Are you ready to edit? It's over four months since NaNoWriMo 2017 ended and I'm now feeling I have enough distance from that month of frenzied creative output to start editing. To put down my pen and pick up my editor's tool. Of course, whenever I embark on an editing challenge, I apply the techniques of EDITING The RedPen Way, and I already can tick off steps 1, 2 and 3 for...
Happy Boxing Day! If you were lucky enough to receive money for Christmas, you might be thinking about investing in yourself. Three suggestions ...
Wishing all my writerly friends a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year ...
A week today and it'll be Christmas Day. There will be no blog next Monday ...
Erewash Open Short Story Competition It was an honour to be asked to judge the Erewash Open Short Story Competition. What does the short story judge have to do? I received by email the shortlisted stories, fifteen in all. Here they are, in alphabetical order by title: Altara Drive Belonging Broken Mirrors Counting the Stones Dead Cert Fingal's Cave Found and Lost Letting Go Lurch Pride Before the Fall Mr. Patel's Power Drill ...
Are you keen on multi-tasking? [caption id="attachment_10893" align="alignright" width="300"] One-on-one RedPen Mentoring[/caption] RedPen Mentoring isn't all about how to write a novel, self-editing and moving towards marketing it to your adoring public ...
If you missed yesterday's online workshop reviewing Clare Mackintosh's novel I SEE YOU, you can catch up, by watching the video. This RedPen Training session was the first of four FREE online writers' workshops. The next one is on Saturday 5 August, 12 noon until 3 pm (yes, 3 hours, but with comfort breaks scheduled in). Book your seat here. What we looked for in I SEE YOU Ahead of the first workshop, I...
Staying on track is so difficult in this age of information overload. If you want to achieve your goals, you need focused objectives and targets that you can hit. And you need to become more productive! Tip #1: Wasted time is the silent killer of dreams Be aware of how you spend (or waste) your time. Keep a log for one week. Categorise according to your own circumstances: day job, chores, writing, socialising,...
A Monday is as good a day as any for planning decisions: for the week ahead, or further into your future. Ideally, whatever you plan, your goals should be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. There are other suggestions as to what the five letters of SMART might represent: S - sensible, significant, simple, strategic, stretching M - maintainable, manageable, meaningful, motivating A - acceptable, accountable, achievable, action-oriented, agreed, ambitious, assignable R - realistic, reasonable, recorded, resourced, results-oriented,...
