The Creative Writing Blog

Literary genres are decisive when you’re writing fiction. In fact, your literary genre should be one of the first things you consider. It is the first thing an agent assesses on your...

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

How The Novelry saved my writing life.

"Kill the dragon," said Louise Dean, founder of The Novelry.

I was enmeshed in one of my all-too-frequent cycles of Writer’s Doooooom. My...

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 life story? It’s one of the questions we get asked the most, and a natural one when you start writing. After all, we’ve had the mantra...

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. That’s a lot to ask of...

Writing a battle scene is undoubtedly a thrilling prospect for a fantasy writer. Whether it’s the climactic battle that seals your main characters’ final fate, a muted fight scene that...

Good and evil in literature has long been a universal theme of our stories – and not just evil stories, or those that ruminate on the entrenched power structures that human beings live under....

Happy is the writer with a habit! If you want to learn how to write a book fast, it’s quite straightforward: write daily. Routine wins the race. Most of my writers follow the...

As you write, do you ever feel worried about whether your work is really good enough? Are you plagued by self-doubt, and a niggling critic in your head? Do you try to shrug off imposter...

Story endings are exciting, rewarding and – let’s be honest – sometimes scary. You have to tie together all the loose ends together to somehow form a satisfying ending,...

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...

If you’ve ever faced doubts or crises of confidence in your novel-writing journey, know that you’re not alone. In fact, pretty much every novelist (or indeed artist. Or perhaps human)...

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!...