The Seven Basic Plots

Friday, June 14, 2024

In 2004 Christopher Booker published his momentous book, The Seven Basic Plots. It is reputed to have taken him 34 years to complete. Through an extensive analysis of stories originating from around the world, he stipulates that all stories can be reduced to seven...

How to Write Emotion

Thursday, November 9, 2023

Reading is above all else an emotional experience. We read to connect with characters, to experience their emotions and to compare them to our own. Nailing emotion is therefore essential to writing compelling fiction. But how to be sure to write emotion in a way that...

Autumn Away Weekend 2023

Thursday, October 12, 2023

Our twice yearly Away Days morphed this month into an Autumn Away Weekend. We welcomed 25 writers to a lovely country house in Kintbury, West Berkshire over the weekend of October 7/8. With temperatures in the mid 70s it didn’t feel very Autumnal. In fact, it was a...

How Film Techniques Can Improve Your Writing

Wednesday, July 5, 2023

Imagine you were brushing your teeth or daydreaming on the underground this morning when suddenly you were hit with an amazing story idea. How might that story first come to you – in words and sentences or as images, like a film? You’ve probably discovered that...

Escapism in Fiction: What is escapist fiction and how do you write it?

Tuesday, June 6, 2023

‘Escapism’ is one of the publishing industry’s favourite buzz words at the moment, and we’ve heard many literary agents using it when recounting their chats with publishers at the London Book Fair 2023. It seems a lot of commissioning editors, and therefore agents,...