Author Archives: Original Writers Battersea

Let writing be your passion

​Writing should never be an obligation. Let it be your passion. If you are passionate about your stories, you can live with them as the months roll by and the seasons turn from autumn into spring and through summer to autumn again. Sometimes it takes years to write a story. Be a long-distance runner. BeContinue reading “Let writing be your passion”

Gal’s Friday Writing

Every Friday morning Gal runs a communal writing session and at the start, she sends all the writers a prompt. This week’s prompt came from the newsletter Lithub and is about Brenda Ueland’s book ‘If you Want to Write,’ published in 1938. ‘What I like is how Brenda encouraged her students to write badly asContinue reading “Gal’s Friday Writing”

Write From The End

​Sometimes it is just easier to start at the end than at the beginning. Imagine where the hero is at the end and ask, ‘How did she get here?’ Then make a list of all the big moments in the story. Ask ‘What happened just before this?’ and then again, ‘Before this?’ and so onContinue reading “Write From The End”

Good dialogue makes great description

​Dialogue can be a great shortcut when it comes to describing the character. What the character says reveals more than pages of description. She reveals herself through her words; her thoughts, feelings and influence. For instance, when she says “Politicians! They should be cut into pieces and fed to the lions” you know her betterContinue reading “Good dialogue makes great description”

Hemingway on what makes a good book

“All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you finish reading one you feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and howContinue reading “Hemingway on what makes a good book”

How to give and receive feedback

Last Tuesday, in our workshop, we talked about giving and receiving feedback.  As a writing group, we believe that receiving feedback is one of the fundamental skills of being a writer, especially if you want to share your writing in the group. It is through feedback that we learn and improve. For the writer, itContinue reading “How to give and receive feedback”

How to trigger the reader’s neurons

Mirror neurons are part of our “resonance circuit” and help us help us to empathise. These neurons fire when we see, hear or read something. For instance, we wince when we see someone stump their toe. We experience fear watching a horror movie. We fall in love when we read a romance. When the writerContinue reading “How to trigger the reader’s neurons”