… and how to put them right! Advice and opportunities for new, aspiring and upcoming journalists and writers of non-fiction
They’ve been overdue a make-over for a while, so I’m happy to finally unveil the brand new ‘Mistakes Writers Make’ covers! They feature in the background a repeating list of synonyms for ‘mistake’ and ‘writing mistakes’, including a number of fanciful neologisms. This was in part inspired by Kate Bush’s atmospheric track 50 Words For …
As writers, especially when active on social media, we regularly hear of stories of poor behaviour in the publishing world — abuse of copyright, vanity publishing rip-offs, accusations of plagiarism, terrible rates, and so on. These often serve as a warning — stay away! — and are shared among us. But if it is you …
Like any writing advisor, and like (I expect) most writers, I receive my fair share of requests for help from budding writers. As an aside: they’re usually far more polite via Twitter and email than they are via Facebook. Why is that? Anyway, I vaguely recall a very polite one from someone who, to give them …
I have only once appealed an Amazon book review. It was a brief, positive review in itself — “a good book” or something similarly mundane — but it was a one-star rating, I presume because the reviewer had misunderstood the one-to-five-star system Amazon adopts, and had given me the lowest. The appeal was successful, and …
Could the next amazing writer to land a book deal after years of slog, after years of rejection, after years of their obvious talent failing to be acknowledged or recognised, NOT take to Twitter and promptly tell every other aspiring writer to do this: NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS! Share how excited you are, …
So I was all set for a new and grumpy and pedantic mistake to kick off 2019. I’d started to research a few toe-curling examples from the popular media: “There’s many reasons …” “Here’s some things …” And so on. There IS many reasons? Here IS some things? NO! There ARE. Here ARE. WHAT is …
“The view is indescribable.” “There are no words.” “It’s hard to know what to say about …” All these are common expressions I’ve come across in the work of new writers. The first crops up in various forms in far too many travel articles. Writers: you have to find the words. The view is perfectly …
I’m often asked this question. Is it ever OK to relinquish your grip on all-important copyright in your work? The ever-brilliant writing advisor Simon Whaley recently addressed this in a post, called The 0.01% Copyright Conundrum. In summary, Simon assigned copyright to some of his early non-fiction books, deciding to do so after going through …
I imagine few writers begin writing because the prospect of being flattered by readers and editors is attractive to them, but I don’t think I’ve ever met one who didn’t enjoy the pleasure of being told their work was read, enjoyed and appreciated. It’s only natural and there’s no shame in it. We writers are …
I’m late to it, but this article from the Wall Street Journal is a strong and satisfying argument for writing your memoir — even if nobody ever reads it. Penning your memoir can help you make sense of your character and your life and come to terms with difficult past events, the article argues; it …
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