I was half way down a bottle – sorry; er, glass of port the other day, when it occurred to me that nothing sells like an Irish writer’s horrible Christmas. The bleaker the better. These are not “but we were happy” stories; these are stories where nobody is safe. Endings are sour. And nostalgia exists merely to be rammed…
Month: December 2013
4 Easy Ways To Write A Smash Bestseller!
Well. 2 of them are easy, from the outside looking in… Method 1: Accidentally encapsulate the cultural zeitgeist which began defining a generation yesterday at 2.43pm Who knew that young adults, for instance, wanted a world of complete fantasy where your undead boyfriend is constantly resisting the urge to kill you, before Twilight came along? Method 2: Be controversial This…
Guest Post: The Emotional Heart of The Story
Today I have a guest post with great writing tips from the multitalented Catherine Brophy. Catherine is an Irish writer, story teller, broadcaster, teacher, lecturer and workshop facilitator. She has written four novels, numerous short stories and scripts for both film and TV. She’s at http://www.catherinebrophy.ie when she’s at home. The Emotional Heart… it sounds like the title of a love story.…
Can Terrible Books Make Great Movies?
Yes, of course they can! We tend only to talk about the great books we know which were assassinated by bad films, but we forget that there is another side to the coin. Filmmakers are always looking for ideas, and screenwriting tutors will tell you that it’s a hell of a lot easier for an unknown writer to…
A whole host of Guest Posts for December. Christmas stories from around the world…
I’m guesting today over on Annmarie Miles’ fiction blog, with a little piece for Christmas. Annmarie had the mighty idea of advent-calendaring her blog, posting one piece of short-short fiction from all over the world every day from now until December 24th. I’m very proud to be first up, for December 1st, with a flash…
Tara Sparling writes 