Writing skills | Alison Morton Author

Christmas cake and childhood memories that make us… and our characters.

The minute I announced on Twitter that today I was going to make The Christmas Cake, memories of cinnamon, oranges, brandy and cake mix poured into my head.

I saw myself aged six or seven standing by my mother at the kitchen table. It was half-term and my mother, a teacher, had that precious week […]

The end of book2

No, I haven’t killed off my second book. My self-edits are over and the typescript has gone to a beta reader. So what did the process involve?

First of all, I check my event grid. This is my table of contents, a brief summary of events in each chapter; who says what to whom, what […]

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 […]

Wielding the red pen – catharsis or disaster?

I like the red pen. Many say it’s crushing, demeaning, aggressive. I find it’s clear and an excellent contrast to black type on white paper. and at this stage, I want clear.

As an unpublished writer, I haven’t had the experience of my work being edited by a professional publishing house editor, but […]

Confronting my first novel...

When I starting this scribbling business in 2009, I wrote the second part of my trilogy first. I didn’t know I had at the time. I sat down one morning in front of my computer and typed for three months.

As a professional translator, I knew it would have to edit anything I produced. I […]