creative writing
Writing prompts for young writers

Writing prompts for young writers

One of my groups at the Storymakers Club is the Young Writers. They are aged eleven or above and get together once a fortnight for some writing practice and to work on their current project. It's a great little social group too. This week I used music as a writing...

Encouraging boys to enjoy writing

Encouraging boys to enjoy writing

The majority of the children who come to my creative writing workshops are girls. There aren’t many boys who come to my courses and workshops purely because they enjoy writing. I think mainly it is their parents who are keen to encourage them to enjoy writing because...

How creative writing can benefit children

How creative writing can benefit children

Creative writing is not just about language practice, it supports literacy, helps children develop their reading skills and most importantly, it is fun. I am an avid reader and writer so you won’t hear any arguments from me about how important creative writing is....

Manuscript planning

Manuscript planning

This is my work station at the moment. When I get time to work on my fiction writing, that is. It's been too lovely to sit at a desk staring at the wall. I'd much rather be in the kitchen, looking out over the garden, lush and green as it is at the moment. I'm...

My middle grade manuscript

My middle grade manuscript

I’ve been quiet on the blogging front recently. Sometimes, I feel as though I could quite easily spend all my time blogging and never get anything else done. I have to pull myself away from it every now in then so I can concentrate on other projects. That means I’ve...

Why it’s important to spring clean your blog

Why it’s important to spring clean your blog

Continuing with the positivity that has seen me through February, I decided to do a bit of Spring cleaning. No, not my house, although it could do with it. I'm talking about this little 'ol blog here. I like to give it a spruce up every couple of years or so and it...

Friday Fiction – Slumber

Friday Fiction – Slumber

Welcome to Friday Fiction, my weekly fiction post. It's the first Friday of the month (already), so that means it's link up time too. Please see the blue frog link below and follow the instructions if you would like to add your own fiction piece or book review. I look...

Friday Fiction Monthly Link Up

Friday Fiction Monthly Link Up

Regular followers of my blog will know that I publish a Friday Fiction post every week. Except that is, on the odd occasion when I'm not feeling inspired enough or I've been taking a break. This is one of those weeks, but I'm here anyway to remind you that NEXT WEEK...

Friday Fiction – NaNoWriMo Preparation

Friday Fiction – NaNoWriMo Preparation

Welcome to Friday Fiction. As it's the first Friday of the month, I open my doors to invite other bloggers to join me. This is the place to link up your fiction posts and book reviews and join the discussion. All you have to do is click on the blue frog at the end of...

Friday Fiction Link Up

Friday Fiction Link Up

If you write fiction pieces, tinker with prose or poetry and/or write book reviews, I invite you to share them with me on the first Friday of every month. Feel free to pop along this Friday and link up your work, to share it with others, whilst possibly finding some...

The Pull of the Sea – Friday Fiction

The Pull of the Sea – Friday Fiction

As he stepped out of his house and took a left, then left again, Jake could hear the seagulls above him, stirring up a storm with their rhythmic squawking. ‘Not-that-way,’ they seemed to chime. ‘Stay-near-sea.’ Jake understood. He had lived by the sea all his life and...

Friday Fiction – Evaluation

Friday Fiction – Evaluation

Welcome to Friday Fiction and it's linky week too! Click on the blue frog below to link up your fiction and review posts and don't forget to comment on other posts too. My post this week is a fiction piece from my Nano novel, pieces of which I have posted before,...

Memories – Friday Fiction

Memories – Friday Fiction

I set myself the task of writing a descriptive piece of fiction this week using all the senses. I'm more comfortable writing active scenes with lots of dialogue, so this area of my writing needs more practice. I used Sara's prompt word 'laughter' and drew on a memory,...

‘The End’ – When Do You Really Stop Drafting?

‘The End’ – When Do You Really Stop Drafting?

'The End' Those two words can mean so much, especially to me this week. I finished the draft of my manuscript re-write. I wrote the end of my story. Except I never actually wrote those two words because I know that it's far from at that point. It felt good though....

Friday Fiction

Friday Fiction

Welcome to Friday Fiction. Just for fun this week, I have a story that my eldest daughter wrote when she was eight. The prompt from Sara at mumturnedmom is 'Stars' and I wasn't sure if I would be able to join in with it, until I remembered that I had this story filed...

How do you keep up your writing mojo?

How do you keep up your writing mojo?

If there’s one thing that throws me off with my writing, it’s a break in the routine. A week off for the school holidays is fine, but if I leave it any longer than that, it's much harder to get back in to. That’s what happened this week. Half term came and went, then...

Friday Fiction – How Do You Measure Author Success?

Friday Fiction – How Do You Measure Author Success?

Friday Fiction is here and as it's the first Friday of the month it's link up time! Join me by linking up and sharing your own fiction works and book reviews. Have a read of what others are sharing and don't forget to leave a comment to let them know. All you need to...

Friday Fiction – Fear

Friday Fiction – Fear

Welcome to Friday Fiction. Can I just remind you that NEXT WEEK (5th June) is link up week. That means that if you have any fiction pieces or book review posts that you want to share with others, pop along and feel free to link up. It would be great to see you there....