The post 288 Writing Historical Fantasy with Nicole Glover appeared first on Sacha Black.

In this episode we cover: 

• What is eco-fiction
• Balancing storytelling with conveying important messages
• Researching for eco-fiction stories
• The role of the writing community in environmental advocacy
• Writing books that inspire action

This week’s question is: what topic is your craft catnip?

Recommendation of the week is: A Game of Romance and Ruin

Find out more about Denise:

Denise’s Website

Habitat Man: Available everywhere or order direct from Habitat Press

Twitter @DABadenauthor 

LinkedIn

The Green Stories writing competitions welcomes indie authors, and are free to enter. Next up is the novel prize with a deadline 26th June and prizes of £1500. See website for details.

Find details of the project with Bafta here or search for relevant hashtags #ClimateCharacters and #HotOrNot

Rebel of the Week is: Jackson

If you’d like to be a Rebel of the week please do send in your story, it can be any kind of rebellion. You can email your rebel story to rebelauthorpodcast@gmail.com

No new patrons this week, but a big thank you to my existing patrons. If you’d like to support the show, and get early access to all the episodes as well as bonus content you can from as little as $2 a month by visiting: www.patreon.com/sachablack 

THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY KOBO WRITING LIFE

Visit Kobo Writing Life here, read the Kobo Writing Life blog here, and listen to their podcast here.

The post 191 How to Write Eco-fiction with Denise Baden  appeared first on Sacha Black.

In this episode we cover: 

• Why diversity in fiction is important
• What to do if you’re afraid to approach writing diverse characters
• Sensitivity readers
• What you need to research
• How to include diverse characters when you yourself are not diverse

This week’s question is: Tell us a book you’ve enjoyed with diverse characters.

Recommendation of the week is: Jay’s Gay Agenda by Jason June

Apple

Kobo

Amazon UK

Amazon USA

***This show uses affiliate links

Diversity resources:

Writing With Color Blog

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

The Antiracist: How to Start the Conversation about Race and Take Action by Kondwani Fidel  

We Need Diverse Books

Writing Diversely

How to Write Black Characters: An Incomplete Guide by Salt and Sage Books

Find out more about Eliana on:

Website

Instagram

Rebel of the Week is: Laura Rye

If you’d like to be a Rebel of the week please do send in your story, it can be any kind of rebellion. You can email your rebel story to rebelauthorpodcast@gmail.com or instagram me @sachablackauthor

No new patrons this week, but a big thank you to my existing patrons. If you’d like to support the show, and get early access to all the episodes as well as bonus content you can from as little as $2 a month by visiting: www.patreon.com/sachablack

This Show is Sponsored by ProWritingAid

Find out more about ProWritingAid here.

DISCOUNT CODE: REBEL25

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The post 102 How to Write Diverse Characters with Eliana West appeared first on Sacha Black.

So I decided to continue the trend and review Conor Kelly and The Four Treasures of Eirean (The Tir Na Nog Trilogy Book 1) by Ali Isaac in the same way.

This time I learnt how to translate research into fiction, and because Isaac translates so well, I learnt what to do, and what mistakes to avoid.

I picked up Ali’s book because she’s my friend, so I wanted to read it. But, I’ll be honest. It’s Irish mythology, something, up to the point I peeled open the front cover, I knew nothing about. I was more than a little daunted by the prospect of sinking my teeth into a few hundred pages of what I perceived to be hard core mythology.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Isaac blew me away. She painted a tapestry of mythological research into a masterpiece of fiction. I unwittingly got educated on every aspect of Irish mythology there is, and to my surprise and delight, I loved every minute of it.

When I read books, I do so consciously now, so that I can absorb every ounce of skill each author leaves on the page. I rave about collecting words and sentences constantly. With Isaac, there was no question, I had dozens by the time I finished reading. She truly is the queen of interlacing accurate historical detail with beautiful descriptions and a heart wrenching story. Here’s what I learnt about translating research into fiction:

First, I want to caveat this post – Although I have mentioned the fact Ali is my friend, she did not ask me to read her book. I chose to do so. In fact, she frequently told me to put it down and get on with writing. I ignored her and read on. All the views expressed my me in this post are my own personal ones.

Mistake 1 – Dumping Information 

If you are writing about anything, it requires research. But that means you acquire a shit ton of Information. If you learn a lot, you can’t help but know a lot. When you know a lot, it spills out without meaning too. Look at your stereotypical professor, they can jabber on for hours about their chosen topic.

The skill here is the age old, less is more.

Just because you know a lot, doesn’t mean we need to.

The other

Of course, Ali is my friend, so I took advantage of that fact, and demanded she answer my questions on this topic.

Ali, you are an author that is prolific in your quest for research. It oozes from you, and you’re your blog where you freely share your knowledge. But your knowledge is SO vast, how do you avoid information dumping when you translate that knowledge into your book?

The trick is to use only what you need to set the scene for your story. I LOVE researching, I can get lost in it for hours! But putting it all into a fictional story would make for a very dull, dry read. What I dont use (about 75% of it) goes on my blog… it seems such a shame to waste it, and if I find it interesting, there must be others who find it interesting too.

Mistake 2 Forgetting Details Matter 

Details come in all shapes and sizes. The one thing they share in common, is that they really matter. If you don’t know your rapier from your samurai you probably shouldn’t be writing about swords or battles.

As long as you don’t make mistake number one – dumping too much information, then you can sprinkle details to your hearts content.

Isaac, does this in bucket loads. She starts with character names, all Irish, all mythical. Something I did struggle with at the start because they were alien to me. But, once I got my head around the pronunciation, it actually made it easier to read as all the characters were so different, I always knew exactly who was who.

But she doesn’t stop with names. Isaac has a gift for scattering gorgeous details in everywhere. From  the weapons they use, the clothing they wear, to the mythical creatures bone structure. There is nothing, and I do mean nothing, that Isaac hasn’t researched.

But my favourite example of how she weaves details into her story is through the environment. Isaac is lucky enough to live in Ireland and has visited every site she writes about. You can tell. Every atom of her setting is portrayed beautifully, from the way the water ripples in the wind, to the smell of woodsmoke during certain festivals.

“All the entrances faced the centre, almost as if they were worshipping the larger mound. Their open doorways gaped like toothless mouths.”

There’s no way, if you hadn’t visited that site, you could have known the doorway looked like a gummy mouth. What I find most daunting about this – is I write about made up settings… *gulp*

Ali, you are the queen of detail, never failing to capture the minutest of details about your stories world. As writers, we know we can’t information dump, and you have already told me you use a fraction of what you learn. So, how do you determine what details to use, and what to leave out?

It has to be very relevant to your protagonists experiences. If it’s nice to have, but doesn’t actually move the story on, you just have to cut it, you don’t need it. The dreaded info dump slows the pace of a story so much and bores the reader to tears, or even worse, closing the book and falling asleep. You can be sure they won’t pick it up when they wake. Info dumps show you know a lot of stuff, but it doesn’t make for a good story. Decide what you absolutely need to set the scene, give your hero their incentive to act, and drip feed it throughout the story as you need it, not all at once.

Mistake 3 Mistaking accuracy for beauty

Isaac is notorious for being a field agent and getting out to the places where her myths actually happened. She frequently blogs about her travels and discoveries, and I didn’t appreciate the extent to which she assimilates her knowledge.

I’d assumed accuracy meant getting names and places correct, with a pinch of dates and bobs your  uncle. But actually, it’s much more than that, including painting an ugly picture when one is needed. Almost like torture your protagonist, you need to torture your history and world building.

Often one can get swept up in the magnificence of architecture and the richness of history. But actually that isn’t what accuracy is, and a reflection of my (or your) starstruck face on the front of an historical site shouldn’t end up in your work of fiction.

For example, Isaac sets her story in two worlds, today, and the fairy world of the Sidhe. Both are linked by the treasures and magical architecture now found in Ireland.

What struck me, is that just because something is supposed to be a work of architectural beauty, doesn’t mean it is. But that is something you would only know if you researched the location.

This quote illustrates this brilliantly:

“The Lia Fail stood proudly before them, approximately four feet high, and made from a lump of rough grey granular limestone. It looked disappointingly like a concrete bollard to Conor.”

Question – It’s easy to get swept up in the rich beauty and emotional power of historical sites. I recall Conor’s reaction to Lia Fail as disappointment. What do you do to ensure you accurately capture the essence of a location for your novel?

Conor’s reaction to the Lia Fail was actually mine. In my second book, I describe how I believe such an important monument would have originally appeared. Often, I visit a site first before researching it, as there are no preconceived ideas or expectations about it that way. I take lots of pictures, and videos too. The most important thing of all is you HAVE to go to a site you are going to write about. You just have to. You can’t rely on Google or other people’s interpretations. To write authentically you have to go there, and that’s the bottom line. Unfortunately, you can always tell in a book if an author knows the place he/ she is writing about. It shines off the page and leaves you in no doubt.

Mistake 4 Not Connecting The Dots

Isaac’s story isn’t just predicated on one myth. It’s based on them ALL. I honestly don’t know how she amassed so many myths and amalgamated them into something that is not only coherent, but translatable and understandable to someone like me, who has zero knowledge of Irish myths.

But we don’t all write mythology. So what’s my point? And how can connecting a dozen myths together help writers from other genres?

My point is this:

Look outside the box. Sure, you don’t want to spend the rest of your life researching, but actually sometimes drifting off in a tangent can help.

Let me give you an example:

Say you’re writing a steampunk novel, and you need to know about trains. So you search for images and see a picture of a woman with a floor length gown with a funny sticky out bum. You find out it’s called a bustle, but then as you scroll on, you start to read about woman in the Victorian era, the suppression and later, Emily Pankhurst’s fight for the vote. All of a sudden, you have an idea. You wanted to know about train chimneys, but instead, you are weaving in deeper societal conflict into your steampunk novel. Your story is thicker, richer and grittier, all because you connected the dots.

Your books link dozens of myths, and entwine them into something coherent. When connecting all these individual myths together, how do you cope with such a mass of information, and what tricks do you use to smooth it into something that makes sense?

Irish mythology is not logical, and it’s very hard to make sense of. The names of the characters are all tongue-twisters, and there’s so many of them. But some stories just click. Something about them resonates, and won’t let go. Those are the ones I tell in my stories, and honestly, they just fall into place. Its as if they want their stories to be remembered, that’s how it feels to me, anyway.

You can buy Isaac’s book from Amazon UK or Amazon USA

Ali Isaac lives in rural Ireland and is the author of two books in a trilogy based on Irish mythology and a disabled hero; a book of love stories based on tales from Irish mythology co-authored with Jane Dougherty, and most recently, a book re-telling some of her favourite Irish myths. She regularly writes for Irish Central and Brigid’s Fire magazine. Ali is currently working on the third and final book of The Tir na Nog Trilogy, and a YA shapeshifter novella, also based on Irish mythology.

You will find Ali pottering about most days on her blog, Facebook author page, or tweeting. Her books are available on Smashwords, Amazon.com, and Amazon.co.uk.

Amazon Description:

Conor Kelly is not your average hero. He can’t walk. He can’t talk, but his mind is as active and alert as that of any teenage boy. On the outside, however, he’s about as interactive as a lump of wood.

Then he meets Annalee. She claims to be a Sidhe Princess, some kind of fairy royalty, apparently. She offers to take him into the magical realm, where her people wield the power to help him.

But is she just some child-snatching lunatic psychopath, or can she be trusted? On the other hand, what’s he got to lose?

He soon discovers that Tir na Nog is not the benign, dreamy land of legend. Nor are its inhabitants, the Sidhe, the benevolent fairy folk of Irish mythology. To accept their help has a cost, but for someone who doesn’t value his life, death is a risk worth taking.

With the blood of Lugh, God of Lightning, tingling in his veins, the boy in the wheelchair must dig deep, if he is to unlock the inherited powers dormant within him. Only he can defy disgraced Sidhe-King, Bres, who seeks to avenge himself on his brethren, and subject all mankind to his tyranny.

In the race to recover the legendary lost talismans of power, the Four Treasures of Eirean, before Bres gets his hands on them and becomes invincible, Conor begins to wonder just whose side Annalee is on, as her chequered past comes to light.

There are other obstacles, too; Ruairi, the Chieftain’s son, and worse, his own crippling self-doubt. Not that anything’s going to stop him. For the first time in his life, Conor finds he is not restricted by his physical limitations. Still, it’s not going to be easy.

Nothing worth fighting for ever is.

Book One of The Tir na Nog Trilogy begins an epic fantasy adventure which takes us back in time to the shadowy past of Ireland’s long lost legend, where fairy Kings and Gods walked amongst mortals, and where feats of magic, swordsmanship and courage were customary.

Here amidst the ancient stones of Newgrange and Tara, Conor discovers that anyone, no matter how unlikely, can still be a hero.

If you liked this post, subscribe here to get writing tips, tools and inspiration as well as information on the release of my books.

The post 4 Mistakes to Avoid When Translating Research into Fiction appeared first on Sacha Black.

I have a habit of getting stuck behind my laptop screen. “Research” becomes a few hours of googling and reading. That’s great, but, after today I’ve decided it’s just not good enough. At least, not where I can help it.

Maybe you guys are all already pros at getting out of the house and experiencing first hand all the things you write about. BUT, I write fantasy, dystopian or science fiction stories – some of the stuff I write about doesn’t even exist. It’s not an excuse but I definitely slipped into the habit of googling rather than experiencing first hand. I know it’s not always possible to travel to the other side of the world, but here’s 5 reasons why I think when you can, you should experience first hand.

My friend from work had a genius idea. She and I, are only 6 months apart, she just turned 29, and decided she was going to write a mini bucket list – 30 things to do by the time she was 30. WHAT an awesome idea. I promptly stole it! (she knows! and doesn’t mind… I don’t think!). I only have 21 of my 30 points, so if you have any suggestions feel free to pop them in the comments. However, no bungee jumps, no parachutes and preferably not something that might break my bank, I still have to buy nappies!

One of my 30 points was to go on a steam train. It made the list partly because I’d never been on one, and I REALLY wanted to. But, also because I have a slight obsession with all things steampunk. If you don’t know, then steampunk is science fiction meets the Victorian era – google it, and I feel like I have a story brewing that’s steampunk oriented.

I was lucky enough to go on both a steam train and a diesel train. But whilst I was on them and photographing them, I had a bit of a revelation. So here is why I think you need to get your spy on, get out in the field, and research that shit for real!

ONE – Removing Preconceptions

I had several preconceptions about what going on a steam/diesel train would be like. But actually they were all wrong. I was so glad that I experienced an actual ride because I would have written those preconceptions into my story.

TWO – Live Life

It’s a constant fault of writers that we forget to live life, instead writing the lives of others on pages. We ignore family, friends and loved ones in place of our laptops. But today, I managed to merge both parts of my life. Enjoying time with the family, and my boy, who ADORES trains and serenaded us with a chorus of “choo choo, toot toot” along with surprised smiles when the train actually tooted! Today was the best of both worlds. Family time, with book research.

THREE – Senses

No matter how good google is. It doesn’t have smellovision. Everyone knows that to give a piece of writing depth you have to use all five senses. I knew the trains would smell, but I could only really guess at what they would smell of. It wasn’t what I thought. Another reason I am glad for the experience.

I didn’t smell a thing around the diesel train, another surprise. But the steam train. Oh boy. It stunk. But not of what I thought. As I inhaled the thick black steam, I was catapulted back to my teens. A cadet, laying on a rifle range, firing round after round at tiny targets, each one, I am proud to say, hitting the bullseye.

Each type of gun/ammo smells slightly different. Birdshot, for example, in shotguns, smells very different to black power rifles or hand guns. WD40 is another thing that catapults me back to the rifle range days. Anyway, I now, will never forget the smell of the train, because it is lodged next to memories of my youth. I know EXACTLY what that smell is and exactly how I could describe it, and it’s not how I would have described it had I not gone on the train today.

[wpvideo ifFeSevz]It wasn’t just smells I experienced, but sounds too. When steam erupted from the train, it was LOUD. But as it chugged past (oh and that’s another thing, I thought they went thuka thuka thuka not chug chug chug!) it was so loud, it hurt my ears. It was shrill and a painful kind of static in my ears. It was so loud I wanted to get away, and I had no idea it would be like that.

FOUR – Knowledge 

This is linked to preconceptions, as having actual experiences removes them. I thought, or perhaps it was lack of thinking, that they would move as quickly as most normal trains now. They didn’t. They were considerably slower. Even if I’d read about the speed of diesel and steam trains I wouldn’t have been able to relate it to the feeling of speed a normal train is.

Having an experience also gives you knowledge you just wouldn’t get from google. I didn’t have a clue just how noisy diesel trains were. Like not a scoobies.

FIVE – Credibility

Thank god I did go, because if I had left out some crucial piece of information like the roar of the engines, I would have looked ridiculous. My story wouldn’t have had any depth and I would have looked like a plonker.

Having first hand experience of what you are writing about allows you to draw on those little details that bring a story to life and make you a credible writer.

So tell me, what have you gone out of your way to experience first hand for research? and what would you put on my 30 by 30 list?

The post 5 Reasons Why Writers Should Be Secret Agents appeared first on Sacha Black.

I don’t think I am alone in obsessing over reading blogs about writing, but all it does it confuse me. I mean, how much attention do we really pay to understanding our own writing process?

Until recently, when I had an epiphany, I’d spent a long time thinking there was a right way… a right writing process I should be following. There isn’t. I decided to sit down and really give my process some thought, because if I can understand my own process, then I can shape it and tweak it to maximize my effectiveness. I hope this post helps you do the same.

Everyone’s process will of course be different, but if you are in any doubt about your own method, if you’re blocked or just feel something isn’t right, then I strongly recommend you do your own version of this to understand your process. Because I love visual things, I have depicted it in a pyramid:

 ***

Usually I prepare and organise till I’m blue in the face, lists run in my blood. But it wasn’t working for my writing, so I let go of doing most ‘preparation’ to write this novel. One thing I couldn’t let go of was an outline. I need it, for my sanity! For me, it doesn’t have to be massive, but because getting the timeline/action down is the most important thing in my first draft, I need a paragraph outlining each chapter. I never follow the outline to the letter, things get moved, cut completely and then changed again, but it’s a guide.

Step 1: Decide what you need before you start – an outline, a synopsis, masses of research or just an idea.

***

PLOT

This is where you figure out what is most important to you to get down on the page first. This will also be dependent on how you work out and develop your characters.

Step 2: Decide what’s most important to you in draft one.

Here are my questions to help you work out your own process for draft 1:

• What do you like doing first?
• How do you develop your characters? Do you know them before you start writing or do you see how they develop on the page?
• How well do you know your setting before you start?
• Do you need to do lots of research?

I tried to use character sheets and interview each one before I started, but it didn’t work for me and trying only made me tie myself in knots worrying I was a shit writer because I couldn’t answer the questions.

So I sacked the preparation off and let the characters develop on the page. For me draft one is all about timeline and action. I need to get the basic plot down on the page. There’s only a little bit of creativity and imagery woven in to the story at this stage. I can’t get everything perfect in the first draft, so I don’t even try. I don’t worry about the chapter, three chapters ago, that Ive decided needs a rewrite, I just keep going. But how do I combat this incessant need to edit?

Step 3: Create an editing map.

I create one place, with a designated section for each chapter. Dump decisions or notes about chapters or characters or whatever you like under the appropriate chapter section. That way you keep your thoughts and decisions ready and organised for when you want to edit.

The benefit of an editing map is it will allow you to pattern spot your thinking. If you find you constantly put notes about characters then you know that’s what needs to go in the next draft. If you comment about setting then work on that next and so on.

***

CHARACTERS

Have a break before starting draft two, the longer the text the longer the break should be, but its up to you to decide how long is right for you. I imagine I will put my manuscript down for a month or two – or as long as I physically can.

Here’s where I hack the manuscript or story to pieces, I focus on finalising the timeline. Moving chapters or scenes till they are right, but I get it right here. Once this draft is over I don’t want to have to move the timeline much more. Whilst I do this, I study the characters. Picking up on their salient traits, emphasising or minimising them, checking consistencies and making very rough notes about each one, so that I get consistency across the whole story – bit like an editing map but for the characters – let’s call it a character map.

Step 4: Check your editing map for patterns of your thinking before you start editing- whatever is most salient is what you should work on next.

Step 5: Create a character map – it can look like whatever you want, and be as big or small as you want but should have relevant or key bits of information about your character to ensure consistency when editing.

Step 6: Once the timeline is finalised plot a loose map of chapters / scenes so you can easily find bits you need when editing.    

The character map ensures I check their back story and history and start weaving in detail.

Finally I start thinking about the world and environment. I know a lot of detail about my stories world before I start writing, so I don’t need to do much work to create it, more weave the detail in, in draft 3.

***

WORLD-BUILDING

Have another break before starting draft 3.

This is world-building time. I know for some people this will be the first draft stuff. But not for me, world-building comes in as a finishing touch – madness given the genre I write (fantasy/dystopian), but my world building is really done before I outline. The world in my current novel is what came to me first, so even though I only start to weave the detail in now, I already know what needs doing. My other focus in this draft is to finalise characters, detail, backstory and ensuring all the foreshadowing is in the right place.

Step 7: Check your editing map again

Ask yourself:

• What’s left to perfect?
• Have you checked details?
• Is your world complete?
• Are your characters perfected?
• Do you need to foreshadow?
• Does your timeline work?

***

PERFECTING THE MANUSCRIPT

I’m rubbish at proof reading. But I have to at least attempt it before giving it to beta readers and editors. So I proof read, check everything, over and over till I feel like I have done as much as I can do. I check:

• Characters
• Timelines
• Consistencies of: characters, world, locations, storyline, descriptions etc
• Grammar/spelling/word order/sentence structure etc
• General errors
• Story arcs / character growth

***

BETA FEEDBACK

This is the bit where you crap your pants a little – your hand shakes as you tentatively give your manuscript over to be critiqued by beta readers.

Once you stop crying! You edit in your feedback and hey presto you’re ready to pay a developmental or copy editor or seek an agent or whatever you feel your next steps should be.

 ***

RESEARCH

Step8: Research along the way, don’t get stuck making all the decisions before you start

There’s one section I haven’t mentioned. Research, and that’s because I research constantly. From before I pick up the pen, right through to the end of draft 3. I don’t worry about having all the tiny details before I start, or I would never start, plus I change my mind too often to decide everything before I begin; so I research details along the way.

***

This post is not meant to be a guide to the only writing process– the complete opposite in fact. This post is just my personal method of writing, my process. It will only be right for me. But what I hope it does do, is help you get some insight into discovering your own process. 

What does your pyramid look like?

The post 8 Steps to Discover Your Perfect Writing Process appeared first on Sacha Black.

I came across Flipboard completely by chance. I was browsing my stats page and seemed to be getting an increasing number of referrals from this ‘thing’ called Flipboard. However, when I clicked through to the links they just failed so I thought it was spam.

The following day, I had over 100 referrals just from that site, so I decided to actually Google Flipboard, and low and behold its pretty awesome.

Anyway, if you’re anything like me, you might spend hours reading other blogs or trawling the internet for story research, but where do you put it all? I never really know what to do with all the things I want to read again, it’s not like the old days when you shove crap from magazines a in a folder or scrap book – I miss getting my fingers smeared with pritt stick and having a physical project book that never quite looked right!

These days I clog my laptop up with dozens of open tabs in my browser, (which stay open for weeks) and then I get mighty irritated when my laptop does an automatic update and closes everything. LOST FOREVER PEOPLE.

Sure, I could bookmark pages but isn’t that so last decade?! Plus I must have at least a thousand bookmarks none of which are particularly well organised.

Sigh.

Flipboard is a kind of Pinterest but for word oriented people rather than visual people. It works on the basis of you creating ‘Magazines’ which are effectively a storage folder. You can ‘flip’ articles, blog posts or pictures into your magazines. You can title, rearrange and organise your magazines and articles however you like.

It’s basically the ideal solution to storing those interesting blogs, pictures, research or articles you want to keep. It’s minimal effort, sleek, neat and can be visual for those who want it.  But more than anything, its tidy and doesn’t require hundreds of bytes of data to store.

They also have a ‘flip it’ button you can install onto your browser so that you can flip things from anywhere. They have apps for your devices and all the mod cons of a normal social media site, like the ability to follow other peoples’ magazines or general ‘topics’, of which there are thousands.

I am only just getting to grips with this little discovery, but it appears to be a bit of an (undiscovered to me) gem.

Have you heard of Flipboard? Do you use it? Like it? Let me know in the comments.

If you liked this post, why not get even more awesome writing tips in the book 13 Steps To Evil – How to Craft Superbad Villains. Click this link and just tap the logo of your device or regular bookshop and it will take you to the right page. 

You can also get a FREE villains cheatsheet and a villain’s short course by joining my mailing list just click here.

Read Keepers, the first book in my Young Adult fantasy series now. Or to hear more about the release of the sequels as well as get regular CogMail updates you can do so here.

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads

The post The Minimalists Guide to Storing Interesting Articles appeared first on Sacha Black.

Hope you all had an amazing Christmas Day, filled with over indulgence, gifts and quality time with your family.

I decided some time ago to do a writing course. I had wanted to be a writer for a long time, it just took me a while to figure it out. When I did, I decided I still had motivation issues. I am a planner to my core, so much so I can find it difficult to actually get on with the business of writing.

I searched for a long time for the right course, a course comprehensive enough that I could learn skills for all kinds of writing, from radio scripts to novel writing, short stories and readers letters. But also a course that represented value for money, I do like a bargain!

I can’t recommend enough the benefits of doing a writing course. It has forced me to write, but more importantly to submit my writing to competitions and magazines. The exact thing every writer needs.

As part of the course you get a tutor, mine is Esther Newton, a fabulous tutor with an uncanny eye for grammar and detail (exactly what I need) and a brilliant writer in her own right. She tirelessly answers my questions and provides detailed feedback. Part of the reason I think the course is so beneficial, and why I am recommending it.

If you’re one of those people who wants to be a writer, but hasn’t quite found the motivation – try this course, it might just work.

The post Writing Tips #11 Do a Writing Course appeared first on Sacha Black.