Fi Phillips

Inspired by two trips to the zoo, one in the autumn last year and one this spring.

Be Your Own Book Doctor from the Other Side of the Story discusses how to analyse your own book. Time Management for Writers Who Work From Home on the Bookbaby site has some useful suggestions for handling your writing routine. Endings is an article by Misty Massey on the Magical Words site. Guess what it's about? What changes when you become a published author is a thoughtful podcast from Ian Broome on his Chat Broome site. And finally some wise, writerly words.

Last year, I read an article from Writerly Life called Write in a New Place . It suggests that our location affects our mental state and that as writers we should occasionally switch our writing station for somewhere new. This year, I decided to take the challenge a little further and find lots of new locations for my writing. I like to write alone and usually in silence. Normally, I write at the computer in the dining room/study on a morning. The house is empty with my husband at work and my children at school. I'm aware that this can be distracting however - the sounds of the washing machine, dishwasher and guinea pigs are all audible from there - and my drift of thought is often interrupted. So far this year, I have picked up my writing pad and a pencil or pen and relocated to: the sofa in the lounge (TV switched off), my  bed (when I'm not  tired but the rest of the house is taken by my family), my local library (got a few strange looks there - I don't think they...

You Have Pacing Issues, My Friend is a guest post by Rebecca Ethington on Finding Bliss. Handling Cliffhanger Endings with Multiple POVs is a thought provoking and informative post from The Other Side of the Story. What Writers Need To Know About Tumblr from the Galleycat site offers tips on how writers can use this social network. Although Show the World Your Magic is approaching creativity from the vehicle of art, this article on the Etsy blog by Mati Rose McDonough is well worth a read for writers too. Planning Trilogies/Series is an interesting post  by Diana Pharaoh Francis on the Magical Words site.

I follow the writer Anne Rice on Facebook. Putting her wonderful books aside, she often offers informative and well balanced advice for writers. This is what drew me to her page initially but what she also shares through her Facebook page are some truly insightful questions and topics. Today, she wrote this, "Question: almost all writers today use two hands to write - drawing on the left and right side of the brain. This is after thousands of years of one hand (one side of the brain) writing. Why is it no one is studying this and what effects it might have on writing?... I'm asking how have keyboards influenced artists? Not just writers, but musicians who compose on the piano? And for the piano? Anyone else curious about this?" As a trained typist, typing with both hands is second nature to me. I've been using this skill since my early twenties. Before that I was trained to use both hands to play piano. I'm typing this article now using both my left and ...

Thinking about Plot is a guest post by author Stuart Horwitz on Jane Friedman's site. I've applied Three Questions to Get to the Heart of Your Story to my own novel and it raises some very enlightening queries. Try it for yourself. This is a post by Janice Hardy on The Other Side of the Story. Why Some Books Are Harder To Write Than Others from The Other Side of the Story discusses growing pains as a writer. How To Win More Readers With A Powerful Close is an interesting article from Write To Done. Deleting is a guest post by Jennifer R Hubbard for The Sharp Angle.

Part of being a writer is a love of books. My house is overflowing with books - mine and my family's. I'm running out of places to store them but wouldn't it be lovely to have some of these options?

Little Things that Yield Big Results is a post by David B Coe on the Magical Words site. The Benefits of Talking Through Your Scenes from The Other Side of the Story is a method that I use myself with my long suffering husband. How To Identify Flat Scenes from The Other Side of the Story is an interesting read. How To Write a Scene is an infographic from GalleyCat on, well, how to write a scene. On Endings is a post by Carrie Ryan on the Magical Words site.

That's rich like a good coffee, sumptuous chocolate or the deepest red of a velvety rose, not rich as in financially overflowing (although that one would be good too). How do you achieve and maintain that quality within your writing? 1. In the competitive world of Nanowrimo-esque word counts, it can be tempting to write as much as possible in one go. This can be a useful approach when creating a first draft or tackling NaNoWriMo , just getting the words down, but there is another option that I've recently found to serve me much better. Try to write a little at a time, concentrating on those words, until they are as 'right' as they can be at that moment. I've taken to writing 3-500 words in one sitting, taking my time to reach the correct tone. That might only be a handful of paragraphs but there is nothing to say that you can't have more than one session like this in a day. 2. Don't 'info dump'. Do you like that phrase? I recently came across ...