Jess Richards

Jess Richards’ debut novel Snake Ropes was shortlisted for the Costa Book Award. Cooking with Bones was published in 2013. Her third novel is City of Circles.

Writing Tips and Exercises

Writing Tips

Using archetypes from existing stories

Genre: Fiction

Everyone’s heard of the princess, the hero, the monster, the witch, the king, the villain, the jester. These are powerful archetypes which can be used to prompt powerful memories and connections within your readers’ imaginations. We can deepen our characte...

Jess Richards

Writing Exercises

Using archetypes from existing stories

Genre: Fiction

What if… Beauty and the Beast met one another for the first time while travelling from Scotland to Northern Ireland on a ferry? What if… Rose Red fell in love with the Pied Piper in the frozen foods section of your local supermarket? What if… A Witch and...

Jess Richards

Writing Tips

Asking… what if?

Genre: Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative

The term ‘speculative fiction’ is often used in vague ways – crossing a variety of genres such as fantasy, sci-fi, young adult fiction etc. But to me, the most exciting way of looking at the meaning of this phrase is contained in the word ‘speculative�...

Jess Richards

Writing Exercises

Inner critic

Genre: All

Identify your loudest criticism of yourself as a writer, and also consider what its opposite could be. Eg: I have nothing interesting to say. Write about a character who ONLY does interesting and surprising things. Give them startling features, unusual clothes...

Jess Richards