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...

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,...

Characterisation: BPA’s Advice for Novel Writers

Thursday, December 29, 2022

Characterisation is everything in fiction. Readers love a compelling story, but only if a character’s emotional journey is at its core. Ray Bradbury says this: ‘Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to...

Why Specificity is so Important

Friday, October 29, 2021

Master of the craft George Saunders said, ‘As text is revised, it becomes more specific and embodied in the particular. It becomes more sane. It becomes less hyperbolic, sentimental, and misleading.’ It’s natural when crafting to think big picture,...