Useful stuff | Alison Morton Author

Sorting out a boring paragraph...

I was editing my second book, a speculative fiction thriller (see previous post). I came upon one of those paragraphs I must have written at midnight after a very busy day with irregular meals and a lot of alcohol.

The characters made it from A to B, they had a conversation of two lines and […]

How Filofax kept me organised at the RNA Conference

Remember Filofax? Like many people in the 1980s, I toted a black, approx A5 sized leather folder which not only contained my diary, notes and address book, but also expenses sheets, stamp and card holders, to do lists, maps, vocabulary lists – in short, my life.

Came the electronic revolution, I waved it bye-bye. The […]

Helping to track the timeline of a story

Writing the first book of my Roma Nova stories, I found I needed to develop a tracking system not only of the action but also of its timing.

It’s so easy when engrossed in producing any story, let alone a thriller, to inadvertently get events in the wrong sequence or introduce a character to another […]

Writing buddies a.k.a. critique partners

With my writing buddy Denise at the RNA Conference

Update (April 2018) at the end

I enjoyed a ‘writerly’ evening with another novel writer, Denise Barnes who is also preparing her first fiction work. She’s already published a non-fiction book which can be seen at her site.

We swap hints and tips, recommend […]