Latest Episodes
Episode 86 - Handle with care! Writing and placing the flashback scene
Loved and hated in equal measures, the flashback remains a firm favourite with authors. When it's done well it can enthrall readers, give them...
Episode 85 - An interview with Anne Perry editor at Hodder and Stoughton
This episode is a wide ranging interview with commissioning editor Anne Perry from Hodder and Stoughton. Anne draws on her experience to talk about...
Episode 84 - Finishing well. Principles for writing a great closing scene
Writing the closing scene of a story is more than just tying up the loose ends and sending our characters off into the sunset....
Episode 83 - Curtain Up! Essential Principles for the Opening Scene
We all know the opening scene in any book is the critical moment to make your mark on the reader, to grab their interest,...
Episode 82 - Interview with children's author Bob Hartman
This episode first appeared (briefly!) back in 2014 but mysteriously disappeared, making it a missing episode. It's a conversation with the writer Bob Hartman....
Episode 81 - You have a deal with your readers - here's how to deliver your side of it
In this episode we use the development of a scene to illustrate a critical element of the author:reader relationship, that’s the implied deal that...