7 Rookie Writing Mistakes I Made and 7 Ways I Improved
I started writing since I was six years old, with the first line of what was surely to be an epic saga: once a pon a time. My spelling and originality have improved since then, but in the twenty-two years since then I have made more than my share of writing mistakes. I also picked up some useful skills that made me a better writer. 7 ways I was a terrible writer: Writing about writers. The adage write what you know is all well and good (and somewhat debatable), but writing ab
Writing with ADHD
I was twelve years old, standing beneath a gray sky in Berkeley, California. Beside me, my mother wants to take my hand but is trying to respect that I'm too old for it. She stands there, in front of the student med clinic at her alma matter of UC Berkeley. She is taking several deep breaths, on the verge of happy tears. After so many years of disruptive behavior, and questions with no answers, I have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyper Disorder. At last, things made
7 Ways to Write Visually (Even if You’re not a Visual Person)
The world is pretty visual, but I’m not. Despite my insistence that, if I had to choose, I’d rather lose my hearing than my sight, I’ve never been able to work in a visual way. What I mean by not being a ‘visual person’ is I’ll usually choose any other medium over visual. My preferred form of entertainment or way of receiving information is words (of course), followed by audio, with visual last. I struggle to sustain enthusiasm when watching a TV series, so I’m not a fan of e
Has Self-publishing Made the Industry a Bit… Sterile?
Six year-old me dreamed of seeing my name shining on hardbacks in the window of Waterstone’s as the latest bestselling debut author. Twenty-seven year old me has altered the dream slightly to a single webpage with the all-important average customer rating hovering between 4 and 5. It’s less enchanting, but more practical. I came across the phrase ‘authorpreneurial’ recently, and I still don’t know how I feel about it. On the one hand, I like the idea of authors taking full co
Traditional Publishing (UK)
Last night I was invited out for a drink by a colleague. I thought nothing of it until we were half way into our first pint and he said to me “so I’ve written this book...” I am firmly of the belief that everyone has at least one book in them. Most people have an awful lot more, but as John Lennon said, life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. I found that once I had written a book, I broke through something. It’s not some kind of heinous and terrible task. Y