On the Twelfth Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me…

…Twelve Drummers Drumming! I imagine the sound as urgent and climactic, rallying the listener (and in this case the reader) onwards. Drums, whether at a gig or on the field of battle, are there to energise and inspire, setting the pace for a song or a march, and...

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me…

…Eleven Pipers Piping, an apt reminder that when you are writing fiction your prose will have a music all of its own. We are born with an innate sense of rhythm and the more you write the more you will develop a feel for the words you use. You will become...
On the Tenth Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me…

On the Tenth Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me…

…Ten Lords a-Leaping. Lucky old me! Over Christmas I went to see the Bristol Old Vic’s anarchic and inventive production of Peter Pan. Rather than have conventional flying, Peter, Wendy and the Lost Boys used bungee ropes to convey the magic of their...

On the Eighth Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me…

…Eight Maids A-Milking… that’s to say, eight young women doing something typical of their daily lives. When you’re writing fiction and about to introduce your hero or heroine, it’s important to show them in action. There are two reasons...

On the Fourth Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me…

…….Four calling birds. Aha! You might think they were calling birds, that’s certainly what I’ve always sung, but it only takes a little light fact checking to discover that in the earliest version of the song they are actually four colly birds,...
On the Third Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me…

On the Third Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me…

……Three French hens. Now it turns out that the French hens in question are actually Faverolles, a heavy breed of utility fowl which originated in north central France in the 1860s and are characterised by their beards and muffs. They are excellent layers...

On the Second Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me…

……Two turtle doves who, because they mate for life, symbolise undying love – one of the great themes of fiction. Almost every major novel has a love story at the heart of it (though if you can think of ones which don’t, email me because I’d...