Author of the Allensbury Mysteries

Tag editing

The five stages of editing

I wrote recently about how to plan a novel in a week; that is definitely possible. However, I won’t ever claim that it’s possible to edit a novel in a week. In fact, my first two novels took at least… Continue Reading →

Living the dream as a full-time writer

As of tomorrow morning, I’ll be spending the next three or four months as a full-time crime writer. As the headline says, I’ll be living the dream. And yes, this has long been a dream. The six-year-old me is dancing… Continue Reading →

How do you beat writer’s block?

This recently came up as a question on my GoodReads author page and it’s something that’s worth addressing. There are days when you sit down to write and the words just won’t come. No matter how hard you try you… Continue Reading →

What’s next after publication?

If you were anywhere near my Twitter or Facebook accounts on Saturday, you may have noticed that I finally self-published my debut crime novel, A Deadly Rejection. Apologies if I deluged you in messages, but I was rather excited. There’s… Continue Reading →

Things I wish I’d known…. Planning for a series

The definition of a series is probably quite fluid. It could be over a short period of time with a beginning and end – like Broadchurch – or over a longer term with the same characters – like Midsomer Murders…. Continue Reading →

Top tools for writers

Every workman needs the right tools to do his job. For example, a plumber wouldn’t head off to fix a blocked pipe without wrenches and screwdrivers. And so it is that a writer cannot work without his or her tools…. Continue Reading →

Working with a professional editor

Writing is a very self-involved process. You get wrapped up in your story, your characters and getting to the end. Editing is more of the same. You’re focused on pulling the story apart and putting it back together in the… Continue Reading →

Writing fast or writing well

When you’re starting out on a new project it’s easy to get carried away. You throw yourself in and start scribbling or typing at manic pace without any real thought about what it is you’re writing. There are two schools… Continue Reading →

Two top tactics for plotting and editing

Whether you’re writing something brand new or breathing life back into a manuscript you’ve found languishing in a drawer, getting started can be tough. Keeping track of your story line and getting balance right is always difficult. However, courtesy of… Continue Reading →

A review of my 2016

In terms of general news, 2016 has been a difficult year. We’ve lost some big names in the world of showbiz – for me, those that hurt the most were Alan Rickman and Victoria Wood – and had some big… Continue Reading →

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