The Creative Writing Blog

There's no denying the importance of creating a potent atmosphere in fiction, particularly in the opening chapters where we’re really focusing on drawing the reader in. In one of our...

It’s true that in many first drafts, the story and characters can feel thin and under-written; often, the problem with prose is the exact opposite. It’s over-written. We have the...

As I entered into the fourth draft of my current novel, set in Brooklyn where I lived happily for a few years at the turn of the century, I turned back to console myself that the redrafting process...

Meet our writing coach Emylia Hall, a bestselling author and a Richard and Judy Book Club favourite. She's a wonderful teacher, a mother, a fellow of The Royal Literary Fund, and she's currently...

 The bestselling author of The Girl in the Red Coat, Kate Hamer explores the story starter of 'fairy tales' which is where the magic of our Classic course begins, the course designed to help...

If anyone knows about writing crime fiction, it’s Mark Billingham. One of the UK’s most acclaimed and popular crime novelists,  Mark’s series featuring DI Tom Thorne has...

Many books have been writing on the matter of storytelling, none have proven definitive. Our philosophy at The Novelry is simple—tools, not rules. We don’t believe in a format,...

Katie Khan is an author of speculative fiction novels, where science fiction meets romance, and a writing coach at The Novelry. Here Katie Khan tells us about her writing journey. 

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If you’re wondering how to write the first chapter of a novel, we can relate. It’s a big question!

After all, the first chapter of a novel needs to do some heavy lifting to start the...

Bestselling author Louise Doughty describes the strange lure of station platforms that inspired her to write the wonderful suspense thriller, her latest book, Platform Seven, published by Faber...

Genre is important when you're writing fiction. It should be one of the first things you consider. It's the first thing an agent assesses on your submissions letter as they start to consider...

In the first blog of the series, we took a look at why you should start your novel writing plan with your title rather than pick and mix as you go or pin a tail on the donkey at...

In the first blog of the series, we saw the dominant form for the novel title prior to the twentieth century was the eponym - or the name of the main character of the story. In the...

In the last blog, we saw the dominant form for the novel title prior to the twentieth century was the eponym - or the name of the main character of the story. To an extent, this is reflective...