Fi Phillips

Story Abounds is a thought provoking article from Wired For Story. The Biggest Problem with Writing Advice is an interesting article from Write It Sideways. Top 10 Writing Tips is a post on the website of crime writer, James McCreet. Well worth a read. Risky Business by Tania Hershman on the Writers & Artists site suggest that taking a risk can improve our writing. And finally, a little visual advice from Leslie Gordon Barnard.

Is it a passing acquaintance or a life long friend? Do you know all its dirty secrets or are you making a massive number of assumptions? I write murder mystery plays for a living. I started doing this back in 1997 for the am dram group I was  part of at that time. In case you haven't attended one of our murder mystery events, they go something like this: Introduction by the compere. The Play! Interval. The suspects return to the stage to be questioned by the audience. Deduction time. The Verdict. Initially I co-wrote the plays, publicised the plays, acted as producer to my writing partner's director, helped with front of house, occasionally did lights and sound, and also acted on stage. The rehearsal period and production nights were incredibly busy - my hours frenetically filled with all manner of tasks - but ultimately they were was richly rewarding. I quickly learnt the knack of developing an overview of each production, knowing what stage each element was at...

10 Writing Exercises to Break You Out of your Creative Rut is an excellent article on the BookBaby blog. When Is My Story Ready for Publication? is the first part of a topic that is currently being discussed on Writerly Life. Neil Gaiman made a keynote speech at LBF this year which has got people in the publishing industry talking. Here it is . Are you choosing the best words to describe your setting? is an interesting article from The Other Side of the Story. The Elf in the Kitchen is about normalising the unusual in your novel. It's written by Mindy Klasky on the Magical Words site.

One piece of writing advice that has always been thrown at me is this, "Write every day", and for a long time, I took that to mean write your novel or work in practice every day. I tried. I really did. Every Monday morning I would say to myself, "This week I will work on my novel every day". During a very rare, peaceful week, I would succeed but for the most part, I would fail. And every time I failed, I would get angry with myself, doubt myself and basically give my self esteem a good kicking. It took me a long time to realise that, for me at least, what 'write every day' meant is that I should do that exactly. I should write every day but not necessarily write my novel or work in practice. I should write in my diary. I should write small stones. I should write blog posts. I should write letters or emails to friends. I should write down new ideas that came to me. When my family and I went on holiday last week, I knew full well that having any ti...

Shut up and write the book is a post about, well, just getting on with it, from Austin Kleon. This is Secret Two of M R Hall's series, The Secret to Crime Writing. It deals with how to build your central character. Elements of a Successful Ficton Platform is an excellent article by Christina Katz on the Writers Digest site. Irreconcilable Goods is a post by Steven Pressfield about presenting your characters with choices. Tightening Your Sentences is a guest post by Reena Cruz on the Writerly Words site.

How to Write a Killer Logline is a post I need to inwardly digest. Do you have a decent logline? It's from the diy MFA site. Matters of Life and Death on the Magical Words site discusses how to use death (killing off a character) in your book. Four Steps to a Winning Query is a useful post on the diy MFA site. Princess, and some thoughts on writing by Neil Gaiman discusses a miscellany of topics. One particularly interesting subject he touches on is a find from his writing youth. The Rewrite Rules! is a guest post by Bess Weatherby on the diy MFA site.

http://www.defiance.com/en/ I like this time of year because a whole host of TV series, old and new, begin. One which I have been looking forward to is Defiance . As in much of the fiction that I enjoy, there are large areas of grey in this story. We see humans and aliens working alongside each other in peace (even if that peace is troubled, to say the least) and joining to fight those who would threaten their community. With a brilliantly diverse cast of characters, I was already looking forward to discovering this new tale of survival and tenacity, when I found out about an additional element to the Defiance concept. Alongside the TV series, there is a game featuring the same characters and storyline. Now, although this is a moneygrabber, merchandising the game as the TV series is launched, it's also a chance for players to be included in the storyline because the characters of major Defiance game players may appear or  be mentioned in the TV series. This is the first ti...

if these are the kind of bags I can have. I recently came across these on the arms of several American celebrities and, ever the magpie for bookish accessories, I just had to share. I think the Edgar Allan Poe bag is my favourite. Which is yours? Natalie Portman with a Lolita clutchbag from  Vladimir Nabokov  from  http://www.etsy.com/people/spoonfulofchocolate from  http://www.etsy.com/people/spoonfulofchocolate from  http://www.olympialetan.com/

Weaknesses from Magical Words suggests that not only should your hero be flawed but also your villain. There Are Two Kinds of People is a fascinating read from Write It Sideways. Is Your Description Helping Your Story Or Holding It Back? from The Other Side of the Story discusses how to keep your descriptions efficient and effective. This is Secret One from a series of writing advice videos from crime writer, M R  Hall. Premise vs Plot is a guest post by Janice Hardy on Rebecca Belliston's blog. It's part of her March Book Madness series.