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My last post was about not blogging, and hey, guess what? So's this one. This is probably not a very good blog post for me to write, but I’m going to do it anyway. I have some news for you. You don’t have to blog. This is probably not really news to anyone. But perhaps… Continue reading You don’t have to blog

My poor little blog is feeling a bit neglected, but I’ve been pretty busy and my brain is apparently not in the mood to conjure up any useful and inspiring content. So here, for a bit of Friday fun, are some the blog posts I could have (had I but words enough, and time) written… Continue reading The posts I didn’t write

In this series of blog posts, I look at how you can approach editing your own work in a similar way to how professional editors approach their clients’ work. One of the things a lot of people misunderstand about the professional editing process is what it is we actually do. Everyone seems to know we… Continue reading Self-edit like a pro: Notes, notes, notes

In this series of blog posts, I look at how you can approach editing your own work in a similar way to how professional editors approach their clients’ work. Writing and editing are two very different beasts. Writing is very intense, very personal, a way of expressing all those thoughts that are in your head.… Continue reading Self-edit like a pro: Look differently

In this series of blog posts, I look at how you can approach editing your own work in a similar way to how professional editors approach their clients’ work. Whether you write in Word, Pages, Scrivener, or another piece of software, chances are there is at least one feature of it that you’ve never discovered… Continue reading Self-edit like a pro: Get to know your tools

This week I’ve been to a fiction editors mini-conference, superbly organised by the lovely Carrie O’Grady and Sarah Calfee. It was a great opportunity for a lovely day of CPD and networking. I can hear some of you scoffing at the placement of “networking” and “lovely” in the same sentence. I get it. Networking used… Continue reading Networking works

In a new series of blog posts, I look at how you can approach editing your own work in a similar way to how professional editors approach their clients’ work. You've finished a draft. Yay! Go you! Seriously, go you. So many people never make it that far. But you’ve still got a long way… Continue reading Self-edit like a pro: Don’t be one editor. Be three

It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you write stuff, you have to edit stuff. Editors exist and we’re marvellous people and you should all hire us, obviously, but even if you do that, you’re going to have to do a bit work beforehand. Well, I mean, you don’t have to. It’s not like… Continue reading New Series: Self-edit like a pro

A question I often see from new authors is “How can I make sure the reader has enough information about the world my characters live in?” It’s a good question. World-building can be really hard. Even if your world is, or is based on, this real one, you have to firmly establish that in the… Continue reading Turning words into worlds

One of my favourite pastimes is going on Facebook and asking one of my editors’ groups about how they use a particular swear word or phrase. (Look, I don’t get out much.) The group is very international, and I often need that perspective, particularly when I’m editing in a variety of English that isn’t my… Continue reading Across the fucking pond