What does a book editor do? (And do I need one?)
When you can’t see the wood for the trees, an editor can bring out their chainsaw or clippers, cut out the dead wood, prune your sentences, and give your words room to breathe. Many editors also specialise in certain genres and stages of production.
How to practise self-care as a writer
Never has it been so important to look after every aspect of my life in this current incarnation. I’m going to share some of the strategies that have worked for me and other authors in this blog. Hopefully it will help you, and also serve as a reminder that I need to practice what I preach…
On creating characters
When this comes to finding characters for my stories, I usually don’t have a problem. I think about an idea for someone, and then look at what events in their culture or childhood have shaped them the way they are. Then I ask what their wants and needs are at the start of the story and how I can make it difficult for them to achieve what they desire.
150 Romance novel tropes
Tropes are everywhere. In Shakespeare, Austen, everyday language and your favourite TV shows. Tropes are common situations in narratives that help structure a story. ‘Enemies to Lovers’ is a very popular trope which can be found in The Taming of the Shrew, Pride and Prejudice, The Hating Game, and You’ve got Mail. Tropes are commonly used story devices that we all recognise on some level.
Three things I wish I knew before I started writing, and three things I’m glad I didn’t.
Writing is a deceptively complicated business. I’d devoured books all my life and spent my life using words in one form or another. How hard could it be to put them in an order that resulted in a book? Here are the three things I wished I had known before I set sail in HMS Blissful Ignorance to write (and actually finish) my first full length story.
How to Write the First Draft of a Book
Every writer has their process, their way of getting from an idea in their head to words on a page. The first draft is one of the biggest milestones in the publishing process and I wanted to share how I got to the first draft of book three in the Kinloch series.
What is a Beta Reader?
Beta readers come in lots of different forms, and authors have their own definitions of what makes one, but essentially, a beta reader is someone who reads your work before it is published and offers their opinion. I’ve used beta readers in many ways and have found them absolutely instrumental in my writing process.
The dangerous internet search history of an author
What does the internet search history look like for other authors? How weird could it get? How dodgy could it look? I asked around the writing community, and holy guacamole there are some good stories out there.
On finding stories
I love meeting new people because I want to find out what their stories are, what brought them to this exact moment. I’m the person you don’t want to sit next to on a plane as I want you to lay your life and your soul out for my delectation. The more different your experiences are to mine, the more I want to gobble them up.
All About The Good Bits
Have you ever read a romance novel and skipped to the, ahem, ‘good bits’? I know I have. Not only that, but I have a couple of books on my kindle that are so blisteringly hot that I often find myself re-reading these special pages. If you’re the kind of person who skips to the juicy parts of a romance novel, then I’m about to blow your minds and maybe some extra bits as well. Are you ready?
