writing techniques Archives

Guest post by my friend Hank Quense: Creating Stories

April 18, 2017

Recently I’ve been reading “Creating Stories” by my friend Hank Quense. It covers slightly different, more advanced ground than -“From Story -idea to Reader. I think they’re both excellent books. Take it away, Hank! My recently published Creating Stories has everything I’ve leaned about writing stories over the last twenty years. Below is an extract on plotting. Learn more at Amazon. From Chapter 6: Constructing a plot A plot…

The importance of printouts.

I’m proof-reading. That means that the Spanish version of my children’s anthology, “The Seer’s Stone” has been laid out ready for printing, and I’m going through it with a fine tooth comb, looking for mistakes. Actually, it’s the second time through. I found a worrying number of mistakes last time. Mostly (I hasten to add) stuff like extra/missing spaces, and capitalising words which would be capitalised in English, but which…

October 20, 2014

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Word Crimes

There’s lots I love about this video. But. Look, I get irritated by careless writing and wilful ignorance. Most writers do. Readers aren’t telepathic. If you want to communicate, don’t expect your readers to puzzle their way around your bad English; make the effort to write clearly. Especially if you expect lots of readers. Which is more reasonable: one writer making an effort, or 200 readers? Still and all, I…

July 25, 2014

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Just finished reading “The Heretic”

This is only the second Bernard Cornwell book I’ve read, and I loved it. OK, so it wasn’t particularly deep, but I was rooting for the hero and the plot zipped along like an express train, which is just what I wanted. The hero is Thomas, an English archer tootling around France in 1347. Since this is during the Hundred Years’ War, it’s not the healthiest place to be. He’s…

January 6, 2009

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