Plotting – Taking Affirmative Action
May 16, 2013
I’ve recently finished reading My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young. You’d think that everything which could possibly be said about the First World War has already been said, truth, in this instance, being considerably stranger than fiction,...Recent Posts
Archives
- August 2017
- July 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- October 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
Categories
- 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
- 1870
- A Life in a Day; Ridley Scott
- A Partridge in a Pear Tree
- A Sense of Proportion
- A Trip to Bountiful
- AAtmosphere; Suspense; Mystery
- Adding Value to your Manuscript
- Advice for Fiction Writers
- Affirmation
- Ahren Warner
- Alan Yentob
- Alastair Horne
- Alex Johnson
- Algonquin Hotel
- Alice in Wonderland
- Alienation
- Alistair Horne
- Alliteration
- Almeida Theatre
- Ambiguity
- Ambivalence
- Amnesty International Bookshop
- Andrew Scott
- Anna Chancellor
- Anna Karenina
- Anne Tyler
- Anton Chekhov
- Appropriateness
- Archaisms
- Art Nouveau
- Arthur Whitby
- Articulating Thought
- AS Byatt
- Assembling the Elements of a Narrative
- Atmosphere
- attention to detail
- Audrey Niffenegger. The Time Traveler's Wife
- Authenticity
- Author
- Authorial resilience; stamina
- Authority
- Autobiographical Writing
- Autobiography; Characterisation
- Avoiding Adjectives
- Back Story
- Backstory
- Ballindalloch Castle
- BBC
- BBC4
- Beauty
- Before I Go to Sleep
- Beginnings
- Behaving Inconsistently
- Being Too Literal; Common Pitfalls
- Ben Lewin
- Ben Miles
- Betrayal
- Big Apple
- Birdsong
- Black Swan Green
- Blogging
- Book Lovers
- Book Shelves
- Books
- Borgen
- Boy Meets Girl
- Breaking Convention
- Breaking Down Writing Barriers
- Brett Easton Ellis
- Brevity
- Bring Up the Bodies
- Bristol Festival of Ideas
- Bristol Old Vic
- Broadway
- Building a Character
- Building Relationships
- Candide
- Capital
- Catharsis
- Catherine Czerkawska
- Catherine Ryan Howard
- Challenge your Character
- Challenges of Writing
- Challenging yourself
- Change
- Channel 4
- Character or Plot?
- Characterisation
- Characterisation – Appearance
- Characterisation – Gender
- Characterisation – other people's opinions
- Characters in Action; James Wood How Fiction Works
- Charite sur Loire
- Charlemagne
- Charles Dickens
- Charles Edwards
- Cheek by Jowl
- Chivalry
- Choosing a name for your character
- Choosing the Right Word
- Christopher Vogler
- Cirey en Blaise
- Claire King
- Claire Messud
- Claire Tomalin
- Clarity
- Claude Monet
- Cliches
- Cliffhangers
- Colm Toibin
- Common Mistakes
- Composite Characterisation
- Compulsion
- Conceiving a Story
- Conditional Tense
- Conflict
- Constructing a Scene
- Construction
- Constructive Advice
- Constructive Criticism
- Contemplation
- Context
- Contradiction
- contradiction; realisation
- Contrast
- Control Freak
- Controversy
- Conviction; Conventions
- Copy Edit
- Copy Editing
- Cornwall
- Creating Narratives
- Creative Ambiguity
- Creative Chaos
- Creative Discrepancy
- Creative Inspiration
- Creative Process
- Creative Processes
- Creative Spaces
- Creative Uncertainty
- Creative Writing
- Creative Writing Christmas Carol
- Creative Writing Exercises
- Creative Writing Groups
- Creative Writing' The Quality of Silence; Between the Lines
- Creatively Unbalanced
- Creativity
- Creativity. Comfort Zone
- Critical Responses
- Cuisery
- Culture; Language Michael Boyd
- Cunard
- Cutting
- Daniel Woodrell
- Daphne du Maurier
- Dart
- Dartmoor
- David Harsent
- David Lodge
- David Mitchell
- David Tennant
- Dealing With Criticism of Your Work
- Deborah Findlay
- Deborah Harvey
- Declan Donellan
- Denial (Plotting)
- Deprevate
- Description
- Descriptive Writing
- detail
- Developing a Character; Ed Reardon
- Developing Your Prose Style
- DH Lawrence; Royal Society of Literature
- Dialect
- Dialogue
- Dialogue — what is not said
- Dialogue / Characterisation
- Dialogue and Context
- Dialogue As Description
- Dirty Tricks
- Disgrace; JM Coetzee; Empathy
- Disrupting Your Narrative
- Distillation
- Distribution of Information
- Dominic Savage
- Douglas Henshall
- Dramatic Irony
- E L James
- East Coker
- Easy Steps to Writing Dialogue
- Eats Shoots and Leaves
- Economy
- Edinburgh Fringe
- Editing
- Editing Your Work
- Edna Ferber
- Edward St Aubin
- Edward St Aubyn
- Edward Thomas
- Eileen Atkins
- EL James
- Eleanor Farjeon
- Electronic Reading
- Elegies
- Emile Zola
- Emily Bronte
- Emma Jones
- Emmanuel Héré
- Emotional Intensity
- Endings
- Endurance
- Engaging with your Reader
- Erasmus
- Ergonomics / RSI
- Ernest Hemingway
- Everyday
- Evoking Emotion
- Evolving a Story
- Exercising the Imagination
- Expectations
- Exterior
- F Scott Fitzgerald
- Facing the Blank Page
- Fact Checking
- Fantasy Fiction
- Faverolles
- Feedback
- Fiction Writing
- Fiction Writing Feedback for Free
- Fictional Beginnings
- Fictional Endings
- Fifty Shades of Grey
- Finding Ideas to Write about
- Finding Your Voice
- Fingersmith
- Finishing a novel
- Finishing the First Draft
- First Kiss
- First Person
- First Person Narrative
- First Thoughts
- Five Gold Rings
- Flashback
- Flaubert
- Fonts
- Four Calling Birds
- Fracking
- Framing a Story
- France
- Franz Kafka
- Free Critique
- Free Range Writing
- French Book Villages
- French Canals
- Gabrielle Emile de Breteuil
- Geek Squad
- Genesis
- Genre Fiction
- Genres
- Geoff Dyer
- Georgette Heyer
- Gestation of a Story
- Getting Published
- Getting Started
- Ghosts
- Giverney
- Goethe
- Gone with the Wind
- good writing
- Graham Greene
- Grammar
- Grapeds of Wrath
- Grapes of Wrath
- Growing ideas
- Growth
- Gustave Flaubert
- Hamlet
- Hard Work
- Harold Pinter
- Harry Belafonte
- Haunting
- Having a World View in Fiction
- Hay on Wye
- Headspace; Perspective
- Health and Safety
- Hearing / Listening
- Heathcliffe
- Helen Dunmore
- Helen Hunt
- Help with Creating Characters
- Hilary Mantel
- Hilary Mantel; Humility
- Hilary Mantel; Stephen King
- Hilary Mantel; Tim Winton
- Honing Your Work
- How Characters Respond
- How to Avoid Common Pitfalls in Writing Fiction
- How to Convey the Past
- How to Deal with Writer's Block
- How to Get Published
- How to Perfect Your Prose
- How to Punctuate Your Work
- How to Write a Love Story
- How to Write a Novel
- Hugh Bonneville
- Hugo Williams
- I'm Reading
- Ian McEwan
- Ian Rankin
- Ian Richardson
- Iconoclasm
- Identification
- Identifying With Your Reader
- Illumination
- Imagination
- Imagine
- Impressionism
- Indigo Dreams
- Influence
- Insincerity
- Inspiration
- Inspirational Characterisation
- Instructions for a Heatwave
- Intent; Andrew Graham Dixon
- Interior / Exterior Worlds
- Interior Landscape
- Interior Perspective
- Interpretation
- Introducing a Character
- Irony
- Isaac Newton
- It Ain't What You Say It's the Way that You Say It
- J M Barrie
- James Fenton
- James Young
- Jean Cocteau
- Jean Lamour
- Jeopardy
- Johannes Gutenberg
- John Banville
- John Ford
- John Fowles
- John Hawkes
- John Keats
- John Kennedy
- John Lanchester
- John Masefield
- John Simm
- John Steinbeck
- Jonathan Coe
- Jonathan Franzen
- Jonathan Letham
- Joseph Anton
- Joseph Conrad
- Juxtaposition
- Juxtaposition As a Writing Tool
- Kahlil Gibran
- Kate Dunn Author
- Kazoo Independent Publishing Services
- Kevin McDonald
- Kim Bodnia
- Kit Williams
- Knitting
- Kristen Scott Thomas
- Kurt Wagner
- Lack of Editing
- Lack of Planning
- Lambchop
- Landscape.
- Language
- Language inflation
- Laurence Olivier
- Laurie Lee
- Lavinia Greenlaw
- Layering your Work
- Learning to Edit Rigorously
- Les Chats Noirs
- Les Miserables
- Less Is More
- Lessons from Life
- Lewis Carroll
- Libraries
- Like Water for Chocolate
- Likeability
- Literary Accuracy
- Literary Come-On
- Literary Lessons
- Literary Terroir
- Literature
- Living Creatively
- Living Language
- Locating a Story in Time and Place
- Location
- Location; Setting; Motherless Brookly Jonathan Letham
- Lorraine Ashbourne
- Lorrie Moore
- Lost in Translation
- Lost in Translation. Cider with Rosie
- Louisa Young
- Love
- Luther
- Lycanthropy
- Lying Fallow
- Lynne Truss
- MacPherson Grant
- Madame Bovary
- Madeline Miller
- Maggie O'Farrell
- Magic Realism
- Making a Relationship with Your Reader
- Making Cuts
- Man Booker Prize 2012
- Managing Your Research
- Mansion of Many Apartments
- Marc Chagall
- Margaret Atwood
- Margaret Leroy
- Margaret Mitchell
- Margate
- Marlon Brando
- Martin Amis
- Martin Luther King
- Mary Rose
- Masquerade
- Masterclass
- Mediaeval Romance
- Melodrama
- Melvyn Oliver
- Memory as Inspiration
- Mentoring
- Metaphors
- Michael Dibdin
- Michael Plampin
- Michael Winterbottom
- Mikael Birkkjær
- Miniaturist
- Miriam Toews
- Moby Dick
- Momentum
- Mood; pathetic fallacy
- Mosaics
- Mother's Milk
- Motherless Brooklyn
- Multi-Tasking
- Musicality
- My Dear I Wanted to Tell You
- Names and Identity
- Nana
- Nancy
- Narcissism
- Narrative Arc' Structure
- Narrative Construction
- Narrative depth
- Narrative Hinge
- Narrative Tension
- National Poetry Day
- Nemesis
- Networking
- Neverland
- New Testament
- New York
- Nicholas Farrell
- Nicholas Hytner
- Nicholson Baker
- Nick Dear
- Nick Ormerod
- Nicola Morgan
- Nine Ladies Dancing
- North Atlantic
- Novel Writing
- Nuance
- Nuance; translation; context
- observation
- Oedipus
- Of Mice and Men
- Olivia Colman
- Olympic Fitness Plan for Authors
- On Holiday; Inspiration
- One Day by David Nichols
- Oresund
- Originality
- Oscar Wilde
- Ostensibility
- Othello
- Over Description
- Overhearing – Literary Thrift
- Overwriting
- Overwriting / Underwriting
- Pace
- Paragraphs
- Particularising the General
- Partridge in a Pear Tree
- Passage of Time; Change; Growth
- Passive Mode
- Pat Barker
- Pathetic Fallacy
- Paul Celan
- Paul Gallico
- Paul Muldoon
- Peace Old Testament
- Perfect
- Persistence
- Perspective
- Perspective and Context
- Pet Hates in Fiction
- Peter Pan
- Philip Roth
- Philosophical Letters
- Phrasing
- Place Stanislas
- planning
- Planning a Book
- Planning a Story
- Plot / Character Debate
- Plot Construction
- Plot Structure
- Plot structure; Anagnorisis
- Plot Synthesis
- Plotting
- Plotting a Novel
- Plotting Made Simple
- Pluperfect
- Pocket Oxford Dictionary
- Point of View
- Polarity
- polemic
- precision
- Preparing to Write
- Preparing to Write a Novel
- Preparing to Write; displacement activity; Goan Dogs
- Presence
- Present Tense
- Printing Press
- Privacy
- Prose As Architecture
- Psychology
- Publishers' House Style
- Publishing News
- Pulitzer Prize
- Punctuation
- Queen Mary 2
- Radio – before you start
- Radio – formats and presentation
- Radio – Writing Techniques
- Radio Writing – Dos and Don'ts
- Rainer Maria Rilke
- Re-Reading
- Re-Writing
- Reader – Writer Relationship
- Reader Relationships
- Reading
- Reading a Face
- Reading Aloud
- Reading and Writing
- Reading Your Work Aloud
- Realism
- Recharging the imagination
- Recycling
- Reflection; Purpose of Fiction
- Regret
- Reimagining Your Research
- Relationships
- Repetition/Structure
- Research
- Research and Writing Fiction
- Researching Your Novel
- Resilience.
- Resistance
- Responding to Criticism
- Rewriting
- Rhythm
- River Saone
- Robert Doran
- Robert Frost
- Rod Steiger
- Room with a View. Space to Think
- Royal Society of Literature
- Rules
- Rules for Writing Fiction
- Rupert Brooke
- Rural France
- Ruthlessness in Writing
- Salman Rushdie
- Sarah Dunant
- Sarah Waters
- Sarrebourg
- Saving Your Work
- Scarlett O'Hara
- Scene Structure
- Scrabble; Metaphors
- Sebastian Faulks
- Second Person
- Self Publishing Survey
- Senses
- Setting
- Setting – in time
- Setting a Story
- Setting and Characterisation
- Setting the Scene
- Seven Secrets of Writing Dialogue
- Seven Swans a Swimming
- Sex
- Sexual Jealousy As a Plot Device
- Shakespeare's Birthday
- Sheds
- Sherlock Holmes
- Shirley Henderson
- Show Don't Tell
- Showing and Telling
- Showing Your Protagonist in Action
- Sidse Babett Knudsen
- Silas Marner
- Silence
- Silicon Valley
- Similies
- Simon Armitage
- Simon Howard Glass Studio
- Simon Russell Beale
- Simple Past
- sincerity; truth
- Sir Francis Drake
- Six Geese A-Laying
- SJ Watson
- Skeleton Crew
- Small presses and little magazines
- Snow in the South West
- Society of Authors
- Sofia Helin
- Somerset Maugham
- Sophocles
- Sound Effects
- Sounds
- Sources – Dreams
- Spinning the Thread of a Story
- Split Personality
- St Guilhem
- St Mary's Church Beverley
- Starting a Story
- Starting to Write
- Stephen King
- Steven Lewis
- Stone Mason
- Story Structure
- Storytelling
- Strasbourg
- Strasbourg Cathedral
- Stream of Consciousness
- Stresses
- Stretching the Imagination
- Structural Edit
- Structure
- Structure in Fiction
- Structure; Plotting
- Structuring a Story
- Style
- Style Tips – Adjectives
- Style Tips – Adverbs
- Style Tips – Cliches
- Style Tips – It
- Style Tips – Repetition
- Style Tips – Show don't Tell
- Sub Plot
- Subtext
- Subtlety; Hilary Mantel; subtext.
- Subverting Narratives
- Summer Reading
- Suspense
- Syllables
- Sylvia Plath
- Symbolism
- Synopsis
- T S Eliot
- Taleist
- Telling the Truth
- Tenses
- Tension
- Tension / Anticipation
- Tension and Counterpoint in Creative Writing
- Terroir
- Tess of the D'Urbervilles
- Tess of the D'Urbevilles
- Texture
- The Amber Heart
- the Art of Conversation
- The Author's Message
- The Banana Boat Song
- The Benefits of Constructive Criticism
- The Benefits of Research When Writing a Story
- The Best Qualities for a Writer to Have
- The Best Stories
- The Bridge
- The Brontes
- The Browning Version
- The Challenges of Writing
- The Collaborator
- The Corrections
- The Daily Mail
- The Dark Earth and the Light Sky
- The Fall of Paris
- The Five Senses
- the Four Quartets
- The Ghost Writer
- The Great Gatsby
- the Haute Marne
- The Importance of Accuracy in Fiction
- the Literary Margins
- the National Theatre
- The Observer
- The Perfect Length for a Book
- The Process of Writing
- The River Rhone
- The River Saone
- The Sadies
- the Saone
- The Secret of Good Wrting
- The Secret of Writing Successfully
- The Sessions
- The Siege and Fall of Paris
- The Siege of Paris
- The Snow Goose
- The Song of Achilles
- the Spirit of Contradiction
- The Stages of Research
- The Syndicate
- The Three Rs
- The Tragic Flaw
- The Wasteland
- the White Rabbit
- The Woman Upstairs
- The Writer's Journey
- Themes
- Themes in Fiction
- Thesaurus
- Third Person
- Thomas Hardy
- Three French Hens
- Three Rules for Writing Fiction
- Time and Perspective
- Time shifts
- Timon of Athens
- Timothy Spall
- Tolstoy
- Top Ten Writers
- Torah
- Transitional Moments in Story Planning
- Translation
- Travel Writing
- Treasure Island
- tributes
- True Love
- Truth
- Truth in Fiction
- TS Eliot
- Turning Point
- Twenty Questions
- Twenty Questions an Author Should Ask
- Twenty Twelve
- Two Turtle Doves
- Uncategorised
- Underestimating Your Reader
- Unexpectedness
- Unintended Consequences
- unreliable narrator
- Usain Bolt
- Use of Contrast
- Use of Detail
- Use of Dialogue
- Uses of Juxtaposition in Creative Writing
- Using Detail to Bring Your Work to Life
- Using Observation
- Using Research in Your Writing
- Vicks Vapour Rub
- Victor Hugo
- View from the Bridge
- Villains
- Vocal Mannerisms
- Voltaire
- VS Pritchett
- W B Yeats
- Waiting for Agents
- Waiting for Publishers
- Warp and Weft
- Ways to resolve writer's block
- WB Yeats
- Weather
- Wendy Cope
- Werewolves
- What a Carve Up
- What Makes a Good Book
- Which Tense to Use
- Wikipedia
- Will Eaves
- William Boyd
- William Faulkner
- Winter's Bone
- Wolf Hall
- Word Count
- Words
- World Book Night
- Writer's Alphabet
- Writer's Block
- Writer's Voice
- Writers Online
- Writers' Aspirations
- Writing
- Writing about the Past
- Writing about your Family
- Writing and Therapy
- writing as therapy
- Writing Buddy
- Writing Craft
- Writing Dangerously
- Writing Diary
- Writing Environment
- Writing Exercises
- Writing Fiction
- Writing Fiction; Editing; Kill Your Darlings
- Writing for Effect
- Writing from Experience
- Writing from the Heart
- Writing Good Sex Scenes
- Writing in Sequence
- Writing Journal
- Writing Mentor
- Writing Novels
- Writing Poetry
- Writing Process
- Writing Resistance
- Writing Resources
- Writing Short Stories
- Writing Style
- Writing Thematically
- Writing Voice
- Writing with Texture; contrast
- Writing with Zeal
- Wuthering Heights