The importance of ‘building on detail’ is a well-known fact when writing fiction. Fiction works best when it is visual, created brush stroke by brush stroke – it’s relatively simple...

Humans are the only animals who cook and the only primates who share their food. As a consequence, food consumption has evolved to be a significant personal, social and cultural...

Writing historical fiction is quite a challenge as I first discovered when I set out blithely to write about Irish designer Eileen Gray (1878-1976). She lived through the turmoil of...

People may not remember what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel – and the same can be true of novels....

This essay was inspired by, and is based on, a discussion with the novelist and teacher Lee Martin at the Vermont College of Fine Art’s 2016 Postgraduate Writers Conference, directed...

If you are lucky, every now and then you get a light bulb moment while writing. Suddenly the murky waters clear, and you can see clearly what you are trying...

We’re often told that the secret to making writing clear and accessible is to use active verbs, simple words and short sentences. There’s something in that advice. But what really...

It is said that you can tell whether a book is going to be any good after the first eight or nine pages. And I have to agree you usually...

Stephen King has said that ‘locale and texture are much more important to the reader’s sense of actually being in the story than any physical description of the players,’ and...

My first pair of glasses are National Health issue, blue plastic, with lenses that rub the bridge of my nose. The optician adjusts them. They smell funny. ‘Lovely,’ he says,...