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A writer’s phone doesn’t have to be just cat gifs and Twitter. It can actually help. Top productivity tip for writers everywhere: put down your phone and write. Everyone has heard this advice – and it’s not wrong. Our phones can become huge time sucks and the quick dopamine of phone apps are powerful lures away from our creative work. Social media, hypnotising games, endless video content… need I go on? And I am as

Think about your reader’s mental real estate Chekhov’s gun is the principle—attributed to 19th century Russian playwright Anton Chekhov—that if you mention something in your writing, it needs to be in play later. “One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn’t going to go off. It’s wrong to make promises you don’t mean to keep.” Anton Chekhov It’s also been described as the ‘Q Factor’. In James Bond films, the

Better question: why shouldn’t you? I spent a long time in school not knowing how to express my real self. I masked myself, trying to pick up cues from the other kids on what to do or say or think. When I left school and started working, it was a little easier; there was less competition, and I could use a metaphorical hat, or persona. It’s work time; this is Work-Becca. But there were still

A cheat sheet for your book. Why WOULDN’T you want one? Let’s start with a brief definition: a stylesheet is a document that records your decisions as an author. To really over-simplify, your book consists of two major components: the Big Picture (structure, etc), and the Nuts and Bolts (words and details). A stylesheet is about defining the Nuts and Bolts, rather than the Big Picture. We’ll deal with that in another post (or you

All texts exist to be read by someone. Who’s reading yours? Every text you write is a dialogue, between you the writer and some future reader. Every single one. The note with a to-do list: you’re the writer, and your future self is the reader. Your social media posts: between you and your followers. And your book draft? Well, your eventual reader. But when you’re beginning your draft, or in the midst of rewriting, that

Structure is key for those who plot and for those who like to fly by the seat of their pants Why do you need to understand story structure? What even is story structure? Well, do you want to create a satisfying story that your readers love and that turns them into fans? ‘A whole [story] is what has a beginning and middle and end.’ Aristotle Structure is the pattern that gives your story a shape. It stops

Setting up my editing business branding from scratch How could I come up with a logo that suited me and my business? Problem: I needed my logo to be… TL;DR: what I chose is a classical typesetting symbol, that represents the craft of creating a book, from structure to readability. Simplicity The symbol I chose is everywhere, and yet invisible. You will probably have seen it in your word processor while writing your book. It