The Creative Writer's Toolbelt

This episode is a conversation with award-winning writer and NHS doctor Tade Thompson. We discuss everything from the Wombles to the Fantastic Four, and from the fact that no one gives a **** about your writing unless you make them, to the tropes of English horror.

What must a scene have to really make it work? It's not action, it's not dialogue, it's not sparkling description, wonderful those these things can be. For a scene to work something that matters needs to change. In this episode, we explore these changes or polarity shifts to show this principle, with an example story that contains some scenes with these shifts and some that do not to show what a difference that make.

My guest for this episode is the scientist and independent author C. John Arthur. Chris has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and now works in medical research. He has been a reviewer for the British Science Fiction Association’s critical journal, Vector, and has more recently contributed to Focus, the BSFA’s writers’ magazine. He returned to writing short fiction a few years ago and has had stories published in small press anthologies, the latest being 'The Masque Maker of Venezia'. He is now based in Sweden, and his thoughts on science fiction and science are chronicled occasionally at www.blog.cjohnarthur.com.

This episode is a conversation with the author and international speaker Derek Künsken. Derek is a Canadian writer who learned the trade with short stories. For a number of years now his work has been accepted by some of the premier magazines in SciFi including Asimov. Derek now has an agent, has signed a two-book deal and is negotiating a further deal and is published in multiple territories and languages. In this conversation, we talk about the transition to novel writing, how to introduce compelling themes and characters, and the perils of hitting the Strunk and White 'Kool-aid'!

This episode is the second half of my conversation with Ellen. We talk about a range of issues including making the right choice for the Point of View of your work, how to create the ideal query letter, and how to utilise the resources that Ellen has made available.

This episode is a conversation with the novel editor and writing coach, Ellen Brock. You may know Ellen from her annual Novel Boot Camp event and her series of videos on YouTube. Ellen has a real heart for helping people who want to develop their skills in the craft of writing, and in this first half of our conversation, we talk about the biggest problems writers have with both structuring their work and refining narrative quality.

This episode is the second part of a conversation I had with Dr Sandra O'Donnell, founding partner of RO Literary. Sandra is a book coach and literary agent, and author of "Your first fifteen pages" an agent's guide to writing a novel that editors will publish and readers will buy. In this episode, we look at how the 'why' of your novel has to hook the reader, how character and place work with the inciting incident and Sandra gives us her advice on mastering 3rd person Point of View in the ensemble story. We also discuss three of the most useful tools a writer can use: Airtable, Grammarly, and Story Grid.

This episode is a conversation with Dr Sandra O'Donnell, founding partner of RO Literary. Sandra is a book coach and literary agent, and author of "Your first fifteen pages" an agent's guide to writing a novel that editors will publish and readers will buy. This is the first of two episodes featuring my conversation with Sandra; in this episode, we look at where submissions go wrong, the essential ingredients for the first fifteen pages of your novel, and what readers really want.

This episode is a conversation with Sarah Rhea Werner, a creative professional who combines a portfolio of work including writing, web design, mentoring, podcasting and audio drama production. You might be one of the tens of thousands of people who listen to Sarah’s new audio drama, ‘Girl in Space’ which started to critical acclaim back in September 2017. In this conversation Sarah and I talk about marketing, monetization for writers and creatives, and effective time management as well as facing the fear of creating, and getting the job done

"It's a performance, not a reading", so says audio narration expert Sean Pratt. Sean has 30 years experience as an actor and voice-over artist, and in 22 years as an audiobook narrator, he has worked on close to 1,000 projects. In this episode, he lifts the lid on the audiobook business and gives us writers some expert tips on speaking well at public events, including book readings. He also tells us what an author needs to know if they decide to narrate their own book.

This episode looks at the emotional and psychological cost of marketing and promotion for writers. There are plenty of opportunities but it's hostile territory, so we look at the need to create an excellent product, what to do when you're feeling addicted to the numbers, and how to be sociable on social media.

Tim is an award-winning travel writer, the author of a number of books including The World’s Cheapest Destinations, Travel Writing 2.0, and Make Your Travel Dollars Worth a Fortune: The Contrarian Traveler’s Guide to Getting More for Less. He is also an established blogger, speaker and ghostwriter and in this episode, we talk about Tim’s experiences as a writer of non-fiction, how to get started and thrive as a blogger, and Tim gives us his hints and tips on making your writing time more efficient. I hope you enjoy this conversation, here it is.

In this second part of a two-part series on point of view, we look at the challenge of using omniscient third person point of view. Often seen as old-fashioned, and definitely a challenge to use successfully, this PoV option is making something of a comeback and is the right choice for some work.

In this second part of a two-part series on point of view, we look at the challenge of using omniscient third person point of view. Often seen as old-fashioned, and definitely a challenge to use successfully, this PoV option is making something of a comeback and is the right choice for some work.

Getting Point of View (PoV) right is one of the fundamental challenges for any writer. In the first of a two-part series on the subject, we look at what point of view is, and how to make a success of third person limited point of view in your work.