writing

  • My Mind Is Blank

    As many of you will know, I’ve been in a shedload of pain recently and I’ve had to stop sewing, crochet…so many of the things I did to distract myself from the shitstorm that 2020 has become. I thought I might be able to try writing again but the laptop weighs a ton (to me)…

  • Don’t talk, write…

    Hello, me again. I haven’t been blogging much recently. Not at all, really. I have all sorts of boring excuses reasons but here we are so let’s just forget about my absence and get to work. I’d like to say that all the time I haven’t been blogging I’ve been writing The Novel. But I…

  • A Dark and Stormy Night: The Weather In Fiction

    I’m typing this in my armchair, looking out at the snow – it’s a blizzard out there! – and listening to a classical music playlist I have on Spotify. It’s my go-to music for almost everything I write that isn’t novel specific. It also seems apt for the winter weather outside – it lends the…

  • A rose by any other name…

    When it comes to ideas of what to write about, I am never short of ideas. One of my main problems is choosing one from among the many ideas flashing around my brain at any given moment. I can usually get a quick grasp on the most important elements of my characters; I can see…

  • I Don’t Know What to Write!

    I’m a terrible procrastinator. I could represent Scotland in the Avoiding What You Should Be Doing olympics, such is my talent for being busy with anything except writing. And does this proficiency make me happy? No. So why do I do it? I was chatting about my low word count to Gary Parkin yesterday evening.…

  • Five Facts About Aurelia Miele

    Many thanks to Angela Barton who passed the “five facts” baton to me. What’s this? Well, writers are sharing five facts about a character from their work in progress. These aren’t necessarily facts you’d learn from the book but may form part of the back story which, as the creators, only the authors know about.…

  • Stabby Words and Cutting Remarks

    Last week Gary Parkin wrote a very good blog post about word lists and why it’s a good idea to use one when you are writing. You can read what he had to say about it here. Basically, Gary makes the point that it can be useful to have a small lexicon of era/genre/character specific…

  • My Creative Process – The Grand Blog Tour

    Firstly, many thanks to Abi Burlingham who nominated me to take part in the Grand Blog Tour for creative types. The whole point of these tours is to encourage new visitors to your blog so if this is your first time at my particular madhouse, hello, welcome and please come again. If you’re a regular…

  • Reader’s Block

    I can’t read any more. I haven’t lost my ability to decode the squiggles on a piece of paper or computer screen, rather, I have lost interest in reading. And as a writer, that is worrying.

  • The Coward’s Tale: A Musical Map and a Publishing Journey with Vanessa Gebbie

    [tweetmeme source=”nettiewriter” http://www.URL.com] I am beyond thrilled to be participating in Vanessa Gebbie’s blog tour to promote the paperback publication of The Coward’s Tale, undoubtedly the best book I have read this year.  You can read what I thought of the book here and visit Vanessa’s own website here. NT: Hi Vanessa, and thank you…