The Creative Writing Blog

This is truly a great era for publishing fantasy fiction. Originality abounds, and boundaries are being pushed in all kinds of new directions. Bestselling author and writing coach Katie Khan...

Are you looking for a story idea for a thriller? Maybe you’ve got an amazing character you want to star in your novel, but you’re not sure exactly what they’ll get up to. Or you...

In this blog post, Emylia Hall shares her experience of finishing her most recent first draft. It can be a tumultuous experience, with thrilling highs and overwhelming panics about the editing to...

Understanding the intricacies of story is such an essential tool for anyone trying to write a book. All the genres require a solid bedrock of story. Whether you’re writing a factual or...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Any tale of any kind told to humans by humans is and has ever been a morality tale. Before the novel we had the morality play or allegorical play, with personified virtues and villains exhorting...

Our founder, Louise Dean, describes how she got started as a writer and shares the advice she sought in person from the writers she admired.

When I was living in New York in the late 1990's, in my...