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Continue reading →: The art of seamless backstory: avoiding the dreaded info dump in your writingAnother month, and another authors’ Round Robin. This month the topic has been set by author Skye Taylor… How do you avoid the ‘info dump’ and drop in backstory in a seamless way? As a writer I’d love to start a book with a first chapter called something like: ‘Backstory:…
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Tips for managing stress and anxiety as a writer
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Continue reading →: Tips for managing stress and anxiety as a writerAnother month and time for another authors’ Round Robin… This month, our topic is How do you manage stress as a writer? This is a great question. Scientific research has proven that reading novels relieves stress. For me, there’s nothing more relaxing than immersing myself in the sort of novel…
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Writer inspiration and tips on using AI to generate ideas
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Continue reading →: Writer inspiration and tips on using AI to generate ideasIt’s another month, and another authors’ Round Robin. And this month the topic is… Where do your ideas come from? This question reminds me of a wonderful quote I read by playwright Dennis Potter: Stories to me are a sort of magic, and ideas can appear out of what seems…
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Continue reading →: How using the senses in your writing can bring your characters to lifeAnother month, and another authors’ Round Robin. This month our topic is set by author Skye Taylor… Using the senses in writing: how important is it to draw the reader in to experience what your characters are seeing, hearing, smelling, etc? I’ve thought long about this one and my feeling…
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Continue reading →: The Legend of John Macnab: how an autistic author created a compelling new tale from a Scottish classicIn this last weekend of #indieapril, the month where we celebrate indie authors, I’d like to champion an author published by an independent publisher whose work I feel deserves a much wider audience. I first came across James Christie’s book, Dear Miss Landau, after it was chosen for an episode…
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Choosing point of view: which one is best for your story?
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Continue reading →: Choosing point of view: which one is best for your story?Another month, and another authors’ Round Robin. This month our question is… What are the advantages and disadvantages of first person, third person and the omniscient point of view? It wasn’t until my first novel, The Silk Romance, was going through editing that I grasped point of view as a…
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Continue reading →: Some tips on research for fiction writers (and knowing when enough is enough)It’s time for another of our authors’ Round Robins, and this month the topic is… How important is research for your writing? Besides writing fiction, I’m also the author of a non-fiction social history, Struggle and Suffrage in Halifax: Women’s Lives and the Fight for Equality. This book covers the…
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Continue reading →: How Goal, Motivation and Conflict add essential tension to your storyIt’s my first authors’ Round Robin of the year, and this month our topic is… Using Goal, Motivation and Conflict to add tension to your story All stories are about people, because human beings love to hear stories about other human beings. At their heart, the most engrossing stories are…
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The Elf Swap: a free short story for Christmas
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Continue reading →: The Elf Swap: a free short story for ChristmasIt’s the last authors’ Round Robin of the year! And this month, we’ve each of us taken the time to write a story for our readers. And so… …here’s my free heartwarming short story, The Elf Swap. I hope you enjoy! The Elf Swap Rosie hopped from foot to foot,…
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Continue reading →: 7 tips for setting the scene in your novel (and bringing it to life)It’s another month, and another authors’ Round Robin. And this month the topic is… Setting the scene This seems a simple topic. A scene is just a scene, isn’t it? Just a few lines of description and then move on to the more interesting plot and dialogue. In fact skilful…
Helena Fairfax
Freelance editor, author, tea drinker, Yorkshire lass
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Helena Fairfax 