Insights | Alison Morton Author

Writing Challenge Day 21: My preferred genre

Crumbs, there are some interesting topics in this topic! The problem with this one is that essentially genres segment books into one thing or another, slicing away any possibility that a book may seep into another. 😱

Unpicking this…

Historical fiction is an umbrella for biography (Julian by Gore Vidal), adventure (Rafael Sabatini’s The Sea […]

Writing Challenge Day 19: Characters' pastimes

Pastimes? Hobbies? What are those? These don’t tend to feature in writers’ consciousness; either writing is done in any spare time left after work or at the weekend, or for full-time writers, spare time is when they go and research or grab a book for background reading. The result is that I had to […]

Writing Challenge Day 18: Characters' pet peeves

Alison, peeved

Ha! We all have pet peeves and I’m pretty sure we pass these on in our writing however carefully we try to view the world from each individual character’s point of view. Our own values, thoughts and emotional responses will seep through, so I must admit that mine probably do, although […]

Writing challenge Day 15: The many-hatted writer

Today’s challenge is : ‘We all wear many hats. what are some of yours?’

I’ve worn many hats in my life: daughter, wife, mother; student, civil servant, soldier, translator, company owner, local councillor, editor; friend, colleague, trainer, mentor, traveller, walker, non-resident, explorer; photographer, embroiderer, gardener. Currently I write, give workshops, write a column and speak […]

Writing Challenge Day 14: Show your workplace

I hope you didn’t expect a tidy and sleek office?

My office is a place full of paper, books, notes, pens, files, cup of coffee, lights, noticeboard, etc. Our super-tough birchwood work stations came over to France with us ten years ago, plus the IKEA office cupboards which […]