Writing Outside the Box

In order to make memories, you have to actually do things! Travelling, day trips, evenings out - it's all part of living a better life...

This month is going to be all about how to use your own personal experiences in fiction. This week we'll look into making memories -...

Now I've told you a bit about reconsolidating, you might be wondering why it's actually important. Here are a few reasons: 1. Integrity....

As I discussed in the last post, reconsolidating is the final stage that we'll be looking at this month in the editing process. That's...

Editing is definitely the hardest thing for an author to do. You've spent hours, days, months writing, so why would you want to get rid...

This week's reading is a flash fiction by Jose Louis Lucero from the literary magazine Mistake House. If you missed it, you can find it...

A flash fiction is a very short story, usually only consisting of a few hundred words, although there is no real boundary. If you are...

This month, our focus is going to be types of story. We'll start by looking at flash fiction - don't forget to read this week's story...

The next plot we're looking at is the fall-rise plot, also known as the man in a hole plot: This tale invokes a more emotional response...

The fall-rise-fall plot (also known as the Oedipus plot) looks like this: This plot is named after Sophocles' play Oedipus Rex. The...

It's the last week of this month's theme - features of writing. We're going to be looking at plot. The idea for a plot is probably the...

I've talked a lot about how to make a realistic setting, but how do you make a fantasy setting seem believable? My top tip is much the...

One of your first considerations when writing a story should be setting. Where is it set? Does the location change or do your...

This week we're going to be focusing on setting. Generally speaking, settings are either fictional or real. If you're going for a...

Second person is much more obscure in story writing. This means using the pronouns 'you', 'your', 'yourself', etc. So why write in the...

First person is one of the most common perspectives to write your story in. This means using the pronouns 'I', 'me', 'my', etc. So why...

It's a new week and another new theme - this week we're focusing on point of view. Point of view is a great follow on from character:...

Realistically, the more relatable your character is, the more likely people are to keep reading your story. There are certain ways to do...

This week's reading focus was The Possibility of Evil by Shirley Jackson. Whilst it isn't as modern as the other pieces we've looked at...

In this post, I am going to be focusing on how to give your character a background. This week's reading does this particularly well, and...