I’ve got a great topic to discuss today: how to handle difficult feedback. I’ve had to deal with difficult feedback more times than I can remember.  You too? There’s always the urge put the damn thing away and move on to something else until you feel braver, right?  But what if you never feel brave enough? What if it takes you 6 months or more? That’s a lot of time to waste. What if you’ve been commissioned and you have to do a rewrite fast? You can’t spend days wallowing in self-loathing. You have to act immediately. But how? Image by kirill_makes_pics I’ve identifi ..read more

Let’s talk about rejection. Really?! And failure. And near misses. Eek!   It’s kind of embarrassing, isn’t it? Talking about the things that didn’t work out. But writing is incredibly competitive if you want to be published or produced. Of course, we don’t want to believe this when we’re just starting out.   The truth is, even when we have success, most of us still have to handle rejection alongside it, which can be hard to bear at times.   So why talk about it?   If we can learn from our failures – maybe even help others – we’ll hopefully all feel a little less alone ..read more

4 writing rituals to boost your confidence and focus Recently, when talking to one of my clients, I was asked if I knew anything about creating writing rituals. I love talking about writing habits, but I’d never really thought about writing rituals before. The question intrigued me and I decided to look into it.   When we think about rituals, the obvious ones that spring to mind are around love (weddings), death (funerals), birth (christenings), as well as many others related to different aspects of religion.   Rituals provide structure and meaning during life’s most significant mome ..read more

14 Tips to Help You Break into the Industry Prompted by a comment from a fellow writer, today I want to share 14 tips to help you break into the industry. Some of these apply to all writers, some more to screenwriters and others more to novelists. Pick and choose the ones that feel most relevant to you. 14 Tips to Help You Break into the Industry Let’s start with the basics. Write some good work. To do this, learn your craft; hone your piece of work, polish it, get feedback, and rewrite it. Then keep getting feedback and rewriting it until there are no big notes from your critique partners ..read more

Monthly Inspiration Today I am trialling a new format… An anecdote from me A quote from another writer A useful resource and A call to action  Asking for Help / Fear of Failure An anecdote from me I listened to a recent episode of the Happiness Lab podcast and it seemed very relevant to us writers, so I thought I would share it. It told the story of a Chinese man who suffered a humiliating experience of rejection as a young boy at school. Something that haunted him well into adulthood. In his 20s he aspired to be an entrepreneur but knew he’d need the courage to ask for l ..read more

Today, I want to hone in on one of the 8 categories of my Writers’ Arc tool: the Writing Routine – but with a special focus:  Using technology to get more writing done My Backstory I’ve just emerged from a very distracted period of my life. My little boy – nearly 5 – just started school, and there have been LOTS of emotions in our household. Lots of fear, anxiety and rebellion, frequently directed straight at ME! Oh, boy, what an emotional roller-coaster!  As for keeping my mind on my writing, that’s been nearly impossible. Ho hum. When I’m feeling stressed, technology usually  ..read more

Let’s talk about getting into the right frame of mind when you sit down to write. On days or weeks when I have a lot going on, I don’t always manage to do this as quickly as I’d like. Some days my brain feels distracted and jumps around my mental to-do list. I feel the urge to procrastinate on my phone, finding anything to do except get on and write. * Sigh *  This makes me feel bad and it’s a massive waste of time. Know the feeling?   To combat this problem, I’ve discovered 5 mini mindfulness strategies to use in different situations. They are super short, but they really ..read more

Reader Question Colin got in touch to ask   “I have ideas around a children’s cartoon TV series. My question is: how do you work out the target age? I.e. 2-3 years or 4-5 years etc or can you write a generic script sample that covers 2-6 years?” Thanks for getting in touch, that’s a great question, Colin. You are right to consider this matter right at the start. If you’re developing a kids’ series, or any idea at all, for that matter, it’s really important to think about who it is for, and then make sure you are writing for that specific audience. But especially when writing ..read more

Thanks from my former client, Jay, for this fantastic summary of a brilliant talk entitled: ‘How To Get A Badass Deal’. Novelists, take note! How to Get a Badass Deal A great opening and a great hook are incredibly important if you want to sell to a traditional publisher.   Your book and you are the product, it’s a team exercise and you need the whole team on board   Money is available for big deals but you need: Quality: you will be rejected if your prose, characters and plot are not good enough for a traditional publisher Great hook Timeliness: The industry moves in themes th ..read more

I’m fascinated by psychology. I guess that’s common, being a writer – it’s our job to understand the human psyche. One of my pet topics is the Science of Happiness, also called Positive Psychology. I love it so much that I chose it as the theme for my kids’ animation series, Happy Go Hopscotch. It’s proved to be a powerful set of tools for me, the writer, and I use it with my writing clients all the time. I think you may find it helpful too. So, I’ve decided to introduce it as a recurring theme in my blog posts.  Today, I’ll give you an overview. And in future articles, I’l ..read more