Part two: MODULATION

NEW SERIES! ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING TECHNIQUES

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: Writing characters over time

Novelist Amy Neff looks at evolving the characters in your fiction over the course of their lifetime, with advice on how you can develop them as they go through different life stages

WRITING A HIGH CONCEPT love story

A high concept can take you all the way to publishing success – if you get it right. Follow the insights from leading authors of high-concept commercial fiction and see if you can make it work for you, too!

LINES ON loss

Grief is part of life – and as writers, how do we deal with it in words and use it in our work? Author Penelope Slocombe reflects on the relationship between grief and creativity

REAL LIFE, great stories

Writing from life involves giving careful consideration to how you will portray people, says Jenny Alexander

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Lawyer turned crime writer Steve Cavanagh tells Tina Jackson about the courtroom insights that feed into his unputdownable legal thrillers

Before my memory fades

Zoë Richards has just become a debut novelist in her 60s. Here, she writes about the way her lived experience of mental health issues fed into writing the book whose themes of recovery and community achieved her lifelong dream of publication

The fields remain dark

As folk horror undergoes a surge in popularity, Alex Davis looks at the distinctive elements of modern folk horror

DEAR READER

Whatever we write needs us to use the

Sleuth truths

Hannah Dolby’s new novel stars a Victorian lady detective. Here, she looks at the intrepid women of the Victorian era – in fiction and reality – and offers tips for historical fiction writers wanting to challenge assumptions

L. M. NATHAN

The debut author of dystopian YA always wondered if she could be a writer – and began her journey into print when she started taking her dream of publication seriously

Your writing critiqued

James McCreet applies a forensic micro-critique to the beginning of a reader’s manuscript

THE BUILDING BLOCK OF CHARACTER: PART THREE

Author and tutor Ian Ayris provides you with deep insights into how you can make your characters feel real, using an example story

FILLING THE GAP

Alison Chisholm explores how the felling of an iconic tree inspired a poem

Making the right CONNECTIONS

Everything in your novel should work together to keep readers turning the pages, says Margaret James, as she explores ways of tying together the elements in your fiction

What’s going on?

Helen Walters explores how you can tell tales of the inexplicable in your short fiction, with an example story by Nathaniel Hawthorne

TONE IT UP

Get your picture books in tip-top shape for the Picture Book category of WM’s Children’s Book Prize, with advice from Amy Sparkes

Sleep on it?

Lynne Hackles offers a solution of sorts to resolving story dilemmas

The world of writing

What goes through a writer’s brain? Readers’ letters and dispatches from the wide world of writing

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: YOUR WRITING Ending

The WM writers demonstrated the depths of their

Subscribers’ news

To feature in Subscribers’ News contact: tjackson@warnersgroup.co.uk HAPPY

GET THE write idea

Convey a variety of human experiences and states of being in these creative writing exercises to try right now

SHELF LIFE

KATE QUINN

K J DANDO

The ideas-rich, time-poor thriller writer tells Lynne Hackles about how juggling writing with a full-time job led to him writing his debut on his phone

LOUISE SWANSON

Margaret James talks about dystopian tales to the author whose prescient novel opens with the premise that fiction has been banned by the government

Kiddy commerce

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach when you write for children. Simon Whaley chats to two children’s authors about their different writing businesses

Public libraries’ ONLINE RESOURCES

Dr Tarja Moles guides you through the local library resources you can access through your computer

Potential developments

What’s going on in a development editor’s mind when they read your manuscript? Cornerstones’ Monica Chakraverty explains what the editor will be looking for, and the benefits of applying those insights to your self-editing process

GET PUBLISHED

You’ve read the advice – now get into print! Find the most up-to-date calls for submissions, writing competitions to enter and publishing opportunities to suit you and your writing in our easy-to-navigate news pages