Website Updates

Hello everyone. Just to let you know, I have been busy creating a new website for my writing and editing services: www.playle-editorial-services.com.

I’ve been blogging since 2009. My blog started out as a place to document my education, career and literary journey, but as these aspects of my life have developed, strengthened and divided, I have found the need to separate my web presence.

So I’ve moved all the stuff relating to my editing and critiquing service over to the new website. I’ll also be moving the resources for writers over to that site, and I’ll going back to my roots on this domain, focusing once again on my own writing journey.

Thanks for your patience and support during this upheaval!

A Short Interlude

So it’s been around six weeks since my last update – probably the longest I’ve gone between posting. Once again, I am becoming overwhelmed with how fast time seems to be moving these days.

What have I been up to these past few weeks? Well, I am in the middle of creating a separate website for my writing and editing business, which will enable me to keep this site a bit more personal and focused on writing and creativity.

Further to that, I’m now working in-house a few days a week at a design agency as a copywriter and social media manager. I think the work is going well, and I’m enjoying what I’m doing. Having a regular schedule is incredibly useful.

I’ve manged to get a bit of writing done, but not as much as I’d hoped. I need to be more strict with myself and set aside a day or two a week to focus on it.

I’ve got a long ‘to-do’ list this month, including putting together the long overdue latest issue of Inkspill Magazine, updating the Inkspill website, finishing my business site, finishing two ebook guides for this website, and keeping up with my writing… Right now I’m off to finish re-decorating the bathroom!

How to Write with Resonance

As the old saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Similarly, the beauty of literature is a personal type of resonance.  It is the moment when the words on the page become more than just narrative – they transcend their medium, they make us pause, reflect, perhaps shiver with revelation.

This might be from a particularly acute observation executed in an original yet deeply recognisable way. Or it might be from a statement that describes an experience that previously seemed impossible to put into words. Or from an elegant dance between vocabulary and imagery that creates a vivid experience for the reader.

How to Shift from Short Story to Novel Writing – Part 2: Five Simple Steps

Previously, I suggested that it is common (and useful) for writers to start out developing short stories before moving onto novel writing.

I then looked into the finer details of the differences between short story and novel writing to assess why that might be, and how writers can use that information to make the shift between writing short stories and writing novels.

In this post, I am proposing five simple steps to put that transition into action:

How to Shift from Short Story to Novel Writing – Part 1: An Examination of Differences

In my last post, I suggested that many writers start out producing short stories before they move onto novel writing. The short story is by no means simply ‘practice’ for novel writing, but it can teach the writer a number of valuable writing skills that can be used to tackle the bigger beast of a novel.

So if many writers start out by writing short stories, how does one make the transition into novel writing?

First, let’s take a look at some of the differences of the two forms.

Writer Anouska Huggins perfectly summed this up in the comments of my last post:

• A novel is a journey – not only for the characters, but for the writer and the reader.
• A short story is an intense experience – something to linger over and savour.

Now let’s look in detail at some of the differences that will inform the way you write in these different formats.