
Blog: Mel's Muse
Showing posts categorised as 'Creative Writing'
Writing The Rights & Wrongs Of Life
Are you as fed up with the negative concept of society as I am? Every day we’re bombarded with news about failing governments, education, health and housing services, marriages, families and kids – and that’s without all the heartbreak of drug and alcohol abuse, and 3 million children starving to...
Who Inspired You To Be You?
Who inspired you to be who you are? And how did that come about? Being a bestselling author, this is a question I've often been asked. But whether or not you're a writer, secretary, nurse, or whatever, this is a question, and answer, that could apply to any and all.
Think...
The Battle Of Conflict - My Writers' Group's Take On Story
BATTLE - OUR GROUP BOOK
The main focus of our meeting this morning - midst laughter and chat - was the final construction and distribution of the booklet we have put together as a group. Titled Battle, and told in narrative, poetic and comic form, the theme confronts some of...
Creative Writing Workshop: Characteristic Conflict
In the last Creative Writing Workshop, we looked at the way in which we can go about Creating Credible Characters. Now I'm going to show you how you can bring creativity to the way you construct conflict. This is crucial when it comes to writing fiction and memoir...
Creative Writing Workshop: Creating Credible Characters
When we looked at the issue of Crafting Character in the last Creative Writing Workshop, I said that Characters - whether in fiction or true-life stories - need:
Credibility - to be true to life Creativity - in the way they respond to conflict Complexity - the depth which makes them three dimensionalSo...
Creative Writing Workshop: Digging Deep For Plots
In the Introduction of this Creative Writing Workshop, I asked the question, Are You On the Right Track? There was nothing flippant about this. Before you begin to write your book, there are questions to be asked. And answered!
The content of this, and future tutorials, will...
What Makes A Writer Write?
I was reading a blog post on Women Writers, Women’s Books which posed the query, Do you have to suffer to write?
It’s a valid and interesting question.
LESLEY PEARSE: A NAUGHTY LITTLE LIAR?I attended a World Book Night event yesterday, at which Lesley Pearse, bestselling novelist, was speaking. She had us...
My Writers' Group Feedback
We meet every other month and, midst this morning's mince pies and chocolate cake, we spent the first few minutes sharing news.
David Scott is to be congratulated for having his memoir, Death by a Thousand Clots reviewed in Devon Life, second only to Michael Morpurgo’s latest book.
Roger Steer,...
Creative Writing: Book Launch & Signing For Time To Shine
Not the best of photographs, but this is me telling my audience, at my Book Launch, yesterday, about my creative writing journey. My love of books began at the age of five, when my father used to read my favourite bedtime story, Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant from the leather-bound...
What Is Your Author & Book Brand?
Have you ever thought, as a reader, about what attracts you to certain books, or particular authors? What makes you go for one rather than another? Is it the book cover? The price of the product? The publisher’s marketing ploy? The author’s nationality?
Somehow, I doubt it. Almost certainly, it will...
Time To Shine - Another Excerpt From My New Psycological Mystery
Josh was still in his pjs, lying on his bed playing some computer game or other on his cell phone when Carl went to tell him the good news. The boy seemed strangely lethargic. Hardly surprising, Carl supposed, given the state of the room - a stinking fug of yesterday's...
Writing Defines Who I Am, Not What I Do!
When Fay Sampson, an author I’ve known and admired for many years, asked me to take part in a blog tour, naturally I was delighted to accept. When I heard that Donna Fletcher Crow - another author whose work I love to read - had participated - that clinched it. Both have...
Could I Really Be An Author?
Self-published novels and indie authors abound these days. In another guest blog - while I am in the throes of moving house - I invite you to take a look at how one new writer launched his debut novel in an innovative way, and began to realise that he is,...
Driven To Distraction: Writing And Publishing A Book
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Another guest blog, this time from a second Facebook friend and ACW member, Claire Dunn. And yet again, this is a story of grit and determination: an inspiration to any aspiring author. Dogged with dyslexia, Claire might well have given up on her dream of writing and publishing a book. ...
How To Be A Writer Of Christian Fiction Books

Are you an established writer or aspiring author who is also a Christian? Is there a novel you want to write (or have written) for which you are unable to find a publisher? Do you enjoy reading mainstream fiction but find that Christian fiction books leave you cold? How does...
Breaking Writers Block - Two Tips

Revised: May 2011
There's no doubt about it, marketing a new book plays havoc with your writing schedule. I told myself, when my novel, A Painful Post Mortem, hit the bookshops, that I'd give my undivided attention to book signings, speaking engagements, writing and blogging until - well, until the end...
Characters & Point Of View: It's All In The Mind
My husband, who is a keen cook, has a copy of one of Nigel Slater's books, Simple Suppers. The recipes produce good, nutritious meals. I have to confess, however, to a slightly queasiness when it comes to watching the celebrity chef on TV. Something, I think, to do with what...
Understanding The Drama Triangle In Personal Relationships & Fictional Characters
The theory of transactional analysis is a subject of never-ending fascination - both to those who find themselves participating in the Drama Triangle, and to aspiring authors involved in writing and publishing a book! Last week I met up with the friend of a friend and, during the course of...
One Stop Shop For Aspiring Authors & Published Writers?
Whether you are an aspiring author or an established, published writer, you will need to undertake research, from time to time, in order to provide material for the books or articles you are writing. Sometimes the research material you need may be factual; sometimes you may want to understand the emotional response to a given...
Misery Memoir Genre: Do Grim Novels Dominate Book Market?

As an author I am, naturally, interested in the book market. Consequently, when I was shown a newspaper article a few months ago by a friend, about the continuing proliferation of misery memoir metamorphosing into a novel, I read it, avidly.
MISERY MEMOIR: WHAT IS IT?The misery memoir genre came to prominence in the...
Develop Plot Ideas: A Combination Of Negative Personality Traits
My posts, in the last few days, have covered the way in which an aspiring author can use a combination of plot ideas to develop characterisation. For the purposes of demonstrating this aspect of creative writing, I’ve used a classical story taken from the Bible: the tale of Samson and Delilah. Since the entire...
Developing Plot Ideas To Show Characterisation
I suggested, last week, that creative writing - that is writing a novel – requires an understanding of human nature. So where is an author to turn for such material? How can your book have that ring of authenticity whilst maintaining a page turning quality?
Any well-known, classical, story may be used as the...
Creative Writing Plot Ideas: Dealing With Manipulative People
Whether you’re looking for new creative writing plot ideas, characters for your novel, or how to deal with negative personality traits in real life, there’s plenty of material to be found in this old story about Samson and Delilah. Tom Jones song must, surely, have made her one of the best known bad girls...
If You Can (write) Do; If You Can't, Teach!

I came across an article, recently, which stated that creative writing courses for aspiring authors are a ‘racket’ - and I wondered what you think?
IS THIS THE TRUTH ABOUT CREATIVE WRITING COURSES?The author of the post pointed out that among hundreds of writing tips offered by dozens of authors, not one suggested taking a...
Creating Character Led Conflict In Your Novel
Last month I began what turned out to be a series about Transactional Analysis. It was what I call a combi-article: one designed to help real people with real needs, but also to inform the creative writing of authors of fiction. Titled Conflict Resolution: Relationship Psychology – And Creating Fictional Characters, my intention was...
The Drama Triangle & The Games People Play

I looked, a couple of days ago, at Transactional Analysis – the Drama Triangle in particular:
First as a means of conflict resolution for those experiencing problems with their personal relationships. And second – for writers and aspiring authors – as an innovative way of creating fictional characters. THE GAMES PEOPLE PLAYThe theory of transactional analysis...
How To Write Description In A Novel: Describing Location

Revised: 19th September, 2010
When you read a novel, you are being invited to inhabit an imaginary world: a fictional place, in which fictional characters live, and move, and have their being. If good descriptive writing is used, their experiences become yours, too, for the duration of the book. But because the medium is...
Creative Writing Tips And The Definition Of Denouement

This article has been revised &
updated on: 6th
September, 2010.
Photo: Looking back down to the end of the funicular railway at the sea below!
Photo: Looking back down to the end of the funicular railway at the sea below!
I expect many of you, as an aspiring author, will know that a novel has a beginning, a middle and an end. That’s pretty obvious, I would have thought. But...
BBC Radio Devon Interview
Listen to me chatting to Dave Fitzgerald about my latest release, Chosen, on BBC local radio.
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