Today I’m going to answer a reader question about forging a career as a writer. Leanne recently got in touch with me, shared a bit of her life story, and told me about all the writing she’s done over the years. This included journals, stories about her family and school days, stories for her grandchildren,…
Many of us find the New Year a great time for new goals. So, you might be thinking about your writing now, what you can achieve this year, or how to fit more writing into your days and weeks. So, I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you what it’s like to work…
Entering writing competitions is a very popular tactic among writers. So today, I want to explore the pros and cons of competitions, to give you the best possible chance of success. A bit like gambling, entering a writing competition can be thrilling, because it’s hard to resist daydreaming about being the winner. But are they…
When I started writing, many years ago, I’d regularly go to talks with industry folk. One particular bit of advice stuck with me over the years, because I heard it many times. And that was this: as soon as you finish one script (or novel), start working on the next one. That way, when the…
We all have days when, no matter what we do, we just can’t make ourselves sit down and write. For some of us, these dry spells can stretch on for days, weeks or even months. There are so many tempting distractions luring us away from the blank page! So today I want to do a deep…
Today I’m going to share 11 helpful strategies for helping you to build your stamina, especially when embarking on a long piece of writing. These exact strategies helped me to write multiple feature length scripts, and develop an animation series, without running out of steam or getting burnt out. Sometimes we jump into a big…
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve shared tips about the end of the process – when you are completing a draft and getting ready to submit it. This week I’m going to do something a little bit different. I’m going to take you back to the start of the process, and share some writing…
Last time I talked about how to know when you’re ready to stop editing. Today I want to talk about what to submit when you approach agents, publishers or producers. If you’re submitting a manuscript to publishers, it’s a little bit different to submitting a screenplay to producers. But there are some commonalities between…
In response to a couple of reader questions, this week, I’m going to talk about when to stop editing, and start submitting our work. As with most things in life, there is no one neat answer that will work for every writer in every situation. However, here are 3 general things to bear in mind.…
Today I want to talk about the benefits of plugging away until you get to the end. When embarking on a piece of writing – especially a long piece that’s going to require a lot of time and stamina, I’m a firm believer in the power of getting your first draft written as quickly as…
