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Social Animal

This weekend, for the first in a long time, I went out with friends for drinks. Not a big deal, you might say, and you’re right, it’s not a big deal. But it’s something I do not nearly enough. Like many writers trying to get their first novel published, I tend to spend all my… Continue reading Social Animal

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Beware the viper!

Have a little patience, croon Take That in my ear. Sorry guys, but I have a deep seated tendency towards impatience. This week I finished rewriting the last chapter of my novel, leaving only a couple of sections further back that I want to retouch before this draft is finished. My wonderfully overactive, obsessive and… Continue reading Beware the viper!

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Questions, questions.

Since coming clean about this whole writing malarkey I have been asked many, many questions. I thought I would share a few of my favourites. So, when is your book getting published? Are you kidding me? I haven’t even got an agent, let alone a publisher yet. In my dreamiest of dreams it will be… Continue reading Questions, questions.

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The End is Nigh

As of today I have 12,0000 words left of my current rewrite. It is at once hugely elating and absolutely terrifying. It’s taken five months to do, I’ve experienced more frustration, joy and satisfaction then I could have ever imagined and I am very proud of both the novel and myself. But I am still… Continue reading The End is Nigh

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Spot The Simile

As you may be aware I am currently rewriting my novel (it’s nearly ready by the way, which terrifies me) and one of the things I have been trying to do is scale back on my use of metaphors, adjectives and similes. It is incredibly tempting to over describe things when writing and whilst this… Continue reading Spot The Simile

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Hands up, I’m a snob

Unsurprisingly for an English Lit graduate, I love literature. But here is my secret... I am a bit of a literary snob. But not in the way you might think. Ever since I first picked up a penguin classic (Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, by the by) I have been charmed, obsessed and inspired by the… Continue reading Hands up, I’m a snob

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Collaborative Success!

This month saw my name go into print. Not on my own novel, but as part of a collaboration with a chap from my village. The aim? To write a novella, no more than 20,000 words, set in and around our village in Somerset. Other than a poem by Wordsworth, called Anecdote for Fathers, there… Continue reading Collaborative Success!

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Sssshhh, it’s a secret

I have a website. I have a blog. I spend my days banging on about writing on twitter. So it may come as a surprise to hear that, to my nearest and dearest at least, I have kept my writing a secret. Why, you ask? Simple: fear. I had been writing seriously for over a… Continue reading Sssshhh, it’s a secret

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The great pretender, or why it is so damn important to read your own genre!

I am pretty comfortable with my writing voice. I would go so far as to say that I rather like my writing voice, which is a good job as I spend so much time using it. But this week I couldn’t find it. Instead I found myself rather bizarrely writing in a cross over style… Continue reading The great pretender, or why it is so damn important to read your own genre!

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The Perks of Having no Time

Time is all we had, but, as Take That happily remind me, it was never ours to keep. This week time was never mine to begin with. I have had NO TIME. And by no time I mean no time to write. But as I sat down today to write for the first time in… Continue reading The Perks of Having no Time