I have to say that books and reading have been a big bright spot in an otherwise extremely difficult year. There were times where I did struggle to focus – the pandemic was so distracting and, at times, frightening – but it was such a comfort to come back, time and again, to the joyous

The convention goes that there are two types of writers – plotters and pantsers. I seem to fall somewhere in between. But I don’t expect the term ‘plontser’ to take off any time soon. The reality is, writers exist on a spectrum of plotting – everyone does it to varying degrees before they write. but

Let’s start at the beginning. What is a scene? A scene is a section of your novel in which there is either dialogue or action, that is, your characters are doing something and that something is playing out in real time. Think of a play or movie – they’re built on scenes – and so

So, you’ve made your four key decisions – you have a character, a setting, and you know which tense and point of view you plan to use. You may or may not have outlined your plot, but you want to start writing. Great! Where does your story actually begin? Or, in other words, what should

In theory, there are two types of writers – the plotters and the pantsers, or in other words – the planners versus the non-planners. In reality, writers exist across a spectrum. Some, like Jane Harper, write extensive and detailed plot plans before they write a single word of the book. Others, like Liane Moriarty plan