by Charlie Laidlaw | Dec 6, 2021 | Creative writing courses, diploma writing, Writing courses
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers I like first lines, although I probably take them more seriously than many. Because, for me, the first line is the one sentence in any book that its author has agonised over the most. If that first line jars,...
by Charlie Laidlaw | Nov 29, 2021 | Book research, Creative writing courses, getting started on writing
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers To be credible, a novel must be authentic. It must have authentic characters, good or bad. The story, narrative and dialogue must unfold in places that feel real. Those places and those characters may be...
by Charlie Laidlaw | Nov 24, 2021 | Creative writing courses, Defining an audience, Writing courses
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers Readers engage with books because we’re enthralled with the plot or the characters. We want to keep turning pages because we want to know what happens next. We like the story and the characters that populate...
by Charlie Laidlaw | Nov 16, 2021 | character writing, Creative writing courses, Writing
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers Your only task as an author is to write stories that people will want to read. To keep them turning pages to find out what happens next. But we mostly engage with books because we engage with their...
by Charlie Laidlaw | Nov 14, 2021 | Creative writing courses, Writing, Writing courses
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers Some authors will say that the names of their characters matter. Others will say that it doesn’t matter. Nevertheless, most authors spend a great deal of time thinking up names for their characters. It’s a...
by Charlie Laidlaw | Nov 12, 2021 | book editing, Creative writing courses, getting started on writing
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers A great many new authors worry endlessly about what they’re writing. Often, they worry so much about what they’re writing that they give up. But take the advice of American speculative novelist, CJ Cherryh....
