The Creative Writing Blog

Welcome to Titology, or the study of titles. In this short series of blogs on the origins of novel titles, I will perform a rude taxonomy to classify the species. For my roll...

 "In my younger and more vulnerable years," (to borrow from the opening line of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald) I would write a novel, many times over many drafts, discarding huge...

In this special blog, we will delve into George Orwell's own development as a writer to greatness.

How did Orwell make the leap from The Clergyman's Daughter to works like Animal Farm and 1984,...

Can you write a book about yourself and your own experience? It’s one of the questions we get asked the most. You may feel stumped by the question of how to write a book about your life.

You...

The first lines of novels can, understandably, be stressful for writers. We often feel pressure to start with a bang, or beauty, or unparalleled genius.

But do the best novels always...

To the Battle!

The battle in the classics of Tolkien and others is often a bit of a let down.

There’s a long walk, a lot of fine talk, plenty of awe then either the human hero finds an...

It's crucial to invest in the groundwork of story before going on to potter in prose if you mean business (i.e, to sell books.)

Our storytelling foundation course - the Classic course, ...

 “ I'm afraid, I just didn't warm to Cheryl.”

I get to see a lot of novels-in-waiting as you might imagine. Sometimes my writers will share with me the editorial reports or...

Happy is the writer with a habit! If you want to write a book fast, write daily. Routine wins the race. Most of my writers follow the encouragement we give to write first thing, fresh from...

"And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good." John Steinbeck.

Many of my beloved writers at The Novelry suffer from a sickness called overachievement - 'the curse of the...

Here's how to create a story:

1. Know it

An experience or circumstances of which you have direct knowledge as a participant or an outsider looking in

2. See it

Translate it - to a...

It's hard to know for sure when you've reached the end of a novel. You're battle-weary. You can't see the wood for the trees. It's the forty-fifth draft...

_{By Louise Dean.}

The story makes...

If a novel is one person's moral journey towards acceptance of their place in the universe, then the plot is contrived to give them a gift or gifts to help them on their way to which he or she...

Every novel presents such new challenges, it seems one has never written a novel before. An irksome and bewildering amnesia. Yet again,  your judgement and taste exceed your...