Small Details
One of my favourite pastimes is to visit art museums and focus on the small details in a painting. A pearl bracelet dangling from a wrist. A lace ruffle on a sleeve. A jewel-encrusted ring. Thick impasto paint to suggest stiff brocade. Daubs of white to indicate...
Beginnings
The opening chapter of a novel is the element that is rewritten, amended and tweaked more than any other part of a story. Ask any writer how many versions of an opening chapter they have written, and the answer will be dozens, if not more. Deciding on exactly where...
Narrative Distance
The first time I learned about narrative distance – also called psychic distance – I was attending a writers’ workshop in York. It was a light-bulb moment for me. Workshop teacher, author and freelance editor, Debi Alper, described narrative distance as the space...