Writing skills | Alison Morton Author

Distractions

What? Oh, yes. I just have to finish my coffee, load the dishwasher, clean the cat’s bowl, check my Facebook author page, nip on to Twitter – but only for five minutes – do the filing, have a Skype with my critique partner…

Um, what book?

Even writing this blog is a distraction. So why […]

Conflict for characters - how to make a decision

How do you make a decision? Whether it’s buying a new pair of shoes, going to law or plunging into a new life in a different country and culture, it’s a complicated question.

First of all, there’s an instinctive reaction to the decision: you see, you want, you say yes. Then your brain kicks in: […]

So what makes a good read?

As I promised in the previous post, I’ve turned my beady eye to current bestsellers and read through some of the Amazon bestselling rankings reviews. These are some of the words the readers and critics used about them:

The Thread – Victoria Hislop Twin timeline, discovery, history, fast narrative, sense of pace, fresh, intrepid storytelling, […]

Why I started writing novels

I started writing novels all of a sudden in May 2009. Why? To tell a story, of course, a story that had been squatting in my head and slowly brewing for over ten years. It was sparked into life by a visit to the cinema.

I’d always fancied the second male lead in the film […]

What's a thriller?

When I mentioned to a new friend that I wrote thrillers with an alternate history setting, she batted aside (or maybe ignored) the alternate history bit and asked, “What do you call a thriller, then?”.

Er, isn’t it obvious? Apparently not.

Merriam-Webster defines a thriller as “a work of fiction or drama designed to hold […]