Fi Phillips

Sometimes the most concise of writing advice can be the best. This Buzzfeed article - 27 pieces of advice for writers from famous authors - is just that. And here is mine: So only you can tell your story your way.

I'm getting very excited about Christmas this year. I don't know what it is but I can feel the kid in me taking over. I catch myself humming festive songs (my children tell me off while my husband practises his power of selective hearing) and musing over recipes for the day. Most of all, I am ridiculously giddy about giving presents this year.  So I thought I would share my giddiness a little further. For the first twenty four days of December, you will find an advent calendar on my blog. On each of those days, I will post a short piece of writing advice, just a snippet so as not to distract you from your own festive preparations. It's only a handful of days until December. See you then.

Recently, I've been experiencing some problems with the current draft of my novel. I open the document on my laptop, read the chapter I'm working on, then freeze. I know what I want to change and yet the words fail me. My muse is mute. I am stuck. After a couple of days like this where I read and re-read my work, I decided to pick up my pad and pen and write it all down. I copied out the sections that worked and in doing so, found that when I came to the paragraphs I wanted to change, the words just revealed themselves. Whether it was the nature of writing it all down (the intention and focus) that helped me out of my trough, I have no idea. It worked though. Suddenly I could see what I needed to change and what words to use. So if you're stuck with your writing, have a go. If it worked for me, it could work for you too.

I'm a sucker for subscribing to emailed newsletters from writing related sites. The resulting mail is often disappointingly filled with comments on posts or requests to buy things but on occasion, a real gem wings its way to me so I thought I'd share a few with you. From the Write For Your Life blog, an interview with Nicola Morgan on how to write a great synopsis . From the Write It Sideways site, a guest post by Susan Bearman, ' Embracing the (Whole) Writing Process '. From the She Writes community, a guest post by Eugenia Kim, 'Romance of the Writing Life and Where the Writing Happens' . Have a wonderful weekend.