The invisible author
Imagine a world in which books matter a great deal, but authors – their creators – do not. Imagine a world in which the author
Category: How I write
‘In Spain blood boils without fire’: The power of the proverb
Followers of my Twitter account (@FieldingHannah) will know that I love proverbs: simple sayings that contain stark truth and wisdom. For each of my novels,
The author’s need to be read
All authors began as readers. We were the toddlers begging our parents for one more bedtime story; we were the children nose-deep in a book
Start with a bang…
… and you won’t end with a whimper. Common writing advice, based on the final stanza of TS Eliot’s poem ‘The Hollow Men’: This is
Getting ‘in the mood’ for writing
A long-time subscriber to Mslexia magazine, ‘for women who write’, I always find its surveys really interesting reading. Not only do they help me find
What he saw: Moving into the hero’s point of view
Would you buy a romance novel written in the perspective of the male protagonist, so the entire story is told through his eyes? Traditionally,
Grounding my romance novels in real places
Recently, I was interested to read an article in the Guardian on the subject of settings for books by the very popular novelist David
Dreaming big, writing small: The #TwitterFiction Festival
Twitter: a social media platform used regularly by 302 million people, including me. I use Twitter extensively as a means by which to connect
The well-thumbed dictionary
On a mild summer’s day, once I have completed the writing tasks I set myself, I am usually to be found sitting in my
Rooting romance in a close-knit family
In my new novel, Indiscretion, the heroine Alexandra is a young woman of dual heritage: she is half-English and half-Spanish. When her parents’ marriage ended,
Scent-sational: Indiscretion
Whenever I start writing a new romance novel, setting is one of the most important considerations. My signature style incorporates exotic, beautiful, romantic settings,
Author outputs: Prioritising quantity over quality?
The publishing industry has transformed radically in the past twenty years. The keyword in the preceding sentence is industry. The business of publishing has been
The Clean Reader app
Have you heard about the Clean Reader app? Its release has caused quite a stir in the reading and writing communities. This free app, whose
Letting the cat out of the bag: On spoilers
Do you ever have a week when synchronicity leads you to keep encountering a term or idea, causing you to stop and give it some
Inspiration for writers from the late, great Sir Terry Pratchett
I was saddened to read of the passing of Terry Pratchett last week. While fantasy is not one of the genres I choose to read,
Does age matter when it comes to writing?
The media has been all aflutter this week over comments made by the best-selling author Joanna Trollope at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in
Research, research and more research
In an interview with Judith Spelman for Writing Magazine this month, author Emma Donoghue spoke on the subject of research for fiction-writing, an element of
My ten best tips for overcoming writer’s block
Writer’s block is a strange beast indeed. The writer lives and breathes writing, and has done from an early age. All we want to do
How ebook analysis can shape writing and publishing strategy
Follow my blog with Bloglovin An interesting new trend is emerging in publishing news – releases from Amazon sharing reader and reading data. Take, for example,
By the light of the moon
Moonlight – an element of nature about which poets have waxed lyrical for centuries. For Charles Baudelaire, the moon was sad: ‘Earthward she lets a
The writer’s responsibility to write well
I make it my business to know about the publishing industry, and to keep abreast of news and opinion pieces in the book sections of
Stepping into a story world
Did you see the recent news story about a real-life Hogwarts, the school at which the Harry Potter series is set? Czocha Castle in Poland
Losing your first draft: Catastrophe or blessing?
Every writer, surely, has some experience of losing a price of writing. The computer crashes or the coffee spills on the notebook, and the words
Writing for your target reader: yourself
Here is a golden rule of writing: Always write with the reader in mind. It means you should know exactly who your target reader is,
The thinking behind book titles
The cover of a book must be beautiful, the blurb must be compelling, the first page must pull the reader in and make him or
‘Start with a bang’
Here’s a piece of advice commonly given to writers: Start with a bang and you won’t end with a whimper. It’s frequently attributed to the
Love in a dystopian setting
I take a great interest in trends in publishing, especially within the romance genre, and it has struck me how much popular fiction in the
Muddying the path of true love: Love triangles
The course of true love never did run smooth’ – so wrote Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and I think that no single axiom
Choosing the narrative mode for your novel
Last week I wrote about using the male point of view in romance fiction.Deciding on whose point of view you’re writingin is just one aspect
Deepening romance with the male point of view
When a reader picks up a traditional romantic novel, she/he has certain basic expectations: That the