advice | Alison Morton Author

Are you a pantser or a plotter?

Photo courtesy of Jessica Bell

Do you sit down at the keyboard and just write, a vague idea of the characters and their story swirling around in your head? Do you just throw stuff at the characters and see what happens? Then you’re a pantser* who writes by the seat of […]

Copyright scam – A salutary experience

The other week, I received a very legal seeming email for a German based company called Copytrack alleging that I had breached copy right of a photographer they represented and demanding the following:

Image license (valid for 1 year from date of purchase) 389€ Compensation costs (past usage) 350€ Payment due June 5 2025

(Can’t […]

How to enjoy a productive writing life

Photo of Alison Morton writing at her desk

Writing as a life choice isn’t easy. It’s actually a bit mad. But those who have the urge just can’t stop.

However, everybody will give you advice and I suppose I’m doing the same here. 🙂

Not advice about punctuation, dialogue or how to set the scene or bring characters to life – that’s craft […]

Lorna Fergusson – Tapping into Sensory Memory in France

Absolutely delighted to have Lorna Fergusson back on the blog after a 10 year absence! Apart from being a skilled and evocative writer, she’s a writing coach, editor and speaker. Her work includes The Chase and An Oxford Vengeance.

She runs Fictionfire Literary Consultancy and has taught on various Oxford University writing programmes since […]

Minding your language – foreign and cursing

Republished As a language nerd, certified translator and writer of fiction (and in a previous existence of proposals, reports, corporate documentation, advertising and PR copy), I’ve always been interested in the power of words. Tone, style and formality as important as context.

Although multi-lingual, I write in my mother-tongue English, but when writing a story […]