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Ian McEwan published his first novel in the late 1970s, but it wasn’t until the late eighties that he began to sneak into the spotlight, with his 1987 novel The Child in Time winning a Whitbread Award and his 1998 novel Amsterdam winning the Man Booker. Then, in 2001, he blew everyone’s minds with Atonement, his most widely known and successful novel. A remarkably prolific writer despite his …
[Read more...] about 5 Ways Ian McEwan Can Help You Improve Your Writing
Once upon a time, in a grand castle in the heart of medieval Europe, there was a fair maiden by the name of… Tiffany. Wait, what? Don’t you mean ‘Guinevere’ or something? Recently, I outlined the literary problems posed by anachronisms – details that don’t belong in a historical period, like an Edwardian courtier getting a call on his iPhone. We discussed how to avoid anachronisms, how to tell …
[Read more...] about How You Can Overcome The Tiffany Problem In Your Writing
There are many occasions where readers don’t care about historical accuracy. Traditional fantasy stories take place in a semi-medieval period with no clear beginning or end, romance tales tend to soften historical attitudes to create protagonists we can actually root for, and subgenres like steampunk thrive on injecting a little novelty into real history. If that’s what you’re writing, your …
[Read more...] about Anachronisms Kill Historical Fiction – Here’s How To Stop Them
Politics – for some, a fun subject capable of sparking intense, interesting debate. For others, a dry, dull, and confusing thing that your friends fight about when they’re drunk. As anyone who’s read a headline in the past few years will know, we live in politically divided times; in the US especially, politics is downright nasty, with good old intrigue usurped by insults, conspiracies, prejudice, …
[Read more...] about The 4 Golden Rules of Writing Political Fiction
The term ‘synecdoche’ is unwieldy, even unfriendly, but it describes a useful literary device that you’re probably already using at various levels of your writing, from the concepts behind your story to the way you phrase certain sentences. Good synecdoche has a lot of uses, but when it turns bad, it has a uniquely goofy way of screwing up your writing. That’s why, in today’s article, we’ll be …
[Read more...] about What Authors Like You Need To Know About The Use (And Misuse) Of Synecdoche
As a rule, writers have a pretty solid grasp of how to use words. Of course, when we slip up, that just makes it all the more embarrassing, and a certain type of critic loves nothing more than pointing out even the smallest error. Someone who’s supposed to know all about words getting them wrong? How ironic! Actually… is that ironic? If you’re capable of giving a definitive answer, …
[Read more...] about What Writers Like You Need To Know About Irony And Sarcasm
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