The question of how to have ideas isn’t just for people working in explicitly creative roles: if you’ve got a job, any job, sooner or later someone will expect you to think stuff up. When I was at school doing my ‘A’ levels, I worked as a hospital cleaner. My manager was always asking me […]
Why read science fiction? Perhaps surprisingly, it’s not about science. Given that so many of us have been reading science fiction for years, you’d think the answer to this question would be obvious, wouldn’t you? Especially as my new year resolution for 2017 is to read more contemporary sci-fi. It’d seem strange if I didn’t […]
Whatever you’re working on, you too can write excellent introductions by rethinking your writing process, and by taking a tip from journalism. 1. Write Your Introduction Last Seriously. That’s because I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen writers stuck at the first sentence because they’re trying to write the introduction first. But […]
No, it’s not about your (or my) favourite pasta dish. Macaronic is a term referring to mixed language. You hear a lot of it around diaspora peoples and their descendants, who have a habit of peppering one language with terms and idioms in another. Here’s the definition from my Chambers dictionary app: Now, without further […]
In which our writer heroine perches on a huge, wobbly pilates ball and finds she can’t think of anything except falling off it. The best thing about being a freelance writer is that I can work from pretty much anywhere. Yup, I’m a location rebel. All I need is a reasonable internet connection and my […]
You’ve all seen them. You’ve all clicked on them. No use being coy, because I know it’s true – you clicked on this one, didn’t you? But I hate the things. I mean, list articles may be the most popular type of online article, but is this really a recommendation? In a world where the […]
Throughout June 2016 I’ll be blogging every day – not about writing, but about nature. Here’s why. Maybe you don’t know this, but one of my great loves is wildlife. For most people that’s a word which conjures up images of David Attenborough getting up close and personal with a gorilla, or Chris Packham holding […]
Lately I’ve been devoting time, energy and money to the process of drawing up a set of contracts for my freelance writing services. If you’re a freelance creative, you should do the same. Why? Because I’m now convinced that a tightly drawn contract is worth more than its weight in the precious metal of your […]
Thinking of working with a copywriter but don’t know what to expect? Here’s an explanation of how I like to work with my clients, and some advice to help you make sure your copy gets the results you want. Many of my clients tell me that the prospect of working with a copywriter is daunting. […]
Failing to start work well before the deadline is down to sheer laziness, right? Wrong, says an article in Wired magazine. Here’s why I think this idea has significance for writers. Several years ago, I wrote a chapter in a textbook about supporting student writing. I pitched my idea to the editor in plenty of time […]