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I just finished reading the book, Beautiful Writers by Linda Sivertsen. She runs the Book Mama website and the Beautiful Writers Podcast. In the book, she shares her writing journey and sparks each page with remarkable and honest advice from famous authors we admire. As a young writer in Los Angeles, Linda Sivertsen was hungry to be more like her literary...
Continue reading...writing-tips
The Crime of Poison: A perfect murder weapon in the mystery books
written by Jessica Hope (guest post) Give me a decent bottle of poison and I’ll construct the perfect crime. Agatha Christie Made famous by the likes of Agatha Christie in her captivating novels, poison has become the popular choice of weapon in mystery books. From Murder Is Easy, to Sparkling Cyanide, Christie had an incredible ability to build complex narratives around...
Continue reading...Grotesque: abnormally large, shockingly ugly, distorted, and ludicrously odd
I have a remedy against thirst, quite contrary to that which is good against the biting of a mad dog. Keep running after a dog, and he will never bite you; drink always before the thirst, and it will never come upon you. François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel, book 1 Have you ever wondered what a grotesque world would look like?...
Continue reading...Aspects of the Novel
No book worth its salt is meant to put you to sleep, it’s meant to make you jump out of bed in your underwear and run and beat the author’s brains out. Bohumil Hrabal, Czech novelist There’s a book called Aspects of the Novel, a series of lectures from E. M. Forster, written in 1927. I haven’t read it myself...
Continue reading...10 Eye-Opening Writing Rituals from Great Writers
The author should die once he has finished writing. So as not to trouble the path of the text. Umberto Eco The truth is (social distancing or not), I am still a very disorganised author. How could I publish so many books? 🤨 I don’t know. That’s why I’m diving in into some rituals of the greatest, in hope to learn a...
Continue reading...Interview with Sabina Gabrielli Carrara
I managed to grab a quick word with Sabina Gabrielli Carrara, author of the murder mystery novels ‘Field of lies’ & ‘Black Souls’, for a short interview… Q: Why do you write? What motivates you to write? Sabina: Simply because I like it, I always did. Q: What kind of books did you love growing up? Sabina: As a child, I liked fantasy....
Continue reading...“The Story Grid”, Shawn Coyne #takeawaykeys
What your characters say they are is NOT who they are… What they do is the key. Shawn Coyne 1. Think in 5 principles, the bricks for any successful story: TIME, SUBSTANCE, STYLE, STRUCTURE, CONTENT. 2. Learn your genre – there’s a great collection (with examples) of differences between each genre. I can’t mention them all (only some), but read...
Continue reading...The anatomy of a thriller
Dan Brown’s masterclass #takeawaykeys 1. The most important stones to build a perfect thriller are: world the sole dramatic question a hero a goal obstacles a moment when a hero concurred a villain 2. Think 3 C’s First C – The Contract That promise you are making with the reader (do NOT break it!) Second C – The crucible Something...
Continue reading...“Write. Publish. Repeat.” by Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant, David Wright #takeaways
A book read by a thousand different people is a thousand different books.”Andrei Tarkovsky In the book “Write. Publish. Repeat” authors Sean Platt, David Wright and Johnny B. Truant explained how to build a thriving international publishing empire with no luck required… In two words – you have to work your ass off, never give up and see your “writing” as...
Continue reading...“How to grow a novel”, Sol Stein #takeaways
Be the first to see what you see as you see it. Robert Bresson (french filmmaker) Readers value and remember extraordinary CHARACTERS. Plot might be forgotten with a time, but never a hero. The goal is to involve the reader’s emotion, in this case a feeling of warmth for the central character. What the reader is experiencing in each scene...
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