The Creative Writing Blog

Convenience Store Woman is a novel by Japanese author Sayaka Murata. This is a warm, eye-opening tale of Keiko Furukura, a woman in her mid-thirties living in Tokyo. Keiko has long felt like an odd...

The mystique of the elusive hero-figure is one of Louise Dean’s favourite forms. It’s a ‘bystander’ narrative, often first-person, concerning a mysterious...

Been rejected by literary agents? You could be over-writing. Here’s how to avoid it!

The ailment of over-writing afflicts most first drafts. It is the writer’s common cold. It’s...

A nebulous but exciting mission you’ll embark on as a writer is the quest to find your voice. We hear much about distinctive authorial voices, and can all recognise our favourites’ in a...

If you're about to write a novel, start with the midpoint. That's the place to build your world around.

The midpoint is the point of no return in the story, where the character undergoes a crisis,...

We all learn to write. If you're serious about something, generally you will want to learn how to do it well. I wonder why some writers feel they need to look down on aspiring writers...

Book ideas don’t often come to you whole and complete, writes founder of The Novelry, Louise Dean. But that doesn’t mean fretting over story ideas should be an obstacle to starting to...

At The Novelry we like to tell our writers that when it comes to novel writing, there are no rules, only tools.

Then we give them the tools. One by one, day-by-day. Use them, try them, pick...

For many people, the writing process involves regular crises of confidence and ‘realisations’ that you’re a terrible writer. Even commercially successful writers who’ve won...

There comes a time when every writer has to face the awful thought that they may have to kill their manuscript.

 “Often when I sat down to work,” wrote Michael Chabon about a...

Few novels hold a place in our culture as bright and distinct as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. With its enigmatic and magnetic protagonist, Jay Gatsby, the intriguing narrator in...

Shame and Sacrifice: the modern novel, when it's great, turns these sad old tricks beloved of its forbears.

When I was reading Sally Rooney's Conversations with Friends, I was struck by the name of...

Philip Roth. Never mediocre.

Humbling, yet humble. A combination that made Philip Roth great.

His books were like knives we couldn’t put down despite them cutting our hands.

This is an...

'Why haven't you done anything with the book you wrote last year?' My son asked me.

'Because it's not important. I needed to write it but the world doesn't need it.'

'I would read it.'

'You can't...