Pathos is down on its luck these days; appeals to emotion are bound up in reasonable fears of ‘post-truth’ and ‘populist’ writing, but I’m here to tell you that intelligent use of pathos can make your fiction better. Now, pathos certainly has its dark side. Many of the TV, radio, and internet adverts we’re bombarded …
Pathos Is Not A Dirty Word, And It Belongs In A Writer’s Vocabulary Read More »
You know that famous phrase, ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’? How about, ‘fake it ‘til you make it’? And what about, ‘to the left, to the left, everything you own in a box to the left’? Okay, that last one is totally irrelevant to this article, but still a stone-cold classic from Beyoncé’s …
How To Get Away With Using Real People In Your Story Read More »
Ah, the humble paragraph. If not the most basic tool in the writer’s toolbox, then certainly in the top five. Of course, like any basic tool, we take it for granted, to the point where many writers don’t know how much they can get from managing their paragraphs or, worse, are making basic mistakes that …
5 Ways Your Paragraphs Are Broken (That You Can Fix) Read More »
The ‘how long?’ question has to be one of the most commonly asked by new authors – perhaps even experienced ones, too. It was certainly one of the first to pass my lips when I met my editor to discuss my first children’s book. “What’s the age range?” she asked me when I broached the …
How Long Should Your Book Be? The Complete Guide Read More »
