Writing skills | Alison Morton Author

Taking it on the chin

Who’d be a critic? I’m not talking about the flesh-tearing but insecure ego-tripper as in Sebastian Faulks’ A Week in December, but more somebody who assesses manuscripts and/or mentors writers.

Sending your baby out for review produces numbing fear in a writer; desperate for feedback, but scared the reviewer/assessor/critic will deem it a heap of […]

Conflicting advice and making your own decision

Conflicting advice is the very devil, especially if it’s given by different well-respected and hugely experienced writers. Especially when you’ve paid for it from a well-researched and carefully selected specialist or it comes via a highly professional writing organisation.

Like most newbie writers, I am passionate, energetic and in love with my story and characters. […]

How could I forget FOW YorK?

How very strange! I forgot to blog about the Festival of Writing at York. Actually, I didn’t forget. I’ve been so busy implementing things I learnt in the workshops, integrating wise pieces of advice I received and remembering stimulating and thoughtful conversations I enjoyed.

York was about people: authors, publishers, agents, to be sure, but […]

The big print

Post-machete, post-rewrite of scenes, post-restructuring, I may possibly have kneaded the flabby dough of my master-work into some kind of presentable product. The plot has changed, the tension ramped up, the prose decimated and a sting in the tail (tale?) injected into the ending.

I’ve printed the whole thing out, double-spaced, ready for the tooth-comb. […]

A brain flash…

Perhaps I’ve been a bit slow, but I had a light bulb moment when munching my croissant this morning.

I’ve been playing around with some ideas for a one-sentence ‘hook’ for my novel INCEPTIO and have been researching, scribbling, thinking about it over the past few days. Scanning the Radio Times at breakfast, I read […]