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First drafts

Is It Better To Be A Hopper Or A Marcher?

May 20, 2020 by Robert Wood 1 Comment

Is It Better To Be A Hopper Or A Marcher?

The first draft of your book is where the ‘writing’ really begins. You can spend years imagining a story – planning out the setting, building up the world, marinating in the minds of your characters – but until there are words on a page, it’s all theoretical. This is why authors, editors, and agents alike give budding writers the same advice; start writing. None of the rest of it matters until you …

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5 Ways John Steinbeck Can Help You Improve Your Writing

July 3, 2019 by Fred Johnson 2 Comments

5 Ways John Steinbeck Can Help You Improve Your Writing

After winning the Nobel prize in 1963, celebrated American author John Steinbeck (of The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and Of Mice and Men fame) said: If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another. The formula seems to lie solely in the aching urge of the writer to convey …

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3 Ways Martin Amis Can Help You Improve Your Writing

April 22, 2019 by Fred Johnson 3 Comments

3 Ways Martin Amis Can Help You Improve Your Writing

In 2008, Martin Amis, the maverick son of celebrated novelist Kingsley Amis, was named by The Times as one of the best British writers since 1945. This wasn’t such a shock; along with Salman Rushdie and Ian McEwan, Amis had dominated the British literary world since the 1980s, with classics such as Money, Time’s Arrow, and London Fields cementing his reputation as a sharp stylist, an acerbic …

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Why You Should Finish Your First Draft As Quickly As Possible

September 5, 2018 by Fred Johnson 17 Comments

Why You Should Finish Your First Draft As Quickly As Possible

If there’s one writer who’s (thankfully) incapable of shutting up about the writing process, it’s beloved American horror icon Stephen King. In his fantastic and much-quoted On Writing, he says, The first draft of a book – even a long one – should take no more than three months, the length of a season. – Stephen King, On Writing And, ever since On Writing’s publication in 1999, we eager …

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7 Ways to Supercharge Your Writing Over NaNoWriMo

October 22, 2015 by Robert Wood 2 Comments

7 Ways to Supercharge Your Writing Over NaNoWriMo

November is National Novel Writing Month, a not-quite-celebration, not-quite-competition all about helping authors write the first draft of their novel in thirty days or less. Generally known by the abbreviated NaNoWriMo, the practice is incredibly popular and has quickly outgrown its original title to become an international phenomenon. Despite this, a lot of authors miss out this potentially …

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