So how well DO you know your main character?

On my Arvon Foundation course in early October, we had a workshop on characterisation led by Mavis Cheek and Paul Sussman. They showed us how well we must get to know our main character(s) if we want to ensure they are fully-developed. Ask them questions!

Here are a few they suggested… 1. What is your […]

Colour me red…

My Kindle reader has become indispensable. Not only can I download books wherever I am (I have the 3G version), but it’s so easy to use. Slim enough to slip into a handbag, light enough not to cause heart failure when my suitcase is weighed at check-in.

But I’ve been worried about its susceptibility to […]

I wrote my first car chase!

Not a big scene, but which framed a confrontation, added a little pzazz as well as demonstrating my heroine’s hot temper.

As we cruised along the peripheral at max speed limit, setting citizens a good example, a silver Mercedes flew past us, cutting us up. We weren’t traffic cops, but I was incensed. I looked […]

The Arvon experience

Lumb Bank

What magic turns sixteen anxious wannabees with doubts a hundred feet high into confident, capable producers of good writing within a week?

In February this year, I booked the Arvon Foundation course ‘Popular Fiction’ 4-9 October at Lumb Bank, Yorkshire. It was to run from 4 to 9 October, with tutors […]

The 3G Kindle has landed!

I’ve been given a fab birthday present – a 3G Amazon Kindle. Thank you, Steve xx

As a writer, I read a huge number of books; our house is groaning with them. As a plane passenger, it’s agonising trying to sift out the books to take (or, worse, leave behind). As a Luddite, it’s been […]