Category: Books
Behind the scenes of our books and publishing. Sometimes the stories behind stories make the most extraordinary stories of all.
*BOOKS* Never Say Never: Shadowland is now a paperback
Never say never. That should be written in big black letters on my office wall. Because if I say ‘never’, it’s pretty much a guarantee that I end up doing the very thing I said I’d never do.
*BOOKS* The dream that COMPLETELY changed my writing
Many of my story ideas come from dreams that God gives me, and one night I had an especially vivid dream. In it, I saw a woman standing on top of an old crumbling turret in a kind of medieval fantasy world. The turret was all that remained of a fortress that once commanded the vast plains around it.
*BOOKS* How I received a SUPERNATURAL education in writing
How I received a rather supernatural education in how to write and edit books.
*BOOKS* The unrivalled power of a novel
Last night, Tristan (my teenage son) and I were talking. He’s reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and he commented on how he loved the richness of the language, especially the way people spoke to one another.
*BOOKS* “You’re not a proper writer.”
This rather long, slighty awkward post is part self-confession and part advice. Originally written for writers, I think it’s relavant for anyone on a journey to who they were created by God to be.
Three Easy Steps to Writing Vivid Characters
Have you ever read a book where the characters were so real, you found yourself thinking about them long after the book was over? What is it that made them so memorable? Why do some characters stick in our brains for years, becoming our close friends, when others barely come to life even as we read?
*BOOKS* Planners vs pantsers: How I discovered an amazing third option.
You might have already come across this debate: Is it better to plan your novel or to wing it? Once upon a time I held a firm opinion in one direction, but then something surprising happened. And it led to a whole new way of seeing things – a different solution that I had never heard of before.
*BOOKS* One of the Most Important Pieces of Advice I was Given
Before we get into any other piece of advice, we need to start with the most important thing I have to tell you. It is not just the most important piece of writing-related advice I ever received, it also led to some of the most important lessons God ever taught me, a decade after I first put the advice into practice. If you read nothing else, I hope you read this.
