Good description in fiction can produce a sensory reality that makes the narrative wholly immersive. Many academic texts discuss the physicality of fiction and stress its importance. I have to agree with all of this. As a writer and a teacher, I know that describing...
It started with Colin the Cat. I was teaching creative writing. I'd set an exercise where learners were supposed to write a short piece of fiction where the focus was on dialogue. Ordinarily this can be an entertaining exercise and, as always, my learners produced...
During the past few months, for one reason or another, I've found myself not writing erotica. This in itself would not be a problem but, as it transpires, I have been asked to review some books by people who should also have not been writing erotica. In some of the...
With the end of 2010 in sight, and the dubious pleasures of another year looming on the next page of the calendar, I thought it would be prudent to provide a list of the top three things a writer can do to improve their erotic fiction. 1) Sit comfortably. Writing is a...
There’s a common adage that says writers don’t write: they rewrite. This is only half true. If we’re going to be picky, a first draft has to be written before any rewriting can take place. And no one refers to themselves as a rewriter. That just sounds like a fancy...
I was recently discussing book covers with a friend of mine. He argued that the saying, ‘You can’t judge a book by its cover,’ was inherently wrong. He’d recently picked up a book called, ‘The Buxom Blonde Does Anal,’ and he said that the cover was a fairly accurate...
A friend recently asked me how I work out plots. Sometimes I worry that this is a trick question. If you work out a plot so that it's appropriate for a genre, that suggests your writing is formulaic. That said, if you don't work out your plot before you start, you can...
Read. You can't write if you don't read. Read books from your favourite genre. Read books that friends recommend. Read books critically. Read books that friends say they've loved. Work out why those books were so well-loved. Read books that friends have hated. Work...
I don't often do mathematics. Even simple arithmetic. My head isn't designed for it. At school a teacher once asked, me: "If you have five apples in one hand and four apples in the other, what do you have?" My response was: "Fucking big hands." It wasn't the worst...
As a teacher I get asked many questions. "What was Shakespeare's last name?" remains one of my favourites. Only last night, during one of the creative writing lessons I was teaching, a student asked me if I'm a full time writer or if I have another job. "I do some...