Food in fiction has been the favourite part for readers. Who can forget the dreams of feasting with Elves, second breakfasting with hobbits, or joining the Famous Five on a picnic with ginger beer, gloriously ripe plums and slabs of
Can’t see the forest for the trees – or the trees in the forest?
The scale of a world is an interesting facet to explore. Is the world of the book the normal everyday or does it delve into a microcosm, or travel across the universe? Variations on scale can create and define a
Underground environments are both common work places for some, a place to explore, or a fragile ecosystem that can kill a human. A perfect place to set a story! In this category I include mining, natural cave systems and geysers.
Summer holidays last forever, especially if you are a child – or indeed a parent. Weeks and weeks of sun drenched days with no planned activities. Sounds marvelous? But how are these to read about? Endless descriptions of sunsets or
If a smell can trigger a memory, then a touch can trigger an immediate reaction. Our vocabulary is rich in words that are repellent merely from their association with touch – moist slithers to mind. But the opposite is true
Water is the universal solvent, enabling life on Earth, and dissolving the hardest rock to soil over time. It can be the lightest mist, a cloud scudding across a sky so blue it hurts your heart. A mighty torrent of
Designing a new world with its own creatures and plants is a lot of fun. There are so many resources available online that research can be a bottomless pit. However, this depth of knowledge will shine through in your writing.
Writing is quite a personal thing, with authors each having their own idiosyncrasies and quirks to help them imagine and get the words on the page. Books may start in a dream, but like anything worth doing, take days that
Everyone always complains about the weather – do your characters? Or do they sail through the pages in blissful ignorance of the climate? Weather conditions can be a big part of a scene, adding impact in many different ways, from
