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Top 10 Common Character Tropes

Avid readers know how book can be an incredible form of escapism where almost anything is possible and you never quite know what’s going to happen next. This is especially true when we look at graphic...

Lockdown Reading

Books to console, inspire and escape into… With all but essential workers on lockdown, and our social lives on hold, the time seems ripe for a (lockdown) reading revolution. But this is no holid...

Fantasy Without Magic: Can it Work?

Magic and the fantasy fiction genre, they go together like Bert and Ernie – or should I say Frodo and Sam? Wherever you look in fantasy, you’ll see examples of magic. Lord of the Rings, of cours...

A blog feature image showing typewriter expelling a cloud of pink paper with the title 'Tips for staying mentally healthy as an author' written on it

How Can Authors Protect Their Mental Health?

When you first decide to be a writer, you might read books on how to write a blockbuster, you might work on your grammar and punctuation or you put hours of research into your favourite genre by readi...

Perspectives on Identity in Short Stories

by Anne Goodwin
November 17th, 2019
Diversity and InclusionGuides and Resources

I often get to the end of a novel and think Now I know where it’s going, I’d love to read it again. But, as a book blogger reading around 150 contemporary novels a year, I rarely do. But short stories...

Landscapes in Modern Myth

Landscapes have a tendency to set off questions in my head, about what lies below the surface of a place and what possibilities there might be. Can Fairy Tales Be Set in The Real World? I live in a be...

Victims, Villains and Vulnerability

Over a decade ago, the children’s charity Barnardo’s ran a controversial advertising campaign aiming to raise awareness of the damaging impact of being born in poverty. The Advertising Standards Autho...

Insert Title Here

A Book’s Title It’s the first thing you see, pretty much. That is, unless the book’s cover artwork is so busy or the font is the same colour as the background (in which case you need a new desig...

Plot Vs Character

by admin
December 1st, 2015
Guides and Resources

“Which is more important, plot or character?” It’s an odd thing to ask, because the two aren’t mutually exclusive. But which should be the focus of a compelling story? Does a complex plot negate the ...

A blog feature image showing a chalkboard covered with names on a wooden easel with the title 'Name (Noun)' over the top

How to Choose Character Names

by admin
November 11th, 2015
Guides and Resources

“How do you come up with all these names?” For those of us writing Earth-based fiction, or any genre not based in fantasy, on the surface it’s a fairly simple process- you don’t generally ...

Cover Development: The Old Ways

A book cover should tell you a lot about what’s on the pages between. But there’s a fine line between good artistic composition, communicating the most important parts of the story (in ton...