They're the moments writers live for. Those moments of giddy inspiration that seem to make the words leap out of nowhere into your mind and (hopefully) onto the page. You may have been struggling with a particular paragraph or plot conundrum or structural challenge…and suddenly the answer is right there in front of you, delicious and…
Quick Tips #8: Voice
"What is voice?" "How do I find it?" These are questions I hear often from clients, and there's no clear-cut answer. There's no "formula". Your voice simply means your particular way of placing thoughts on the page; your style of writing. What makes you distinctively "you" as a writer. And the way to discover it…
Scar
I never thought I was very good at writing poetry. I still don't. But Anna Jackson has convinced me I should do it anyway. The NZ poet and academic has recently published a wonderful book called Actions and Travels, about the joys of poetry. And the greatest joy, perhaps, is that anyone can write it:…
Quick Tips #7: How to write better sentences
Consider the following sentence: The green grass was full of doctors, all dressed in their dazzlingly white surgical coats. Now consider Sylvia Plath's version: The lawn was white with doctors. (from The Bell Jar) I don't think you'll even have to think about it when I ask: Which is the better sentence? But what about…
Quick Tips #6: Theme
I find that many writers I work with (for those of you new to my site, I'm an editor as well as an author) are a bit fuzzy about theme. Some writing courses and literary "experts" can be pretentious about it, making beginner writers feel they'll never be able to understand the concept fully, let…
Beauty and bullets: My Ireland
The road leading to one of my father's churches. Ireland 1972 Next to the fresh grave of my beloved grandmotherThe grave of my firstlove murdered by my brotherPaul Durcan Today the world celebrates St Patrick's Day. Covid restrictions permitted, people around the world with precisely no Irish heritage, or a sliver of it, or a…
Why I Write
I received these emails a few days after my debut novel, The Library of Unfinished Business, launched last week. "Hi Patricia, I loved your book! I couldn't put it down once I got into it, and finished it last night. I think it’s brilliant the way you handle the plot with all its twists and…
Women are not a special interest group
I'm thinking about International Women's Day (yesterday for us here in NZ). It's a day I both celebrate and lament. Because women are not a special interest group. We are more than half of the world's population. And the fact that we still have to have a "day", once a year, saddens me. The joy…
Quick Tips #5: How to publish a novel
Write a bad one.Fix it. (This step will take many months, and sometimes years.)Cry. (This will happen during points 1. and 2.)Finish it, to the best of your ability. Wallow in existential angst wondering if the best of your ability is enough.See point 3.Bravely send it to beta readers, then fix it some more.Get thoroughly…
Launch Day!
“I recognised the handwriting, and the words. They were mine. It was the first paragraph of my novel; the first words I had written all those years ago in my tiny university flat, the first brave steps of an odyssey that would ultimately lead me here, to this strange and marvellous Heaven.” So says my…
Patricia Bell, Author 