The Creative Writing Blog

Writing a novel is incredibly hard. Then you get to the end of your first draft and relief sets in – but it’s short-lived. The seemingly insurmountable brick wall of self editing for...

Right at the beginning of my writing career, when I was trying to write novels for Mills and Boon (easy to read, incredibly hard to write) someone suggested it was easier to get historicals...

If you're writing speculative fiction, ensure your first reader is an experienced SFF editor to master your magic and future proof your science fiction.

Craig Leyenaar joins The...

Children’s fiction has a long and noble history of being dismissed. Martin Amis once said in an interview: ‘People ask me if I ever thought of writing a children's book. I say,...

If you're wondering how to write a prologue for your book, then whether you publish your book with one or not, the one-page attention-grabber is a great way to test your story's...

Meet Tasha Suri, fantasy author and writing coach at The Novelry. Tasha Suri is the award-winning author of The Books of Ambha duology (Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash) and...

Our writing coach Jack Jordan is the global number one bestselling author of Anything for Her (2015), My Girl (2016), A Woman Scorned (2018), Before Her...

Let's tackle the question that often concern writers the most – what's fair in fiction? There’s a disclaimer on the copyright page of every work of fiction that will say...

From the Desk of Phoebe Morgan. 

As I write this, I’m surrounded by boxes of books. I have FAR too many books – they are not easy to move, they are cumbersome to carry, they split...

_{From the Desk of Lily Lindon, Editor at The Novelry.}

When I tell someone I’m a book editor, I can sometimes see their imagination bubble pop up: me, sitting alone in a dusty reading nook,...

Last week I did my first in-person event of the year. It was a low-key affair, part of the brilliant Essex Book Festival, held at Grays Library. As is usual, towards the end of the event there were...

The writer Thomas Mann said, ‘A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.’ We love the recognition of process and perfectionism in...

You’re likely all familiar with the ‘getting ready the night before’ routine that takes place ahead of a big day. You pack a lunch, and hang your outfit on the back of the bedroom...

I am between novels. This was to be an open-ended rest, but it has already become a pregnant pause. Despite myself, I have begun gestating: ripening with seeded notions; pulsing with poetry and...