Surprise is more powerful than any other emotion in its ability to move people: to laugh, to gasp, or to turn to the next chapter! Readers enjoy ‘not knowing’ and finding out, but they love thinking they know and finding out they were wrong, especially if...
Some of us love connecting with other writers and readers on social media, but if you use it purely to maintain a presence as an author, you’re not alone. For those who find social media can be a struggle, here are some tips to help you build a following without...
Many writers come to literary consultants with manuscripts that are already beautifully written and well edited but simply don’t have that gripping quality, and even the most ‘literary’ fiction should compel you to turn pages. When editors talk about...
At BPA we love characters who are flawed and complex (or even evil), and there’s no reason you shouldn’t write an unlikable person as the central character of your novel. That said, antiheroes are hard to pull off and we often see good novels let down by...
I was delighted to attend Emma Darwin’s BPA workshop on ‘Editing your Novel’. Emma’s memoir This is not a book about Charles Darwin, an account of her struggle to write a historical novel based on her family, was described by the Daily Mail as...
