The Creative Writing Blog

Katie Khan is an author of speculative fiction novels, where science fiction meets romance, and a writing coach at The Novelry. Here Katie Khan tells us about her writing journey. 

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If you’re wondering how to write the first chapter of a novel, we can relate. It’s a big question!

After all, the first chapter of a novel needs to do some heavy lifting to start the...

Bestselling author Louise Doughty describes the strange lure of station platforms that inspired her to write the wonderful suspense thriller, her latest book, Platform Seven, published by Faber...

Genre is important when you're writing fiction. It should be one of the first things you consider. It's the first thing an agent assesses on your submissions letter as they start to consider...

In the first blog of the series, we took a look at why you should start your novel writing plan with your title rather than pick and mix as you go or pin a tail on the donkey at...

In the first blog of the series, we saw the dominant form for the novel title prior to the twentieth century was the eponym - or the name of the main character of the story. In the...

In the last blog, we saw the dominant form for the novel title prior to the twentieth century was the eponym - or the name of the main character of the story. To an extent, this is reflective...

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. That’s a lot to ask of...

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, ...