The Creative Writing Blog

The end of solitude? Or a value choice? What's behind a love story? In a time in which we are all ragged, estranged, and feeling peculiarly close-to-the-edge sentimental, our blog this week...

We can find much inspiration in writing dystopian fiction, and a writer’s dystopian world is a great place to exorcise fears and test solutions to our society’s crises. In short, if you...

If anyone knows how to write a bestseller, it’s Paula Hawkins. The Sunday Times and New York Times No.1 bestselling author of Into the Water and A Slow Fire Burning, her debut novel The Girl...

There are many choices to make when you begin writing a novel, and the narrative point of view is a pretty fundamental one. 

Some of a writer’s options could be laid out on a starter...

One of the biggest concerns many people have when they delve into creative writing is untapping – and maintaining – their writer’s voice. While concerns like fitting in a certain...

Writing a dual timeline book brings up many questions. Should you write one story first, then the other and weave them together? Or should you write in chronological sequence? 

You might be...

There’s no denying the importance of atmosphere, particularly in the opening chapters of a story. At the start of a novel, we really need to focus on drawing the reader in and setting the...

When we start writing, most of us are hoping for a good, clean writing style. That being said, it’s easy to venture into long sentences, purple prose, and other tell-tale signs of...

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...

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...

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....

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...