The Creative Writing Blog

 “ 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...

Writing a high-octane disaster story? They’re undoubtedly fun for readers and writers alike, with pacy plots, heroes to root for and villains to hate. Let’s take a look at the most...

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...

Here’s the good news. You already have the time you need to write your novel.

Get cracking! Up with a coffee at early light, creating your world, at play before real life kicks in!...

Wherever you are with your novel, here's something which could help you see the big picture of plot fast. 

On my fourth draft of a novel, and so mired in the material, I needed a...

Immersive writing and insight are intimately related and inextricably so.

This is what Tolstoy shows us. It's what makes Tolstoy a great writer.

Following on from the last blog on the...

In the 1870's Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828 - 1910) experienced a profound moral crisis. During the writing of Anna Karenina, he went through a personal metamorphosis from sensualist to ascetic....

 How to become a published author? Get good at taking criticism, writes our founder, Louise Dean.

As author of four published novels now, I remember the step-change in my writing came back in...

The Novelry is the worldwide novel writing school. Here are our top ten novel writing tips - you're unlikely to find them elsewhere. 

1. You're the author, you get to play god. Play dirty.
...

It is with modest boldness, I say to you that creativity is about putting two things together which should not go together.

Such as modesty and boldness.

The greater the opposition between the...