Writing
This month’s online writing for The Great Outdoors
It’s been my first full month as Online Editor for The Great Outdoors, although I spent the first ten days or so in the Alps! Here’s a selection of some of my recent writing for TGO (including one from August to bring it up to a full month)
The Armchair Mountaineer Wild Writing Competition 2017
It’s my pleasure to introduce the Armchair Mountaineer Wild Writing Competition , run by Thomas Smallwood of the excellent outdoor blog Armchair Mountaineer. I’m one of the judges, and there are some great prizes, but more importantly this is a great chance to bring your mountain writing to a
Pausing for breath
They say freelancing is a feast or famine business. Over the last ten weeks or so I’ve really learned what that actually means. I’m well into my second year as an independent editor. I made the jump in July 2014, and I spent the first six months building
Ulysses 2.6 review
The best professional writing app for OS X and iOS – no, not Scrivener – just received a major new release. Here’s an overview of the new features, and why it should be in every writer’s toolbox. Introduction to Ulysses Ulysses is a Markdown environment for writing, with robust electronic
Writing effective dialogue in fiction
As an editor, I’ve seen all kinds of dialogue in fiction: poor, excellent, and every possible grade in between. In this article I’m going to give you some basic tools to improve your dialogue. I think that writers who develop great characters write better dialogue, and that’s
2015 in review
It’s a few days later than I’d planned, but here is my review of 2015. If you’ve been paying attention you’ll already know it was a great year – but I intend to make 2016 even better. Backpacking and the outdoors I started the year in a
Crime and Punishment is here!
Our second speculative fiction anthology, Crime and Punishment, is now available on Kindle. I’m thrilled to introduce this collection of tales – sometimes dark, sometimes though-provoking. There will always be crime. There will always be those who covet what others possess, or who are driven to acts of violence through
Identity
For many years, I’ve struggled to define my identity as a writer. Here’s what I’ve learned this year, and how I’m going to change my approach to writing – both fiction and non-fiction. Finding my voice online I write about a diverse range of subjects on these
Your story already exists
The story you want to tell already exists. As a writer, your job is not to make it up — it’s to illuminate the truth that’s already there. One of the questions I’m asked most frequently about my books goes something like this: “How do you make your