by Charlie Laidlaw | Apr 12, 2022 | Creative writing courses, diploma creative writing, show and tell, Writing courses
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers In my last post I wrote about “show” and “tell.” Books need both to make narrative sparkle. That requires balance and clear purpose to your writing. So let’s look at that balance in a little more detail....
by Charlie Laidlaw | Apr 6, 2022 | Creative writing courses, diploma creative writing, show and tell, Writing
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers A novel is a work of dramatic art, just like a play, film or TV drama. To convey mood or tension, a film has dialogue, gesture and music. But a novel has to conjure mood and tension from words alone. It’s in...
by Charlie Laidlaw | Mar 21, 2022 | Creative writing courses, diploma creative writing, diploma writing, getting started on writing
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers In previous posts, I’ve looked at different aspects of writing dialogue. It’s an important part of the writer’s skillset, because dialogue develops both plot and character. If your dialogue doesn’t sound...
by Charlie Laidlaw | Feb 25, 2022 | character writing, Creative writing courses, diploma creative writing
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers All of us have conversations every day, some more than others. We should therefore understand how dialogue works because it’s of the everyday. But it’s surprising how clunky some bits of written dialogue can...
by Charlie Laidlaw | Jan 19, 2022 | book editing, Creative writing courses, diploma creative writing
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers You’re writing a book, and one of the first things to learn is that every word carries weight. Some will have more weight than others, and you have to decide whether a particular word is necessary or not. As a...
by Charlie Laidlaw | Jan 10, 2022 | Creative writing courses, diploma creative writing, diploma writing
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers Writing in the past tense is the construct used in most novels by most novelists. We expect it; it doesn’t jar with us and, frankly, it’s easier. It allows you, the writer, to manipulate time – to move...
