Making talent pay

Rewiting your first draft might seem daunting, but, says James McCreet, it’s where you have the chance to really make your writing shine So you’ve finished the first draft. The story lies ‘finished’ b

So if someone was to ask me what the best pitch letter I have ever read was, I wouldn’t have a clue how to answer. The internet is full of earnest advice on the do’s and don’ts of pitch letters, but t

T hey say everyone has a book inside them. (If you’re drawn to quests or escapades you may have a whole shelf ’s worth.) But experiencing real-life events is one thing; turning that into unputdownable

It took only seven minutes for ProWritingAid’s Manuscript Analysis Tool to read, digest, and then produce a 23-page analysis of my 100,000-word cosy crime novel. Wow! That was quick. It made me wonder

Horror is a remarkably flexible genre – one that can take all sorts of forms. From the subtleties of the ghost story all the way through to the flat-out grossness of body horror, along with its mallea

…and they all lived happily ever after? It’s such a great feeling, isn’t it, when we are able to type The End after the last sentence of even the very first draft of a novel? We’ll start to hope that