Words on Writing

Length is how much time a scene takes to read. Pace is how that time feels to the reader. Ten pages can fly past. Two can seem to have been written during the reign of Queen Victoria. Sobefore attacking a perfectly innocent scene with a pair of scissors, here are 5 things I think are worth considering.

Readers know our stories are elaborate fabrications. So why do they suddenly stop believing us. Here are five reasons I think writers can undermine a reader's their confidence in a story.

Amazon provides authors with an impressive range of statistics, But are these numbers helping us make better decisions. Sometimes the best decision is to leave something alone long enough to discover whether it's working.

Writing three novels has taught me that repeated patterns in your fiction is more than just repeating words. It’s repeating yourself. Repetition teaches your reader what you’ll do next. How you respond makes your writing interesting. Or not.

Writers write the book. But a career is something that formsaround the response. Readers help build it. Readers who come back. Readers who tell somebody else. Readers who gradually turn an unknown writer into a writer somebody has heard of.

An old piece of writing advice suggests killing your darlings. But I think there’s something subtler going on when we struggle to let go of an idea. The longer we live with something, the more important it can begin to feel. But we can we learn to question each idea on its own merit.

Sometimes we discover that the more obvious a writing problem is, the less likely it is to be the actual problem. Un this episode we explore the phenomenon of writing problems that appear where something further upstream finally became impossible to hide.

Publishing my first didn't change my confidence nearly as much as it changed my expectations. As a published author, you don't stop worrying. You simply become qualified to worry about more ambitious things.

Becoming a better write it isn't simply putting better sentences on the page. Sure you learn about character, structure, dialogue and point of view. But increasingly, I think what you're really developing is judgement. Let's talk about what better judgement means.

One of the pleasures of becoming a more experienced writer is discovering that some of your best edits involve removing things rather than adding them. You delete the explanation, trust the scene to carry its own weight and allow readers the satisfaction of reaching the conclusion themselves.

When I decided to become a novelist, I thought I knewexactly what the job involved. I'd write the book, edit the book and, eventually, publish the book. Writing a book, I've discovered, occupies perhaps thirty percent of what being an author actually involves. The remaining seventy percent appears disguised as innocent little questions, which become new tasks you need to do.

We often imagine experience brings certainty, but I think the opposite happens. Certainty gradually gives way to discernment. Writing isn't chess, and there usually isn't one perfect move waiting to be discovered. There are thoughtfulchoices, some slightly better than others, and experience slowly teaches you how to recognise them

Many new writers assume the reader's first question is obvious: What happens next? They worry about pace, intrigue, mysteries and whether the exciting should happen sooner. I think the truth is much simpler. Readers fall in love with people, and if they enjoy the company they'll happily follow them almost anywhere.

After publishing my first two Andrew MacKay thrillers, I realised that many of the decisions which later affect howa book is received are made long before anyone opens Photoshop or writes a back-cover blurb. They're made while you're writing the novel itself, sometimes before you've even finished Chapter One.

Nobody appoints writers. No one arrives with an embossed certificate announcing you're qualified to beginChapter One. Writing isn't an identity you earn before you begin. It's what happens after you begin.

Before I started writing novels, I thought plot was all that mattered. But after writing enough attempted manuscripts, I learned reality had little interest in my theories. Readers don't care about plot nearly as much as I thought they did—at least not just plot on its own. What they actually care about is people. Plot is merely the thing happening to those people. In this episode of Words on...

I spent years writing my first book: editing, finding mistakes, and correcting endless more mistakes. Eventually, I published it, assuming the hard part was over. It wasn't. I thought publication was the finish line. It turned out to be the starting pistol.

When you're starting out, you don't know enough to recognizewhich advice matters. You hear it. You nod thoughtfully. Then, if you’re like me, you ignore it completely. Years later, you rediscover it and realize somebody was trying to save you an enormous amount of trouble. Here are six pieces of writing advice I wish I hadn't ignored.

I've published two novels, with a third on the way. I've also spent enough time around writers to notice that most successful authors' careers are built from activities too dull to survive contact with a YouTube thumbnail. In this episode of Words on Writing, James Dunlop, author of the Andrew MacKay thrillers, discusses the things that make author careers, which are often not talked a...

Most advice about endings focuses on resolution. Did the hero succeed? Was the mystery solved? Did the plot deliver on its promises? Those things matter, but they're rarely what readers remember. More often, readers finish a novel with avague sense of satisfaction or disappointment they struggle to articulate. The reason, I suspect, is that every story is really solving two different problems.

Everyone wants artistic success to involve rare creative ecstasy and dramatic bursts of genius. Writing two books taught me that it comes down to discipline. You eventually end up holding a finished book, which feels almost surprising given how consistently the process resembled low-levelclerical work performed under mild psychological strain.

Advanced description problems are harder to diagnose than beginner ones. The prose sounds good, which makes writers protective of it. Unfortunately, readers don’t award bonus points for decorative suffering. Here's how you can create details that imply entire worlds, rather than extremely confident wallpaper.

In self-publishing, reviews matter. They influence readers, visibility, and your mood more than is sensible. One thoughtful review can buoy your week. One odd complaint can have you pacing around with a cup of hot coffee and a keyboard under threat of serious bodily harm. Here's how to survive the opinion market.

What writing advertising campaigns taught me about writing faster without writing worse.

Most self-publishing advice is practical. All of it's useful. Some of it even works. But self-publishing isn’t just a logistical exercise. It’s an emotional one. Here's some advice for dealing with that.