Liz Monument

Feedback from clients has shown me that it isn’t widely understood why or how a professional reader would make suppositions about a full MS, without having read it in its entirety. 

The reason that agents ask for a synopsis plus…

This month, I asked friend and colleague Petra McNulty about the challenges involved in transitioning between short and long forms of fiction (or vice versa). To follow is Petra's article, which provides valuable insight into the differences between the forms…

World-building is great fun for us writers, but if we put too much of it on the page, it can get a little bit heavy for readers. Readers want to connect with a vibrant story set in the world a…

This article supports ‘Voice & Style’ month for the international Ultimate Novel Writing Course, Jericho Writers. 

Genre is a terrific tool for labelling fiction. It’s vital to publishers’ marketing strategies, and it also helps us writers understand what to deliver…

Three places where the prose slows down: love, death, and magic.

Editorial is often about paring things back. It might mean removing unnecessary words, sentences or even paragraphs which seem to slow a story down. It could mean reducing dialogue…

Feedback from clients tells me that while ‘show don’t tell’ is something of a writer’s mantra, it can be tricky to find specific information relating to the mechanics. Here are some brief examples, with explanations: 

Showing – this is anything…

When a Jericho Writers blog on 'writing sex' arrived in my inbox this morning, I just knew I had to share. It's written by Jacqueline Silvester, and it answers all those questions aspiring debut authors might feel awkward about asking. 

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The feedback I’ve had recently from literary agents is that they prefer debut novels to be no longer than 80-90,000 words in length. This is because agents know from experience that long debut novels often contain too many characters, too…

Which POV?

Point of view (POV) refers to the angle from which a story is told. To follow are some useful tips and resources for choosing which POV would be best for your novel or short story. 

I - first…

Visual fiction and written fiction share many things, including compelling characters, a developed plot with a clear quest and conclusion, and genre conventions (crime thriller, romance, historical or science fiction, for example). Anybody familiar with visual fiction might instinctively use…