Hard graft | Alison Morton Author

Writing Challenge Day 29: Best accomplishment this month?

Hahaha! Actually, it will be finishing this challenge. 😉

Writing (nearly) daily posts interspersed with posts from some fabulous guests has really exercised my writing muscles. Writing short, hopefully sharp, pieces to a timetable means you gain focus and commitment. Long-form writing like novels can lead to a certain complacency so these blog posts have […]

Writing Challenge Day 22: What's your current word count?

Word count is something writers can and do obsess about!

In fact, it can become a tyranny which I wrote about here. (There are cats and orangutans.)

The new Roma Nova book I’m working on (introduced here) is progressing steadily, if slowly. Word count is now up to 18,000 words, double what it was on […]

Writing Challenge Day 6: How the writing all began

Ampurias mosaic

I’ve always enjoy writing, but not fiction; essays at school (often fictional), civil service papers and reports, business plans, company PR materials, insurance analyses (so exciting!); corporate documentation, brochures, military reports and fifteen years’ worth of translation and editing.

Words fascinate me, how they’re derived, how they’re used and what they […]

A writer's progress, or 'Do not despair'

2012 PR shot

It’s ten years since I started thrusting books on the world and I’d like to I share some expurgated diary extracts and experiences with you.

But first, a word of motivation… You know how they say it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something? If you take a […]

Anna Belfrage – Charting a course through the turbulent seas of imagination

Delighted to welcome long-standing writing friend Anna Belfrage back to the blog!

Had Anna been allowed to choose, she’d have become a time-traveller. As this was impossible, she became a financial professional with two absorbing interests: history and writing. Anna has authored the acclaimed time travelling series The Graham Saga, set in 17thcentury Scotland and […]