Nanowrimo is doing great things for my productivity. Which is good because I’m trying to up my daily word count from 2000 words, ideally to 5000. Currently I’m managing 3000 daily but my brain feels like wet cotton wool. I do worry that writing fast …
Read MoreIt’s shaping up
It’s all go, chez Oliver. Yesterday my tech support guy (aka DH) got the self-hosted website up and running. I like the more minimal look, what do you think? Today, I’ve edited all my Alex Oliver books to include a link to my newsletter, which …
Read MoreWrite On – a short practical guide to becoming a published author.
Getting Started – the tools of the trade. Hoards of people want to write a novel. Just as doctors find that everyone they meet tells them about their ailments, authors find that everyone tells them about the novel they intend to write. Authors generally nod …
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How to convert your fanfiction to original fiction so you can publish it and make a ton of money.
First I’d like to say that fanfic is awesome. A lot of people will try to make you feel ashamed about having written fanfic. I’ve read blogs where readers have said ‘I loved that book! Now I know it was fanfic once, I feel betrayed.’ …
Read MoreAnother day, another cover re-design
As is often the case, now I’ve started doing cover re-designs I looked at the rest of my books and thought ‘should I update these too?’ As per usual, the answer was ‘well, let’s at least try.’ I went looking for a new picture for …
Read MoreHelp me, Obi-Wan Kenobi,
I need your expert eagle eye. The Cygnus Five books have been through an array of covers. It’s almost embarrassing. The first ones looked like Romance covers – not really appealing to fans of space opera. The second ones resembled hard SF and were colourless …
Read MoreHow to Finish your novel – two essential tips.
Strangely enough, it took me years before these two things occurred to me. Although they’re very simple and very basic indeed, they are my most indispensable weapons in my whole writerly armoury. How to finish a story no.1: Start at the beginning and go on …
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You need to know these facts about fire, or your fantasy worldbuilding will fail.
Clearly there are many advantages to reading bad books. One of these is the inspiration to write blog posts in an effort to make sure it never happens again. There are several aspects of medieval life which are easily researchable, but which sometimes writers think …
Read MoreHow to explain to Christian children about being an author of queer books.
Look at this! I was invited to speak at our local Church of England infants’ school by the vicar, some years ago now, and I’ve just discovered the talk I wrote for them. I managed to get most of it out without consulting the paper, …
Read MoreBook Review Targeter
So today I made a first step towards getting my Space Opera trilogy Lioness of Cygnus Five noticed. I have 15 reviews on the first book, and none at all on the next two or on the box set. This is deeply depressing. In an …
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