The Creative Writing Blog

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!...

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.

I want to show you what Tolstoy achieved with...

Leo Tolstoy is one of the most admired authors in the canon of western literature, and his titles are some of the most famous in fiction. For example, War and Peace and Anna Karenina (the focus of...

Dealing with rejection as a writer is, undoubtedly, a big part of forging a writing career. The fact is, the writer’s life is typically one punctuated with many a rejection letter:...

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.
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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...

In this blog post, our founder Louise Dean explores the importance of the midpoint of any story. Whatever genre you’re writing in, however far you’ve got into your project, however...