On Writing
Thoughts on outlining …
You don’t have to spend a lot of time outlining your book, but if you don’t, then writing it is likely to take longer than it should and the whole process will become more uncomfortable. But how do you go […]
On Writing
Only you know where the bodies are buried …
First drafts are where you make your mistakes So, don’t worry about putting content in the wrong place, or including material that you later delete or have to radically alter. So, what if you get the structure wrong to begin […]
On Writing
Do you write best under pressure …
Some authors I work with tell me they write best under pressure. They believe that, but I’m not sure it’s true. The reason they think is probably more down to the fact that if they are under pressure then they […]
On Writing
Planning your book …
Writing a book is a project that needs to be planned into your life. So, let’s say you want to complete a book in the next three months, which you can do if the book isn’t too long and is […]
On Ghostwriting, On Writing
The attention span myth …
There’s a nasty little trope going around, which is that people won’t read anything long anymore because they don’t have the attention span. Pedlars of this idea will point to TikTok and Twitter as evidence. Attach some bad science and […]
On Writing
Aren’t you a fancypants …
The reason people read non-fiction books is to learn stuff and gain insights. And generally, you need to make that as easy as possible for them. Not doing so seems counterproductive. If you want an analogy, it would be like […]
On Writing
On finding ideas …
Ideas are all around us. So, you don’t need to create them, you just need to find them and then put them together. As Stephen King put it in his book ‘On Writing’: “There is no Idea Dump, no Story […]
On Writing
What you know makes you unique …
Whenever you doubt whether you should write a non-fiction book or not, take heart from this quote by thriller writer, Stephen King: “What you know makes you unique . . . Be brave.” The lesson I think here is to […]
On Writing
Belief or truth …
When you care passionately about something, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking it’s your way or the highway. You could be right of course. But then again, there will almost certainly be others writing the opposite of […]
On Writing
The certainty of uncertainty …
One of the ‘rules’ of writing is that you shouldn’t be wishy-washy in your writing. Everything should be written with certainty. No perhaps, or maybe etc. But how does this square when the world is wishy-washy? Not black and white […]