NEWS
Here you will find news and views on our three courses, why you should consider enrolling, and updates on absolutely everything!
The language of language
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers First of all, I hope everyone had a good and safe Christmas. For those of you who have been following my blog, I try to give helpful writing tips and advice. Although I’m now a published author, I went up many...
Christmas inspiration
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers At this time of year, the bookshops are filled with cosy Christmas books. And quite rightly so because, even with current uncertainties, it’s the Season to the jolly. (Or as jolly as we can be). My own...
Christmas stories
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers Christmas is a time for fun and frivolity. A time for family gatherings and celebrating what’s really important. For many authors, it’s about creating books that will give their readers a nice warm feeling. ...
Starting at the beginning
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers Every book has to start somewhere, but don’t let the start of your book read like a starting gun. Yes, you can be provocative or shocking, but too much action right at the start can be dizzying. We really...
Writing that first line
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,...
Third-person voice
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers As a writer you have to find your voice. A way of writing that is yours. It’s all about the stories you write and the way you tell them. Finding that voice can be easy or hard; we instinctively understand...
Do your research
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...
Defining your audience
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...
Making things interesting
Charlie Laidlaw is an author and tutor at Creating Writers Most of us live fairly humdrum lives, but that doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t make good novels. We fall in love, we grow older, we fall out of love. We make friends, we lose friends. Our lives are all about...
Thinking up real people
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...
Naming names
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...
Edit, edit, edit
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....