Tips & Exercises

The Play’s the Thing

Today I want to encourage you to PLAY.
Wipe away the stresses of the day and focus in for a second…

Arji Manuelpillai

Poetry and Play

The American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson once said ‘It is a happy talent to know how to play’. For me,…

Arji Manuelpillai

Exploding the Bomb Part 2

This is a thirty-minute exercise and is best carried out in a locked room, on a deserted hilltop, or generally as…

Christopher William Hill

Exploding the Bomb Part 1

My mother-in-law is an enthusiastic party person and has always invited round the ‘riff raff’ (neighbours in the cul-de-sac) for drinks…

Christopher William Hill

The Shared Heart

I suggest you start building your fictional world/place by choosing something I call the ‘heart of the nation’. This ‘heart’ can…

Leone Ross

Beginning a World

1. Imagine a new world, with a culture based on any of the following activities:

Walking
Digging
Making a specific, locally-produced…

Leone Ross

Writing Intimacy, Memory and the ‘Ex’

Note: The poem in this exercise contains some language which is unsuitable for young readers.
Separation – Marie…

Rachel Long

Writing Love, Specifically

It is difficult to write about love, especially if approached as a concept, in abstraction. The writing can quickly run the…

Rachel Long

The Early Bird

7 AM. All is quiet. The noisy tech is switched off. The cup of tea is piping. Your computer is on….

Sylvia Patterson

Get it Wrong to Get it Right

“The first draft of anything is shit,” announced Ernest Hemingway once, while crime colossus Val McDermid was…

Sylvia Patterson

Pitch to Your Dream Reader

Imagine your dream reader about to settle down for an evening with your published book. Be specific: is this a six…

Jo Unwin

A Good Pitch

The transition from being a creative person who writes in the privacy of their own home to becoming a published author …

Jo Unwin

Ritual

If you want to write a story all you really have to do is sit down and write it. It’s frustratingly…

Freddie Machin

Establishing a Ritual

To me a writing ritual is about making a regular commitment to recording your thoughts and ideas. That might be as…

Freddie Machin

Writing Convincing Dialogue

My advice to anyone trying to write fiction is not to make it ‘realistic’ but convincing. This is…

Okechukwu Nzelu

Words in the Real World

Try to think of a quality film in which there’s at least one scene with very good dialogue. You can find…

Okechukwu Nzelu