Ruth’s Blog
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Implicit or explicit?
Writing a trilogy is trickier than I thought: I've written the three novels in 'Between the Mountains and the Sea' as three 'episodes' set ten years apart, but readers may not tackle them in chronological order. No matter how much you want her to start at the...
‘Real’ people in a fictional story: some questions
I'm writing historical fiction set in the region where I live, in the mid-twentieth century and therefore within living memory. I have also chosen to incorporate real events as the backdrop for my characters' lives. I don't regret this choice: it has added...
Writing about sex
After nearly three books with my main character Jessie Whelan, I know that sex has always been important to her. Her first affair resulted in a baby she was forced to give away; the second reckless fling with a much younger man ended with a drunken sexual assault that...
Point of view – a more detailed look
When you’re a fiction-writing novice like me, it’s hard to know what you don’t know. Not only had I never written fiction before I started on my first novel in 2008 aged sixty, I’d never learned anything about writing, no courses, no books, not even in a book club,...
Dealing with ‘Point of View’
In 2008 I went on a course entitled 'How to Write a Novel'. Over a week, with expert tuition, we learned about structure, character, dialogue, all good stuff. I was hooked, with all the confidence of the novice. I wanted my tale to be multi-facetted, like a precious...
How long is a piece of string…or a novel?
There was an interesting piece from Cath Staincliffe recently on the usefulness, or not, of word counting. I hadn't realised that some writers do this constantly, to regulate their writing, or to reward or chastise themselves for their workrate. Cath's view was that...
Weaving fiction into fact
I think about this too much, and have a feeling that there's an obvious answer to my question that I just can't see, through lack of experience or muddy thinking. Here's the question, as simply stated as I can make it: The setting for a crucial part of my story is a...
Do I really want – or need – an agent?
Some years ago, even before I'd finished my first novel, I began to think about getting it published. All the advice said, you need an agent, and I dutifully bought the Writers' and Artists Yearbook and trawled through it for those interested in my 'genre', although I...
My writing shed
Just after I moved into my house here in the south-west corner of the English Lake District I designed a shed to be built at the end of the garden. It was insulated and double glazed, and therefore useable year-round, not just a summer house. The first roof blew off...
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