Fi Phillips

Sometimes I get mired down in (re)writing and (re)shaping my novel. It all starts to turn into a grey  blur and my energy levels dive. I've been working on my novel for a long time, learning about writing along the way, and fitting it in between running my script writing business and family time. On occasion, I lose sight of the light at the end of this creative tunnel but I've come too far to give up now. When all of this happens, I stop and revisit my characters. I look at what I love about them, perhaps examine their appearances in my story too and generally reacquaint myself. One of my favourite characters is Bodrn, a darkling. She has the ability to be in shadow form (literally, a shadow) or in solid form. She is my shapeshifter. On the Better Novel Project website, Christine Frazier talks about shapeshifting characters in her article 3 Roles of the Shapeshifter Character Archetype . I think Bodrn stands for the role of trust (the second in the article's list). Do yo...

It's half term holidays here and I'm already having to separate my children to stop arguments turning into violence. It makes me think that parents are probably the best at writing fight scenes - we certainly have plenty of inspiration. Joyce Scarborough's article Writing Fight Scenes Without Melodrama on Fiction University lays out her slant on how to write a fight scene. It's worth knowing that Joyce's husband is a boxer so she has a real insight into the mechanics of the subject.