Writer's craft

In the first article on magic in fantasy writing we looked at power scaling, plot armour and plausibility. Here we will look at the different types of magic and, more importantly, the cost of magic. Like many other elements in a constructed world, magic is, effectively, a technology; and technology always has a cost.  Read more

It's not a pretty word, 'blurb'; it smacks of nonsense, or slightly less than entirely honest marketing. Which is unfortunate, because a blurb is a useful and necessary thing; without it, your book is at risk of being a blank text, what you might call a closed book.  Read more

One could probably write a book about researching for a book. It's a big topic and it covers a lot of different subjects and approaches. However, whether you are writing fiction or non-fiction, there are some general principles that are worth paying attention to. In this article, I'll explore some basic ground rules for research.  Read more

Writing a non-fiction book is a very different project to writing a novel; the motivation, purpose, style and approach are quote distinct. ‘Non-fiction', of course, covers a wide range of genres and formats; however, there are some principles that apply across the board. In this article I will explore some of the basic requirements in writing a non-fiction book.  Read more

President Woodrow Wilson once declared (heavens knows why) that the hyphen was ‘the most un-American thing in the world'. Observant readers will have noticed that he couldn't have said this (and no one could have written a report of his words) without a hyphen; thus perhaps proving that the President was blithely unaware of grammatical irony.  Read more