Writing skills | Alison Morton Author

Triskele Lit Fest - friendly and with fizz!

STOP PRESS: video added below!

The historical fiction panel, left to right Jane Davis (chair) Orna Ross, Radhika Swarup, J D Smith and me (see video of session below!)

Scarcely recovered from the Historical Novel Society Conference, I was back on the plane ten days later en route to a rainy London and […]

What the OU did for me and history

David Puttnam congratulating me at the degree ceremony

Study can broaden, widen and enrich your mind – that was a good enough reason for me when I signed up to do an MA in history with the Open University. I’d had to leave studying history at school because it clashed with Latin. (Who […]

Making a readable PDF

“PDF? No thanks.”

How often do you as a writer get that answer back from a possible reviewer, blogger or beta reader? And I can understand it. Truly. My eyes have had enough of squinting at minute text in a silly font when I’ve been asked to read or review a book.

But PDFs (Portable […]

Indie writer? Please don’t do these things

I’ve published 12 books – seven novels, two novellas, a short story collection and two non-fiction (as at 2021) – via the indie route since 2012, but in the preceding three years I learnt how to write for publication. More importantly, I learnt writing techniques: structure, plot, dialogue; how to delete adverbs, adjectives and over-writing; […]

Name that character!

Today, I’m welcoming fellow Romantic Novelists’ Association member Joanna Maitland to talk about naming characters.

After many years publishing Regencies with Harlequin Mills & Boon, Joanna is branching out into new fields as an independent author. With fellow author Sophie Weston, Joanna has just set up Libertà! where readers and writers can meet and share […]