Long sentences are bad, we are told. The enemy of plain English. Today the average sentence is 14.4 words long, and that’s less than a quarter of what it was 200 years ago. The UK Government has gone as far as to mandate a maximum count of 25 words in official publications. (For reference, if…
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Next up is my first Furious Fiction entry for March 2018: Walpiri. This is my first entry into the competition. I’m not sure I quite captured what I was after, but I only had 500 words and three days, so maybe I was shooting too high. I’ve simplified since. The elements for this month: The…
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The winners of the 2017 NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge have just been announced, and I am pleased to announce I am one of them! Sort of. My final story landed me an ‘honourable mention’, sufficient for a handful of minor prizes, but just outside the cash. I’m totally excited about the outcome and proud…
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For those of you who have been hanging out to see how I fared in the next round of the NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge following my success in the first heat, I am pleased to announce that my next story, Crossing the Thin Blue Line, just won through the second heat! This time the…
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My word of the week is sonder. It’s not even a real word. According to the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, sonder means: The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around…
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If you, like me, love receiving a barrage of writing-related emails, or adding more expert writing advice to your already-can’t-quite-keep-up-with-it-all Facebook/Twitter feed, then have I got a belated Christmas gift for you. Below are five of my favourite online writing resources. Don’t dally – go sign up to their e-newsletters and social media feeds right…
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I just hatched a Pikachu from a 2km egg. The moment has changed my life. Let me explain. My boys and I have been playing Pokemon Go for a few weeks now. We have traveled dozens of kilometres together, caught hundreds of pokemon, battled a few gyms, hatched countless eggs. I even spend my lunch…
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Wow. Independence Day: Resurgence was certainly something. I’m just not sure what that something was. As a student of writing, I was completely flummoxed by this movie. It wasn’t that the dialogue was horrible (though mostly it was) or that the plot was poor (because it wasn’t, if considered only in the broadest terms), it…
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I was fortunate enough to attend a brief writing class with Jack Heath last night. According to his website, Jack Heath is the author of sixteen action-packed novels for young children. From my own experience I can add that he is also a clear and engaging presenter who is well-versed in his craft. It was…
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I came across this review of Hunters in the Dark by Lawrence Osborne, written by none other than Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher novels. I’ve pulled out his intro below, which contains an uncomplicated and practical definition of ‘literary’ as opposed to ‘suspense’ writing. A valuable distinction for genre writers wanting to move…
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