National November Writing Month – the month when writers around the world join in a quick-fire effort to complete a story of 50,000 words in just 30 days – just finished. I’ve been marking it this month by re-posting some of the material I’ve published in past years to help writers get to that goal. … More Ways to wrap up your 50,000 word writing sprint
It’s National November Writing Month – the month when writers around the world join in a quick-fire effort to complete a story of 50,000 words in just 30 days. I’m marking it this month by re-posting some of the material I’ve published in past years to help writers get to that goal. ++++++++++++++++++++++ I’ve posted … More Write it now: how to make readers feel what you do when writing
One of the best writing exercises I know is to emulate a specific author – ‘writing in the style of…’ – because it forces the writer to analyse exactly how the writing they’re emulating was put together. That’s how you learn things. But let’s take that further. The idea of writers figuring out another’s writing … More How to juxtapose writing style across content…and laugh…
I reviewed a book the other month for one of New Zealand’s magazines, whose author had no idea about how to control his tenses. It was a history book, but he relentlessly muddled up past and future tenses – the rogue word was ‘would’ and ‘would be’. This is death to historical writing for a … More How to avoid mixing up tenses in your writing
This week’s NaNo writing prompt is a photo I took of crowds at the 2016 art deco festival in Napier, New Zealand. The festival draws around 40,000 people to central Napier, many of them in period costume – it has to be one of the largest displays of public cosplay in the world. Everybody has … More This week’s NaNo writing prompt
This week’s NaNo writing prompt is a photo I took of a 1920 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost on display in early 2016 at Art Deco weekend in Napier, New Zealand. Copyright © Matthew Wright 2016
I’ve long thought that the problem of getting stuck while writing is inversely proportional to the looming deadline. As long as you’ve got plenty of time, the muse will flow – but as soon as you’re working to x-words completed per day, with a hard deadline a few weeks off, the muse decides it’s time … More Why we get writers’ block
Have you met the self-crit demon yet in your writing? The one that nags and dogs every word you write, whose special power is paralysis. Most writers do meet it, but not all realise that it’s actually there as your friend – if you can make it so. Meeting and greeting the self-crit demon is … More Defeating the demon that lurks under your writing desk
Although some writers deny there’s any such thing as ‘writer’s block’, the fact is that all too often writers sit down for a writing session and…nothing. Sometimes it’s because the muse has fled. Sometimes it’s because the list of Good Ideas just won’t translate into the written sentence. For a lucky few of us it’s … More Knocking writers’ block into submission
The problem writers face when assembling dialogue is the fact that written and spoken English are two different things. Actual spoken English is almost incomprehensible if you transliterate it – a mess of half-phrases, fillers, pauses, switches of direction and broken sentences. The reason’s that verbal communication is only part of the spoken story – … More How to write compelling dialogue
Matthew Wright 
You must be logged in to post a comment.