeeping: We’ve just launched a new course – Jumpstart Your Novel – that offers a really serious way to get started with a book.…

Harry 24 March 2023

3 Comments

But have we had any fun?

Benjamin Jowett was a Victorian professor of Greek, a theologian and a college reformer. Photos of him have a somewhat stern and whiskery air, but…

Harry 17 March 2023

1 Comment